2LP – Unsounds

Andrea Stillacci, ex-DJ and contemporary art critic, and the founder and president of the Herezie Group, has brought together experienced sound experimenters such as Eraldo Bernocchi, Andy Moor, Ji Youn Kang, Moor Mother, Fani Konstantinidou, Yannis Kyriakides, Scanner, Maurizio Bianchi, Terence Hannum, Barbara Ellison and Massimo Pupillo for a double LP. The idea was to explore the multiple forms and meanings that the sound of applause can assume, depending on its context, thus investigating the possible dynamics of the gesture, its texture, pathos and the differences between the various expressions that this emotional manifestation can assume. What do the different forms of applause tell us about ourselves and our reactions to events? “Perseverance” by Andy Moor, works well as a trailblazer and is direct and participatory, involving the audience. In “27 April 2018” Ji Youn Kang organises abstract and looming sounds in memory of the meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea, while in “Clap Piece”, a short, ringing and chaotic song by Moor Mother, we hear the juxtaposition of voices, tolls and auditory emissions derived from the tuning of a strong ensemble. In “The Solitude of Pens”, the eclectic Eraldo Bernocchi uses the applause bestowed on the Nobel Peace Prize Malala Yousafzai, transforming it into sound waves. This is followed by Fani Konstantinidou’s “Eπεuφημισμóς”, who superimposes and cuts together recordings made in the historic theatre of Epidaurus. In “Farewell Concert”, Yannis Kyriakides resurrects an ovation from the last concert given by the magnetic singer Maria Callas, while Robin Rimbaud, aka Scanner, draws on the fall of the wall of Berlin in “The Fall, The Freedom”. Maurizio Bianchi, who is another Italian protagonist of the early industrial scene, quotes the equally famous Madama Butterfly in “M. B. Claps”, while Terence Hannum filters the sound of applause at Pier Paolo Pasolini’s funeral in “Precious Element”. “Plauditory Phantoms #01” by Barbara Ellison is, in contrast, a very geometric score, before closing with “In Memory Of Punk Rock” by Massimo Pupillo, where the applause is that paid to the Ramones at the Rainbow Theatre in London, 1977.

 

Various Artists – Clap. An Anatomy of Applause