WITNESS STAND by Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey

TIME 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 August 19h00
MEETING PLACE Annekset, Refshalevej 320, Refshaleøen – see location
WHAT Sound performance
FREE ENTRY – reservation recommended

A fabulating sound journey through Refshaleøen

Refshaleøen is transformed into a living soundscape when seven sound artists and musicians set sound to special places on the island that demand to be heard, understood, misunderstood, fantasized about… Like a public hearing of the place itself.

WITNESS STAND is a concept by Australian sound artists Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey. They create the work together with five local composers: Maria Bertel, Ragnhild May, Katrine Grarup Elbo, P.O. Jørgens and Jørgen Teller.

The artists examine the island with their finely tuned ears, add both historical, political and fabulating frequencies, and together they weave Refshaleøen’s contrasting soundscape with six “movements” in six selected locations.

THE SOUND JOURNEY

You will encounter both sound installations and live musicians, and each composition gives you the opportunity to sink deeper and deeper into Refshaleøen’s layers of past, future and invented life.

Maria Bertel‘s sonic lighthouse controls and disrupts your sense of place as it throws sound out in all directions. Ragnhild May is composing an electronic piece with the sounds of Refshaleøen’s future, where sky and water blend together. Waves exist in both water, sound and time, and with Katrine Grarup Elbo you can ride along on an exploration of the deep longing within us that the waves satisfy.

P.O. Jørgens‘ iconic sound sculptures evoke the sounds that may/may not have been heard here for the last few centuries. And Jørgen Teller transforms the place into a gigantic chess game, where each field is explored with sticks, voice, instrument or digitally.

The sound journey is a continuation of the performances Radio Free Mermaid (Metropolis 2015) and Stemmer, Strøm og Støj på Slusen (Metropolis 2019), where the musicians transformed Copenhagen’s harbour into a fascinating soundscape that could be experienced both on water and on land.

Duration: 3 hours

ABOUT THE ARTISTS AND THEIR COMPOSITIONS

The Australian conceptual sound artists MADELEINE FLYNN and TIM HUMPHREY are known for their ability to create unexpected listening situations. They curiously question what it means to listen when they develop challenging, innovative and participatory formats. Their award-winning works seek to promote a sensitive, critical and learning listening practice.

Flynn and Humphrey enter with the common musical keynote and act as conductors/sound mixers in the live performance.

MARIA BERTEL‘s music is a movement into the minimal and repetitive, but also dark and intense compositions that draw on elements of drone, spiritual ambient and abstract noise. She works to investigate the expression of the trombone both as a soloist, in constellations and through cross-aesthetic expressions.

Maria Bertel creates a sonic lighthouse that spreads the sound out into the landscape, which provides different experiences, depending on where you stand and walk. The composition is based on a collection of site-specific images, materials and sounds in a graphic score, which the musicians can bring to life with manipulated real sound or amplified instruments.

RAGNHILD MAY works electronically with modular synth and self-built instruments.

With a site-specific approach, she works with a location where a large asphalt area is covered by water. The electronic sound work explores reflections and waves in the water, while the sky is observed in the surface mirror – inspired by Refshaleøen as a place where the future feels very close. Here, one cannot help but notice the constant traffic of trucks and excavators building a new island and district. The machine voices of the site become active co-composers.

KATRINE GRARUP ELBO is a violinist and composer. Her work combines site-specific concerts, compositions, performances and installations. She is a trained classical violinist from the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

Dissolved is a quiet symphony of sounds deriving from the underwater passage at the historic dock at Refshaleøen, where the water is slowly percolating, hence dissolving the hard infrastructure of the passage. Based on hydrophone recordings from the pools surrounding the passage, two sonic trajectories intertwine in this work: that of the heavy industrial machinery and rhythmic patterns, and that of the floating, esoterically melodic. The work poses the question: Can the slow softening of concrete, metal and iron invite us to reflect on our own being in the world? Inspired by Astrida Neimani’s thoughts on hydrocommons – that every being on earth is a body of water – Dissolved invites its audience to collectively reflect in a soft listening space.

P.O. JØRGENS has a background in classical percussion and has 50 releases as a composer and live musician. He has composed music for approximately 40 ballets, performances and films and is constantly performing in various musical contexts and collaborating with leading authors.

P.O. Jørgens’ electroacoustic composition connects all kinds of sound sources from the site with field recordings and with the sound sculptures that he has developed over the past 30 years. He creates a sonic retrospective of the sounds that have in all likelihood been on the site for the past centuries – added trombone, voices, synth, electric violin, guitar, percussion and marimba.

JØRGEN TELLER is a highly experienced musician, sound artist, performer, and composer with a Master’s in electronic music. He has also composed music for more than 40 stage performances.

As in a gigantic board game, Jørgen Teller, together with the musicians, will investigate the sound on fields of 1×1 meter in a game of patterns. There may be microphones and objects, or the musicians may use sticks, voices, instruments, and digital buzzers to create a mini-symphony for an abandoned shipyard area.

Photo: Marine Gastineau / Video: doxafilm

Witness Stand is supported by Koda Kultur, William Demant Fonden and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Metropolis’ summer programme is supported by the City of Copenhagen and the Danish Arts Foundation.