For this issue, the contributors where invited to respond to questions related to a quote of a letter by Antonin Artaud:
“I am adding another language to the spoken language, and I am trying to restore to the language of speech its old magic, its essential spellbinding power, for its mysterious possibilities have been forgotten.”
The questions:
– Have “the mysterious possibilities of language” – of speech or otherwise – indeed been forgotten? If so, what is the quality of this loss? How does this loss sound?
– Is the magic of language still present? In what way\form? Can it be transmitted? How is it transmitted?
– Can a new language be created? Can a sacred language be created?
x x x x
Besides text and visual work, contributors can respond to these questions with a soundpoem.
All soundpoems will be uploaded on Bandcamp during february – april 2016, with a 4 day pause in between them – a physical release will follow.
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/album/sacred-language-nuits-et-noirs-3
x x x x
Contribution 1:
Anja Kreysing – ‘Lait Noir Du Matin’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/lait-noir-du-matin
based on a recording Session with:
Anja Kreysing: accordion / electronics, concept, sound editing, mastering
www.anjakreysing.de
and
Helmut Buntjer: trombone, euphonium, zip zap, electronics
www.helmutbuntjer.de
and some atmos by Max Kuiper.
The soundpoem „Lait Noir Du Matin“ is based on fragments of the poem “Todesfuge” by Paul Celan. It ends with “der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland”. This is my statement for the guiltyness of my country for all those who lost their lives because of german weapons or the death-industry during Nazi-Germany.
Special thanks to Helmut & Max for their fantastic and inspiring work!
image by Anja Kreysing
© Anja Kreysing. 2016
x x x x
Contribution 2:
Jaap Blonk – ‘La Langue Qui Brûle’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/la-langue-qui-br-le
© Jaap Blonk, 2016
Image titled ‘La Langue Qui Brûle’ by Jaap Blonk
x x x x
Contribution 3:
Mystified – ‘Giant Revolving Object’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/giant-revolving-object
“An appreciation of the sacred must often be pre-ceeded by an acknowledgement of one’s own emptiness.” (Mystified)
More about Mystified’s music at www.mystifiedmusic.com
image by Mystified \ Thomas Park
More about Thomas’ artwork at loop827.wordpress.com
© Mystified
x x x x
Contribution 4:
Laerke Soedring Nielsen – ‘The Phosphorescent Gleams of a Theatre that Failed’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/the-phosphorescent-gleams-of-a-theatre-that-failed
The vivacity of this entanglement,
has been embraced
with heart breath
remembrance
of the one we took together when we first met.
Since then covered in feverish letters,
handed over by glove covered hands,
touched with voices of enchantment
dreams for the infantile world.
A joyful mind voyage
in a time maze I would have sauntered in infinity.
Courteously begging for transcendence
From restless to courage
Courier, carry my wait
Fasten my feeble thought
yard the looming apostate
and give me back my self
I am a thrall in this cell
Soundpoem, image and poem © Laerke Soedring Nielsen
soundcloud.com/laerke-soedring-nielsen
x x x x
Contribution 5:
Minamata After Dark – ‘Dogmatic Disorder’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/dogmatic-disorder
Credits :
– Les Horribles Travailleurs for sound samples (except voices)
– William S. Burroughs: text
– Image used with permission
© Minamata After Dark
minamataafterdark.bandcamp.com
x x x x
Contribution 6:
Cindytalk – ‘Vitres de son’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/vitres-de-son
‘Vitres de son’, recorded by Cindytalk, February 2016 at Thirteenth Floor, London, UK
“With thanks to Mari and Max”.
Poem ‘Vitres de son’ by Antonin Artaud.
English translation by Paul Zweig (“with minor changes”).
Image chosen by Cindytalk:’On the edge of presence you are an embodiment of a vision’ – mk’
–
Vitres de son
Vitres de son où virent les astres,
Verres où cuisent les cerveaux,
Le ciel fourmillant d’impudeurs
Dévore la nudité des astres.
Un lait bizarre et véhément
Fourmille au fond du firmament;
Un escargot monte et dérange
La placidité des nuages.
Délices et rages, le ciel entier
Lance sur nous comme un nuage
Un tourbillon d’ailes sauvages
Torrentielles d’obscénités.
Antonin Artaud
X X X X
The Panes of Sound
Panes of sound where stars swerve,
the glass where brains are cooking,
the sky, seething with immodesty,
eats the nakedness of the stars.
A strange and violent milk
is seething deep in the sky,
a snail climbs and spoils
the calmness of the clouds.
Ecstasies and angers, the whole sky
hurls over us, like a cloud,
a hurricane of savage winds
pouring with obscenities.
translated from the French by Paul Zweig (with minor changes)
X X X X
Soundpoem © Cindytalk
x x x x
Contribution 7:
Jacob DeRaadt – ‘Loop of lost language’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/loop-of-lost-language
Soundpoem and image © Jacob DeRaadt
x x x x
Contribution 8:
Nicolas Wiese – ‘MK Triggered Feedback Piece 01/016 (3’59)’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/mk-triggered-feedback-piece-01-016
“composed and recorded at Quiet Cue, Berlin, Jan. 2016
edited room recordings of feedback modulations, played in correlation with Max Kuiper’s samples which triggered the feedback channels inside the mixing desk.
recorded with stereo microphone and asymmetrical speaker array.
Paradoxically, here, the ‘Language’ theme is not represented by any speech / vocal material (although I am frequently working with experimental audio processing of human speech.)
The transference is made to the aspect of feedback, being both a reaction/response to the other, and at the same time an autopoietic rendering within itself.”
sound, text and image © by Nicolas Wiese
x x x x
Contribution 9:
▲▲▲▲▲†‡†▲▲▲▲▲ – Soundpoem in four parts
1. – 00:00 – Sacred Language – (1:31)
2. – 01:32 – Forsaken – (2:47)
3. – 04:20 – Collision Damage Part 01 – (1:07)
4. – 05:27 – Collision Damage Part 02 – (7:04)
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/soundpoem-in-four-parts
© ▲▲▲▲▲†‡†▲▲▲▲▲
x x x x
Contribution 10:
Shane Bartlett – ‘In the face of the great name’
httleshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/in-the-face-of-the-great-name
“thanks Les Horribles Travailleurs for the great recordings”
Soundpoem and image © Shane Bartlett
x x x x
Contribution 11:
EMERGE – ‘portal’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/portal
based only on sounds by Max Kuiper.
Special thanks to Max!
sound recycling, composing, photography and design by EMERGE.
emergeac.wordpress.com
emerge.bandcamp.com
www.attenuationcircuit.de
Soundpoem and image © EMERGE
x x x x
Contribution 12:
Marc Hurtado – VIE
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/vie
music , poem, voice, instruments by Marc Hurtado
recorded and produced by Marc Hurtado at Fire Music Studio – France – 2016
Picture by Marc Hurtado
www.facebook.com/marc.hurtado.9
all material © Marc Hurtado
x x x x
The response of Marc Hurtado on the question of this project:
x x x x
Contribution 13:
Thorsten Soltau – ‘O And I./Orb Of Senses’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/o-and-i-orb-of-senses
Commissioned for the „Sacred Language“-project by Max Kuiper.
Source material by Max Kuiper.
Additional material, voice and treatment by Thorsten Soltau.
Recorded from February—March 2016 at Lichter Raum, Wilhelmshaven.
„O And I“
Slow waves of sounds are layered. Detuned timbres of the same loop. Different fluttering volume levels are creating a sheerness of human voices intoning the vowels „o“ and „i“.
„Orb Of Senses“
A mixture of different selections of the provided source material. Binaural filtering and frequency panning applied to various instances. Concrete sounds like a sewing machine (manipulated to resemble a shutter frame running film projector) webbed in. Two spoken texts were set aside to each other. Both spoken from memory as a part of an stream of consciousness experiment. Content of texts inspired by Antonin Artaud; both texts were treated to become distorted and inapprehensible creating a new language.
Soundpoem and image © Thorsten Soltau
x x x x
Contribution 14:
ᛏ ᚷ ᚱ ᚷ ᛈ – ‘ᚢ Óðinns Sidosår’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/inns-sidos-r
Credits: Trepaneringsritualen manifest as ᛏ ᚷ ᚱ ᚷ ᛈ.
Summoned February 9th 2016 e.v. at the 63rd
Link. For KzR/HzR. www.de-za-kh-a-da-sh-ba-a-ha-v.se
Photo by Linda-Marie Bjärenstam
© ᛏ ᚷ ᚱ ᚷ ᛈ
x x x x
Contribution 15:
John Hudak – ‘waking moments’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/waking-moments
“Significant moments are the moments we remember most easily. These moments are the moments when we were/are most present, most awake. For me, these moments are mostly visual, not remembered in words, but as images. For me, sounds create background to allow the free association of images to occur without words. If there is a sacred language that exists, it is one without words.”
John Hudak
instagram.com/possibility_pictures
Soundpoem, image and words © John Hudak.
x x x x
Contribution 16:
LPFM – ‘The left ear of Maria’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/the-left-ear-of-maria
cargocollective.com/lpfm/
l-p-f-m.tumblr.com/
www.flickr.com/photos/lpfmparis
Soundpoem and image and words © LPFM
x x x x
Contribution 17:
Ocean Viva Silver
‘SIKOIONA’
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/sikoiona
“The unheard echoes the unuttered. These were not nightmares but arches.
The great beyond and the undercurrents. A muted chant between two tones.
Invisible waters drip. Listen again, listen more,
and every night shall release deep images from the tightest fabric.”
Soundpoem and image and words © Ocean Viva Silver
x x x x
Contribution 18:
Brad Feuerhelm
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcamp.com/track/palermo-catacomb
Raw fieldrecording made in the Palermo Catacombs, february 2016.
recordings and image © Brad Feuerhelm
creative director americansuburbx.com
x x x x
Contribution 19:
Remix by Les Horribles Travailleurs of the raw fieldrecording made in the Palermo Catacombs, february 2016, by Brad Feuerhelm
leshorriblestravailleurs.bandcap.com/track/palermo-catacombs-remix
Remix and remixed image:
© Brad Feuerhelm © Les Horribles Travailleurs
x x x x
Nuits et Noirs magazine 