MUSICAL WORKS

SUZUKI Kotoka / 鈴木琴香

2014

Reservoir

Birth Y: 1971 Birth C: JAPAN Gender: Female

Dest: Concert

Media Specification: Mixed music

Commission: Commissioned by UMS'n JIP (Switzerland), funded by Canada Council for the Arts, supported by Center for Art and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany

Performer(s): Javier Hagen, voice

First perf.: Kunitachi Art University, Tokyo, Japan

Duration: 09:40

Perf. Country: JAPAN

Media: https://soundcloud.com/kotokasuzuki/reservoir-voice-and-electronics-24-channels-excerpt

Prog. notes: During my three-months residency at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany in the winter of 2013, I conducted an intensive research into the electronic portion of this work. The work explores the relationship between timbre (water and a bell) and space in a virtual and spatialized listening environment: 24 speakers in a sound studio that allow individual and simultaneous positioning of sound in the space. The work imagines gentle drips of water and bells that eventually swirl in full force as to create a feeling of drowning.

The texts for this work are taken directly from a web-blog I encountered during my residency. As I was reading an online article about the suicide case of Amanda Todd in British Columbia, I noticed a link to a suicide blog. It was no surprise that such blog exists. But the page I was directed to was a blog from an anonymous asking for suggestions for good locations and most effective ways for drowning oneself. To my surprise, several members had responded with disturbingly detailed descriptions in frank manner with notes of encouragements. When I returned to this site again one week later, the page was removed due to an explicit content as if it had never existed.

I believe we can all relate to some extent about being lost at some point in our lives. Some lose the strength to fight to find the right answers. This work is about such tragic story. It is a story of lost, longing and hope, like the anonymous wandering in my mind in a form of a ghost searching for his soul. The texts for this work are lines and words taken directly from the blog in different orders.

Editor: M.B.