Electronic sound portraits based on utterances of in-between speech. Hesitations, breathing, laughter, and enviromental sounds are woven into an electronic tapestry.

12 MP3 Songs
ELECTRONIC: Experimental, ELECTRONIC: Soundscapes



Details:
A suite of 12 sound portraits based on interviews with and by residents of Brussels from the BNA-BBOT archives. Words from the interviews are edited to leave only the hesitations, breathing emotional reactions and environmental sounds. An aspect of the personality of the interviewee somehow comes across in these in-between sounds, as if stripped of language another layer of communication comes into focus, more emotional , more revealing than what is expressed in words. The soundtrack of the edited interviews is then re-sampled and set in musical structures with wave-based electronic sounds, resonances, pulses and noise. The pieces themselves take the form of wordless narratives creating a portrait in sounds of an aspect of the personality of the interviewee.
Originally the piece was conceived for a 4 channel system where two channels were played back through headphones and the other two through a PA, creating a sense of inside and outside sound worlds, the voices always coming through binaurally on the headphones while the electronic sounds create a sense of spatiality and physicality. For this CD a stereo mix has been made which retains a sense of that interplay between the internal and the external worlds.

Wordless was originally commissioned by the ARGOS Festival, Brussels, Belgium held in October 2004 and premiered there at the Beursschouwburg. Additional funds given by the Dutch Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst.
Many thanks to Ive Stevenheydens of ARGOS, Anne van Wichelen of BNA-BBOT, Ive Stevenheydens, Niko Okkerse of 433fm, STEIM, Roland Spekle, Isabelle Vigier, Andy Moor ,Ayelet Harpaz, and all the interviewers and interviewees on the recordings.

1. Pensioner_0496
This pensioner from St.Gilles is of Italian origin. She arrived in Belgium in 1951 with her children. Her husband worked in the coal mines. In 1962 they moved to Brussels. Their financial situation was difficult and they encountered many problems with racism. They found whatever work they could in order to support their children who according to her are now settled and living well.

2. software engineer_0106
An interview with a 30 year old software engineer who came to study in Brussels and ended up staying there. He does not feel very comfortable in the interview and he often waits for the interviewer to tell him what to say.

3. cleaning lady_0500
At the age of 10 she came from Morocco with her mother and sister to join her father in Belgium. She stayed 7 years. In 1982 she went back again on what she thought was a holiday and her father announced that she was to stay permanently in Morocco. It was a nightmare, and furthermore, she was obliged to get married. At the death of her father, and going against the wishes of her brother, mother and future husband she decided to return to Belgium. She thought she was going back to paradise, but it turned out to be hell.

4. DJ_0617
The story of a DJ who explains the role music plays in his life. According to the interviewer, the conversation was very pleasant, except for the fact the music in the background was extremely loud.

5. sociologist_0158
A 25 year-old sociologist who likes to observe Brussels and look for the most stunning views, to focus on parts of a city, which are run-down but which always seduce him; and this because it buzzes with people, it loves the outsider, the interaction, the social above all. He wants to occupy public space and provoke people by creating events such as making tea, music, and singing. In the interview he gives accounts of the cityâs retreats, the adventure of Brussels, his eye is pointed towards a certain ideal of social life. The interview starts with a cup of tea.

6. artist_0640
An interview with a 38 year old artist. The interviewer has just come in from a cold January rain storm, and there seems to be a lot of fun and laughter in the ensuing conversation. This interview was part of a project by Radio Zinneke based around the theme of different interpretations of the term â experimentalâ.
This long interview was the beginning of a very warm friendship between the interviewer and the interviewee.

7. music salesperson_0618
Entering the record store, Arlequin, in the centre of the city, the atmosphere is relaxed, the interviewee is very shy to begin with, but slowly relaxes by the passing and going of clients and regulars. He talks about his passion for the radio, and the atmosphere in the studio.

8. drummer_0404
A Gambian drummer is interviewed by two children about his life as a musician, the many different percussion instruments that he plays, and the cultural adjustments that he had to make coming to Europe from Africa. The interview is held in Dutch, which for all the participants is their third language.
In the course of the interview the children burst intermittently into fits of giggles, which seems to be ignored by the adults. It turns out that some amorous noises coming from an upstairs room are attracting their attention. At the end of the interview the drummer gives an example of his djembe technique.

9. schoolboy_0032
The city seen through the eyes of one of its youngest citizens. The interviewee is a 7 year old boy from St.Gilles. He is certainly not shy or lacking in things to say. he talks about his school, hobbies, friends and future dreams. When he grows
up he wants to become a pianist in the opera. Heâs also not a big fan of the city, he wants to go and live in a tree-hut in the forest.

10. blindman_0425
Born with minimal eyesight, he slowly lost all his vision as he was growing up. in the interview he explains how blind people go about their lives in the world of the seeing and what kind of appliances and devices are used to help. He doesnât rule
out anything as impossible, he even names photography as one of his passions. He explains how sighted people experience unsighted people and vice versa.

11. rai singer/ electrician_0522
A singer of Algerian Rai music, who also works as an electrician. He explains to a pupil, his taste for music, his studies and the thoughts of his parents on him wanting to sing. The interviewer is from a âPasserelleâ, a class in a school with kids who have recently arrived in Belgium. They spend half a year to a year learning the language and getting to know the school system. At the end of this session the singer gives an example of his talent in a rendition of the famous rai song âDidiâ.

12. pensioned clerk_0197
In sessions organised by some primary schools, children go and interview pensioners in old peopleâs homes. The idea behind this scheme is for the benefit of both generations. Prevention against social isolation and loneliness, the
breaking open of certain taboos, the passing down of knowledge and experiences of past ages.

Texts are based on information from the BNA-BBOT archives. Numbers on the titles are the reference number of the source material. More information can be found on their website: www.bna-bbot.be
Information on Yannis Kyriakides can be found on www.circadian.net


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bio Yannis Kyriakides:

Yannis Kyriakides was born in Limassol, Cyprus in 1969 and as a result of the Turkish military occupation in 1974 emigrated with his family to Britain. After travelling for a year with his violin in the near east, learning traditional music, he returned to England to study musicology at York University, later being drawn by the music of Louis Andriessen to move to The Netherlands, with whom he studied under at the Hague Conservatory. At that time he also had the inspiring opportunity to collaborate as composer on three projects with the maverick conceptual sound artist Dick Raaijmaakers. He currently lives in Amsterdam, with his wife and son.

As a composer he strives to create new forms and hybrids of media, synthesizing disparate sound sources and exploring spatial and temporal experience. He has focused in the majority of his work on ways of combining traditional performance practices with digital media. The sensory space where music happens is a particular preoccupation, and for this end a way of bypassing the conventional structures of how music is presented is sought. The question as to what music is actually communicating is also a recurring theme in his work and he is often drawn to the relation between emotion and language and how that defines our experience of music.

He regularly composes works for ensembles such as ASKO (NL), Icebreaker Ensemble (UK), Ensemble Integrales (D), and MAE (NL) , of which he is the artistic director. Other collaborations include MusikFabrik (D), Orkest de Volharding (NL), Nozferatu (UK), Palmos (Gr), London Sinfonietta (UK), LOOS (NL), Percussion Group Den Haag (NL), Zephyr Quartet (NL), Esprit Ensemble (CA), Nsemble (RU), Ensemble Cantus (Cr), and others. As an improviser he is involved in the Amsterdam electronic improv scene, he has a regular duo with Andy Moor (the Ex) called Red v Green, and is a member of the dance-music improvisation group Magpie.

His has written over fifty compositions, of which recent large scale works include: Strobo (30') for six percussionists, glass and stroboscopes; Scape (80') for video and ensemble ; Spinoza (or I am not where I think myself to be) (90') music theatre; Subliminal: the Lucretian Picnic (45â) ensemble, video, live electronics; Lab Fly Dreams (25â) BBC commission for ensemble and electronics, the Buffer Zone (60â) music theatre, Escamotage (70â) music theatre (FNM Staatsoper Stuutgart) and Wordless (50â) 12 electronic portraits for headphones and PA.
Upcoming projects include a music theatre work on a new text by Daniel Danis with Theatre Cryptic (Glasgow), a multi-media piece in collaboration with video artist HC Gilje for MusikFabrik (Koln)/ZKM (Kalsruhe), and a suite of pieces based on industrial era telegraphic codes for his own ensemble MAE (NL).

In September 2000 he won the Gaudeamus composition prize for his composition a conSPIracy cantata â which was regarded by The Wire magazine as âa modern classic in the makingâ. Together with Andy Moor and Isabelle Vigier he founded and runs the CD label for innovative new electronic music, UNSOUNDS.
Current teaching activities include âvisiting lecturerâ at Birmingham Conservatory (UK) and âcomposer in residenceâ at HKU, Utrecht School of the Arts (NL).