IT’S LOVER, LOVE – Wake for Lost Ones, Xposed Film Festival, Aquarium, Berlin
In 2022, director Yony Leyser asked HYENAZ to develop a sound design for his film The Fourth Generation, which starred and was loosely based/not based on the life-force that is Aérea Negrot—singer, producer, DJ, and performer. One morning, Aérea joined us in our studio to help create an auditory mood for the film’s peak, where the protagonist places a cartoonish ticking time-bomb at the feet of Germany’s newly elected dictator.
Image by Xposed Queer Film Festival
Aérea took to the microphone and, over twenty or thirty minutes, unleashed a torrent of sounds, tones, voices—an overflow, a rupture that was beautiful, stirring, and at times unsettling. We took only what served the film and parked the rest in our deep memories.
In 2023, Aérea died.
For the 2024 edition of the Xposed Film Festival, a memorial for Aérea was arranged by Shu Lea Chang, Jürgen Brüning, and Alex Demitriou, who worked with Aérea on a number of Shu Lea’s films. Seeing the call for contributions, we returned to the material from the film and presented it at the wake.
Kate remembered that there was more, a great deal more, than what we had used in the film. We opened the project in our DAW and stretched out the audio track, discovering an extended crescendo in which the text “Pain can be a place of future transformation” emerged.
At times, the words sound like a prayer, at others a demand.
We arranged Aérea’s voice in layers interspersed with drones formed by stretching out her syllables. Finally, with gentle chords and a melody, Aérea asks the listener to chant the mantra with her into infinity.
Queering Audibility is a collaboration between deaf performance artist Eyk Kauly and the hearing sound artists HYENAZ. Together they explore how artists can use the entirety of their physical and affective sensorium to create new works and to challenge the conditions through which audibility comes into being.
In this open rehearsal, the audience is invited to engage with the following questions: How does embodied performance and sign language inspire the creation of soundscapes? How does sound translate – with the help of sign language interpreters – into bodily experiences? Can sounding performance and performing sound help (re)imagine the perceived binary of Deaf and hearing, or other binaries? How are those bound to hearing, being heard and what does queering mean in the context of this audibility?
HYENAZ would like thank the Imaginando who donated VS (Visual Synthesizer) to the project. VS is an exciting tool that can create visuals from audio or midi signals. You can learn more about VS here: https://www.imaginando.pt/products/vs-visual-synthesizer
All proceeds from Bandcamp sales benefit perfocraZe International Artist Residency, Kumasi, Ghana. The founder of perfocraZe, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi aka crazinisT artisT is one of the most courageous and inspiring artists/activists we have ever met. sHit founded and leads the incredible international artist residency in Kumasi Ghana and is a beacon of light as a courageous queer person, performer, speaker, truth teller. sHit also works tirelessly fighting for LGBTQI+ rights in Ghana.
Methodology
The field recordings and visual materials for Eku Eku Eku (a call to death) were gathered on the 20th of April 2021 at 14:00 CET / 12:00 GMT simultaneously in Berlin, Germany and Kumasi, Ghana. Using a deep listening methodology that HYENAZ had previously developed during the course of their first Virtual Partner Residency with Detroit-based artist Jova Lynne, both partners spent one hour making a parallel ritualistic and performative journey in their respective cities: Berlin and Kumasi, which were documented by their videographers.
Prior to the day of the performance, we made several calls to form what would be the central theme to our work, finally deciding on a meditation with death. Death has been and will always be a central theme for the living, but this year due to the global pandemic, meditating on death seemed particularly poignant. HYENAZ decided to enact their end of the ritual in the Wedding Crematorium, at Silent Green while Va-Bene created her performance in one of Kumasi’s cemeteries.
We decided on the color of red for our project in order to further unify our journeys. Once we were dressed and prepared, we called each other to check in before beginning. At the end of our respective rituals, we made a call again, discovering that we had completed our rituals within minutes of each other.
We followed this deep listening score for the simultaneous ritual:
Grounding. Find a comfortable position where you can relax your body into the location. Think about grounding. If you feel comfortable, come as physically close to the ground as possible. Lie on the ground. Let whatever parts of your body that touch the ground sink deeper into the ground. Concentrate on rooting. Capture the ambient sounds located there. Film yourself in this space, becoming grounded. Move the camera very close to your body to get some of the sounds and sensations very close to your skin and to your body against the earth.
Deep Listening. While letting the recording run, think about the sound that you hear. What sounds do you hear closest to you? What is more distant? What is even further away? Take note. You can also move your body in small micro-orientations to signal that you receive the sound. It could be an arm movement or a very subtle shift in your weight, depending on how you are positioned. Articulations. From this grounded space, what words come to mind. Try not to edit yourself. Just say the first words that come to mind. Say them outloud so that they are captured by the camera and microphone. Don’t worry at first about capturing a good recording, just let the words flow. Once you know what they are, repeat the same words again clearly into the microphone/camera.
Colour. What colour association do you make or feel as you occupy this space? Does the colour have a sound? Does the mood produced by the colour have a sound? Make a sound offering into the microphone, a squeal, song, gurgle, scream … be free Immediate concentric circle. Stand up and take space. From this specific place, take your camera and move slowly around your location in 360 degrees. This is the immediate circle and site of “home”. Move slowly so that you can notice details around you. Then take the camera and have someone move around you in 360 degrees to get you from all sides.
Mapping. Travel with your mind in concentric circles starting with the closest circle and moving out further and further like the skin of an onion. Name what is there and what it means for you, what is its significance, personal, political, contemporary, historical, futurological.
Found instrument. Find two objects within and around this site which can produce distinct sound and “play”. For instance, a wire scraped on a bench, or a tin can on the cement ground. Play your instrument while the recorder is set on the ground in a set location and record for at least 2 minutes. Let yourself record both distinct “hits” of the instrument as well as experiments in rhythm. Film yourself playing this instrument Free
Movement. As you have called into all directions the sounds and energies, begin to let your body move freely in response. Try to film your movements from different directions. Allow any sounds that rise to emerge from your body. Interact with the space and its objects in any way you feel compelled to.
Lyrics
(sung by Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT] in Ewe) Mother mother mother / Na Na na, Naye Nayee Nayee If you reach the peak of the mountain Agou and hear any voice, you know that I’m the one calling you / Ne do Agou toa nu de maa ne se gbedidia de, nanya be nye le yor wo Death doesn’t like good things / Eku me nya nu nyui ooo Death doesn’t kill wicked people / Eku me wua amevodi wo Death doesn’t pity poor people / Eku me kpor nublanui ne ame dahe woo Death doesn’t know good things / Eku me nya nu nyui ooo Death doesn’t know beauty things / Eku menya tungbe oo Death doesn’t know wealth / Eku me nya hotsuioooo Death has caused us a lot / Eku wo nu mi Death has wounded our heart / Ekue dabi miafe dzi nu Death doesn’t say it will go and come / Eku megblor be me yi ma vao
Editing Technique
Key to the emergence of the a/v work Eku Eku Eku was the experimental cutting techniques through which HYENAZ edited and assembled the piece. Normally we begin by composing a work from field recordings, and then cut the video to match this audio work. This time we worked from the video first using a modified version of the JAWA technique developed by the artist Tasman Richardson. When Tasman Richardson creates a/v works, they begin with found footage, scrubbing, cutting and looping to create percussive sounds and melodies using only the audio and visual material present in each fragment of found footage. We attempted the same, utilizing the audio visual field recordings we had each gathered, building the audio and visual composition in one step, from only the sounds and images present in each fragment.
This process resulted in a composition with an extremely tight relationship between picture and sound, content and form, and allowed us to merge the worlds of Va Bene’s ritual performance in Kumasi and ours in Berlin. However, it was not without challenges: We struggled with the sheer number of audio and visual tracks layered on top of each other. Creating music within a NLE like DaVinci Resolve, which is designed primarily for video editing, lends a fragility to the creative process, a careless key stroke can easily change the relationship between vast amounts of audio and visual material and undermine days of work. In the end we exported the audio stems from the video and worked with them in our DAW Bitwig to finalize the composition and to process and add effects to some of the sounds that were lacking presence in their raw form. We then reconnected the audio and visual before exporting the final work.
For Beyond Possible, HYENAZ and Jova Lynne gathered field recordings and visual materials in Berlin and Detroit during July and August 2020, with the intention of finding and creating sanctuary. Each took a parallel journey in each of our cities, making three stops: 1-Fire/Hearth, 2-Water and 3-Cosmos. In each of these stations tgey used the following methodology for gathering our sound and visual samples:
Methodology
Grounding. Find a comfortable position where you can relax your body into the location. Think about grounding. If you feel comfortable, come as physically close to the ground as possible. Lie on the ground. Let whatever parts of your body that touch the ground sink deeper into the ground. Concentrate on rooting. Put your sound device on the ground and mm press record. Capture the ambient sounds located there.
Deep Listening. While letting the recording run, think about the sound that you hear. What sounds do you hear closest to you? What is more distant? What is even further away? Take note. You can also move your body in small micro-orientations to signal that you receive the sound. It could be an arm movement or a very subtle shift in your weight, depending on how you are positioned.
Articulations. From this grounded space, what words come to mind. Try not to edit yourself. Just say the first words that come to mind. Say them outloud so that they are captured by the device. Don’t worry at first about capturing a good recording, just let the words flow. Once you know what they are, pick up your sound recorder and say the same words again clearly into the microphone.
Colour. What colour association do you make or feel as you occupy this space? Does the colour have a sound? Does the mood produced by the colour have a sound? Make a sound offering into the microphone, a squeal, song, gurgle, scream … be free Immediate concentric circle. From this specific place, take your camera and move slowly around your location in 360 degrees. This is the immediate circle and site of “home”. Move slowly so that you can notice details around you.
Concentric Circles. Travel with your mind in concentric circles starting with the closest circle and moving out further and further like the skin of an onion. Name what is there and what it means for you, what is its significance, personal, political, contemporary, historical, futurological.
First sound. Leaving the center of your circle, go towards one of the sounds that you noticed during your deep listening. Get as close as possible to it and press record. Try to record that sound for at least 2 minutes without interruption and, if possible, without ambient interruptions
Found instrument. Find two objects within and around this site which can produce distinct sound and “play”. For instance, a wire scraped on a bench, or a tin can on the cement ground. Play your instrument while the recorder is set on the ground in a set location and record for at least 2 minutes. Let yourself record both distinct “hits” of the instrument as well as experiments in rhythm.
The CLUTERFUCK ensemble was born when PEACHES asked HYENAZ to choreograph a group of contemporary dancers for the Deutsche Oper Aus Dem Hinterhalt performance of Don Quichotte. In 2019. The group returned in PEACHES epic stage revue “There’s Only One Peach with the Hole in the Middle” with performances at Kampnagel, Hamburg, Royal Festival Hall, London, Musikhuset Aarhus and Volksbühne, Berlin. In 2021 Clusterfuck returned in a new PEACHES show called Cranky Pants, where they confronted and negotiated the ego that is generated between performers on the stage. Cranky Pants premiered at Theater Formen, Hannover, with additional performances at the KW Gallery 30-Year Anniversary Festival and Transart in Bozen.
Credits
Concept
PEACHES, HYENAZ
Choreography
HYENAZ, with ensemble
Ensemble Members
Adrienne Teicher, Mad Kate, Federica Dauri, Jao Moon, TRAUKO, Ginger Synne, Lori Baldwin, Bishop Black, Martini Cherry Furter
Porn Film Festival Berlin (honorable mention in the Porn Short Competition)
Instinct is a queer metaphysical love story that weaves itself through real and imagined sexual encounters across darkrooms, forest cruising zones, and highway shoulders. Immersive and deeply layered, the film presents fantastical playgrounds where bodies imagine themselves in a multiplicity of forms and long for encounters without preconceived notions of what other bodies desire, what they will need, or how they should be touched. Instead, Instinct asks: what does it mean to actively (un)learn what we might assume about another body’s sex, gender, and desire?
Ester Martin Bergsmark, Mad Kate, Adrienne Teicher, Marit Östberg
Starring
Adrienne Teicher, Buffalo Grove, Christopher, Ester Martin Bergsmark, Finn, Jared Gradinger, Liz Rosenfeld, Mad Kate, Mere, MYSTI, Nika, Ocsaj, Paulita Pappel, River Rose, Sadie Lune, Tom Ass, Walter Crasshole
The HYENAZ edit of Paula Temple’s techno classic “Gegen” was been featured in the Electronic Beats “Right to Assemble!” playlist, which explores music as an agent of change. Read more: https://www.electronicbeats.net/right-to-assemble-sounds/
So many assumptions are made about why people choose to move, who has the right to move, and who does not, who can simply travel on a whim and who must risk everything to leave their lands for others. Our sense of time and space is increasingly unbounded, as access to knowledge, art and the public sphere shared through electronically mediated communication. Yet so many still have to risk death or internment to cross national borders physically, with access to migration arbitrarily determined by pieces of paper distributed along class and racial lines.
HYENAZ were inspired by Paula’s powerful track Gegen, whose title refers to the German word for “against” and already expresses the dichotomous terms in which media and political discourses discuss migration: Are you for or against migration? How do “we” oppose the “others” who are against “our” way of life. The urgency of its siren-like lead synth speaks to the militarised policing of national borders and the desperation that pushes people to risk everything in order to exercise the human right to move freely.
Paula Temple released her track ‘Gegen’ via her imprint Noise Manifesto in 2014, at a time the German term was being widely used by protesters during an upheaval of asylum seekers in Germany.
“As refugees are fleeing for their lives, it is shocking we are creating similar conditions and hateful rhetoric as what happened in 1930s pre-WWII for political gain,” explained Temple in an official statement. “My personal hope is in our efforts to diminish the climate of hate with an overwhelming climate of empathy.”
