The concert installation Transmit me deals with themes such as isolation, closeness and distance, and reflects on the possibilities of successful communication, connection and relationships using increasingly alienating tools. The audience moved between the Kesselhalle of Kraftwerk Bille, in which the musicians are located, and a soundproof "listening room". The walls of the listening room are holding several tin can telephones made of various combinations of materials. Following a structured improvisation, the musicians were asked to work with the tin can telephones: using them as mutes and extensions of their instruments, but also as independent sound generators. The musicians could neither hear the result of their own playing as perceived in the listening room, nor hear the result of the transformed sounds of the other players. They had to rely on their individual experience gained during the preparatory phase. Thus, to some extent they played with the uncertainty of loss, transfer and alienation of information, analogous to any interpersonal communication. Perception is always the acceptance of the accidental, every transmission is always distortion.
Transmit me was premiered during the blurred edges festival in Hamburg in June of 2022.
The project was funded by Musikfonds e.V., Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg and Landesmusikrat Hamburg.
Birgit Ulher - trumpet
Kris Kuldkepp - double bass
John Hughes - double bass
Felix Mayer - trombone
Photos: Gunnar Lettow
The video documentation of the piece, which was edited in collaboration with Johannes Kohout, was featured at the Resonance - Sound Art and New Music Film Festival at Grosso Modo Gallery in Tel Aviv in September 2024.