Antje Vowinckel

Call me yesterday

text-sound-composition based on international language courses, 50’

They should have brought us all together, but what happened was the opposite: On old language courses on tape or vinyl perfect native speakers made long pauses so that the listeners could imitate them. Most of us did this a couple of times, then gave up, but kept listening highly concentrated to the vinyl crackles in the pauses. And didn’t they seem to become longer and longer? Time transformed into space. Seconds turned into light-years, vinyl grooves turned into orbits while the speakers seemed to withdraw from each other more and more. Deep in the universe you still hear a gentle „Hallo“ but nobody answers. This image is also a metaphor for the general effect of the old courses. They wanted to bring all nations together, but in real life and in real countries we felt inhibited and didn’t even dare to open our mouths. Nevertheless, there is another to approach an international understanding in these courses – based on music. A music full of peculiar melodies and rhythm, that no one intended, a music that only arose as a side effect of the didactic pathos and the effort of to speak clearly and perfectly. – The additional text deal with the poetry of misunderstanding and repeating as a meta form of communication.

All music (organ, harmonium, piano, flute, electronics) by Antje Vowinckel (except the strings in „the sound of m“, played by Benedikt Bindewald, Cathrin Romeis, Josa Gerhard; the accordion waltz and the singer from a German hypnotic course on tape). With additional voices of: Gilles Aubry, Nicolai Franke, Marie Goyette, Diane Greenwood, Jens Jarisch, Annette Krebs, Michael Lissek and Jacqueline Macauly. The texts „This is a bird“ and „The dormitory“ are written by A.V. Special thanks to : Alessandro Bosetti, Giorgio Bosetti, Sandrine Castelot, Walter Filz, Giuseppe Ielasi, Eddi Rogers, Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. The project was supported by „filmstiftung nrw“. Awarded with Karl-Sczuka-Förderpreis (SWR) and the prize for Acoustic Art of Spanish National Radio RNE. Broadcastings and presentations in 16 countries. Production: Antje Vowinckel 2005. Spanish version (Antje Vowinckel/RNE).