Come listen to/watch Interferences: Live at the Museum für Kommunikation Berlin on 15 September.
My Hörspiel, »Interferenzen: Koloniales Scheitern im Radio«, premiered on Deutschlandfunk Kultur Radio Art last December. Marcus Gammel, who commissioned the piece also suggested the idea of performing the piece live at the Museum für Kommunikation Berlin. After several postponements due to the pandemic, we are now set to stage the piece as part of the Berlin Arts Week. The live version will have updated scenes and I will be “airing” this version in English. Thijs van den Geest will join me to perform live electronic music and trumpet.
Interferences: Live
SEPTEMBER 15, 2021, 6.30 P.M. – 8 P.M.
This sound-performance piece listens to the interferences of radio history and colonialism. By sampling recordings of historical radio broadcasts from Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Asia, and composing them, audio interviews, electronic music as well as a live performance by trumpeter Thijs van den Geest, meLê yamomo ensounds the repetitive loop of colonialism’s failures into “Interferences: Live”.
With the help of historical radio recordings from Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Asia, the artist meLê yamomo examines how the last century of listening to the radio has adjusted our hearing to certain aesthetic and affective listening habits.
By removing technical, cultural, and psychological disturbances, we try to ensure an “unimpeded” – interference-free – transmission. Less noise through better technology – and at the same time drowning out the indigenous population through programming according to Western European standards? Is that the colonization of hearing?
yamomo composes audio interviews, historical audio recordings, electronic music, and live performance by trumpeter Thijs van den Geest in “Interferences: Live” to set the endless loop of colonial failure to music.
The work is based on the radio play Interferenzen, which was commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur as part of the focus “100 Years of Radio” 2020.
Concept, artistic and musical direction: meLê yamomo | Additional sound design and engineering: Thijs van den Geest | Performance: meLê yamomo and Thijs van den Geest | Featuring interviews with: Elizabeth “Betsy” Enriquez, Teilhard Paradela, Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, and Harry van Biessum
The performance is free, but there are limited slots because of the corona regulations so please book your tickets ahead here: https://eveeno.com/268592016
You can also listen again to the original Hörspiel, »Interferenzen: Koloniales Scheitern im Radio« here.