revenant:topoló was recorded in a forest near the italian village of topoló, not far from the slovenien border, during the pushing the medium 3 symposium in october 2006.
tracks 1-5 (52m28s):
46°11’17” N, 13°36’4″ E; 19.10.06, 13:55:26+0100 GMT
track 6 (8m31s):
46°10’58” N, 13°35’56” E; 19.10.06, 17:14:02+0100 GMT
all sounds from revenant:topoló originated from materials found in-situ, or from the space itself. no overdubbing or editing was done in order to document this specific action and location in time.
revenant is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions, or activated environments. each action is a document of a specific moment in time in a specific location.
in this incarnations the revenant collective was:
yannick dauby
olivier féraud
john grzinich
hitoshi kojo
patrick mcginley
"Huge pines, chestnuts, beeches, and a few oaks. A vague border. On one side a Slovenian village, on the other an Italian one, which our maps locate at the end of a cul de sac. En route for this slovenian village, on this ageless path, having begun in the village of Topoló, bags full of bits and pieces: a few biscuits, a recorder, some chocolate, several worn out old violin bows. The path becomes ever steeper and more tortuous, sometimes blocked by fallen logs, sometimes aided by stone steps barely showing. The trees try to tempt us off the path; then one or two of us give in to the call of a huge pine standing proudly to one side. With the first light touch the tree speaks: a strangled sound pierced through by a note both muffled and sharp, a pluck of another twig, a bowing of a third, a held frequency, a slight pressure on another until it breaks. Each dried branch of this sound-tree gives rise to stammers, murmurs, cries or whispers, linguistic trial…" - olivier féraud
"Looking for a word to describe a particular concept of spatial impression, I turned to a community of alumni from my alma mater in the United States. Amongst the responses I received were these words from an old lost friend, a revenant in herself:
"Revenant. It is also a folklorist’s term for ghost, but the word circumscribes the idea that something has remained, is repeating, its impression is retained in so much thin air…
"This seemed to be what i was looking for – our activities have created powerful connections to specific spaces, and our documents have been testimonies, not only to what we have taken from these spaces in the form of memories and experiences, but to what we have left behind. These spaces retain the traces of our gestures, of the materials we have made to resonate, of the energy and attention we have given there. This is what makes these documents powerful – they are a window into these spaces; they are documents not only of these moments in time, but of this spatial memory. They, in some way, *are* these spaces’ memories.
"So this ‘concept of spatial impression’ that I am trying to name is this: the trace or memory of gesture or movement within a space, or the spatial memory of gesture; ie, the idea that a physical space retains an imprint of a certain physical activity, such as the sensation one might have in a now empty factory, or at the site of a historical battle, or in a house where a friend or relative once lived. I have come across this idea in the theatre, in the form of the tension or energy present on the stage after an event has taken place and the performers have left it, but I have also experienced it now in Italian forests and Estonian farm ruins – spaces that already resonante with past presences and activites, and now resonate with our own…" - patrick mcginley
patrick tubin mcginley (aka murmer) is a sound, performance, and radio artist based in estonia. his work is about small
discoveries and concentrated attention; it focuses on the unnoticed but extraordinary sounds that surround us. he works with spaces, objects, resonances and people in composition, performance or simply collective action, in the exploration of perception via attentive listening....more
This left-of-center ambient collection from UK producer Xqui threads soothing, layered synth melodies through twisted arrangements. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 3, 2021
A stellar compilation featuring shoegaze and indie favorites like Drowse, Midwife, and Mount Eerie benefitting Project Onward in Chicago. Bandcamp New & Notable May 11, 2023
Mexican composers Leena Lee and Vania Fortuna use sound as a tool to interrogate the mythologies of the emblematic quetzal bird. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 1, 2022
A strikingly emotional work, “Fairfax” combines found voicemail messages with moody, evocative musical textures to stirring effect. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 6, 2022