INTERTWINING by Sabine Vogel (2021)
for 4 speakers
During my time at the Bogong AIR residency in 2015 I mainly worked with two gum trees, which I connected through a fishing line, that acted as a wind harp. Connecting trees refers to a scientific study about the communication of trees: It works through a complex system of roots and some fungus — an underground network.
The study says, that the biggest and strongest trees are “mother trees” and work like a communication center of a forest area.
I used stripes of bark of these trees and hang it over the fishing line and “played” it, using contact microphones to amplify them. Additionally, I responded to it through improvising with my flutes.
The heart of Intertwining is the sound experiments with these connecting trees, but as I did also more excursions around the Bogong Village I weave in close-up recordings - which make almost inaudible sounds audible like underwater recordings with a hydrophone or a microphone inside the flute, binaural recordings with which I listened very closely to the crickets while slowly moving my head- and recordings, that made use of the hydro dam’s space and reverb.
The trees are connected to each other, they are connected with the water, the earth, the wind, the birds. My walks are creating connection of places, my flute playing and breathing connects myself with the environment, my listening intertwines place, space and time.
I acknowledge the Dhudhuroa, Gunai, Taungurung, Waywurru and Yaitmathang peoples as the First Nations and Traditional Owners of the land upon which the Bogong Centre for Sound Culture is located. I pay my respects to the Elders, past, present and future for they hold the knowledge and traditions of the land and waterways upon which we depend.
This piece was a comission for the exhibition „Notes From the Field – Bogong Center for Sound Culture“ at Murray Arts Museum, Albury - MAMA (AUS / February – June2021)
The stereo version was arranged by Philip Samartzis.
