swantje lichtenstein & jono podmore: hallraum

Improvised site-specific performance accompanying and responding to the sights and sounds of Worringerplatz, Düsseldorf, Germany, August 10, 2018. Personnel: Swantje Lichtenstein - voice, electronics; Jono Podmore - electronics. Additional recording by Kai Winter. Mixed by Jono Podmore. Jono Podmore writes: "After the release of our 7" single Miss Slipper/Lewes on Psychomat Records in 2017 it was time for another release in keeping with our spirit of adventure and interrogation of established forms. We'd played a few improvised shows which lead us to think of combining the anvil of the audience with the hammer of recording. A plan was hatched to create an event that would lead to an artifact -- both an open recording session and a recorded event: a site-specific incident and a time-specific document. A number of venues between our homes and workplaces in London, Köln and Düsseldorf were mooted. Suddenly Swantje found herself in possession of the keys to the Hallraum... August 10th, 2018 was a balmy night on Worringerplatz. The good, bad and the ugly of Düsseldorf were out in force; promenading their profusion of languages, habits, needs, and grudges. The architect of the platz built benches (Bänke in German) into the design, so the homeless that gather on the Bänke to put their tired feet up and have a drink, have become known as the 'Bankers'. Nestling under the trees on the northern corner of the platz is the Hallraum: a wee glasshouse that functions as a gallery, a venue and as a piece of public sculpture in its own right. We set up our gear, a PA system and an array of microphones amidst an installation in the Hallraum, opened up the doors and windows, then played for the peoples of Worringerplatz, gathering an audience as we went along. Setting the panes of glass rattling, accompanying the trams, serenading the bankers and those hungry for Pizza und Kultur, we played karaoke to the sounds of the platz. As we busied ourselves in the Hallraum, fellow traveler Kai Winter, armed with a digital recorder and synchronized to the master clock, prowled Worringerplatz and beyond to capture the environment mingling with our sound writing and wave shaping. Later, all the sources were brought together and mixed exactly as they happened in time and place to produce these pieces."