TYTO ALBA

BRR008

Tyto Alba. 

13 portraits of melancolics, birds and their co-hearing

Michal Libera with Martin Küchen and Ralf Meinz

Text, recordings, composition by Michal Libera

Saxophone by Martin Küchen

Sound design by Ralf Meinz

1. Michel Serres

2. WG Sebald

3. Philomela

4. Max Ernst

5. Alvin Lucier

6. Giorgio Agamben

7. Bedřich Smetana

8. Andean Solitaire

9. Auguste Rodin

10. Tyto Alba

11. Georges Perec

12. Wilhelm Heinrich Dove

13. Javier Marías

Sound essay, hörspiel, reading, electroacoustic music, plunderphonics, sound portraits, collection of songs or simply a sonic take on melancholia. Disposition or disease, melancholia is a rich psycho-territory full of apathy, depression, withdrawal, self-dismissal, hallucinations and alien voices. And hearing. In particular, suffering of the ears and peculiar way of listening related to it. In one of the footnotes in his essay „Stanzas”, Giorgio Agamben points out that the well known melancholic posture of a man leaning his head against the hand is actually an attempt to get away from suffering of his ringing ear. This observation bringing together melancholia and sound is the main coordinate of the piece's development. It departs from melancholic listening turning women into birds depicted in the opening chapter of WG Sebald's „Rings of Saturn”. The voice imperceptibly meanders between reading, commenting and distorting the tales ramifying the interpretations of the initial situation. It is accompanied by hundreds of samples from classical music to birds and saxophone playing by Martin Küchen.