"An ode to bear" (2013) Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria

In about the end of the summer, during my stay with family in the village Daskot in Bulgaria, I made a lot of walks into the hills. There I found a certain type of reed or cane growing in the fields. From one of these reeds I made a flute.

When I heard we would visit a very old cave in the same region I decided to take it with me. I ended up playing for my family in what is referred to as the Concert Hall of the Bacho Kiro cave.

The Bacho Kiro cave is located close to the Dryanovo Monastery. It was formed initially in the Paleogene period, between 66 and 23 million years ago. Over thousands of years it has been shaped and taken amazing forms. Since it was first inhabited for over 40.000 years ago, different humans and animals have lived there over time. And the oldest remains, in the Balkan peninsula, of a cave bear were found there.

In terms of the relation between sound-space-perceiver it is historically a very interesting space. The functionality given to this specific part of the cave indicates the importance of music in daily life and that performance took place in the homes of humans. It also shows that humans were very much aware about the acoustic qualities of spaces, how it effects a sound source and the perception of it.

I can imagine that inhabitants would pick a certain space in a cave for its specific acoustic quality and determine by there own choice of aesthetics what instrument worked best in that space.


I would say that these Concert Halls can be considered the predecessors of any type of architectural designed structure build for music performance.

"When man & mountains meet" (2013) Bougoumez Valley, Morocco

For a while I have been wanting to make a performance with my audio-system in a mountainous area. Bougoumez Valley is situated in the High Atlas of Morocco. We moved through the valley from village to village and stayed in gîtes which are family run shelters or homes. The landscape is believed to be formed within the Mesozoic era and succeeded my expectations of how majestic the mountain range is.

A mountain can be considered a sacred place and has something mystical and magical. But at the same time I found out that the higher part of the mountain is occasionally used as a toilet and to dump the village garbage and/or burn it. The reason, because it is furthest away from the river or streams which local people also use as drinking water.

During the walking trips through the valley I found different objects to construct my pre-historic mountain instrument (piece of wood, metal wire, tin sardine can, nail, elastic and metal strap) to use with my autonomous portable audio-system.

















When I went up a hill to look for the spot to perform I came across my potential cardboard speaker box. By being on top of a hill I also had a broader perception of the sound environment. I was enveloped by the surrounding sounds coming from within the valley, echoing as they were bouncing of the mountain sides traveling upwards.

















When I found the right spot I fixed the speaker and connected my system.

















Now I was ready to perform my mountain song!

"These sounds will lead the way" (2013), Groepsexpositie: Couchsurfers and A-Boys, Jabu Arnell's house, Amsterdam

Jabu Arnell invited me to do a performance at his house which he turned into a exhibition space for a bunch of artists and couchurfers.

I decided to approach this performance in a similar way as my previous action, this time I made one continuous recording while I drove my bike through the city from my house to Jabu's. The recording was used as a sonic recital accompanied by the reading of a text and instrumentation with a small cardboard box I made into a poly-instrument and microphone. The text were slightly modified fragments taken from the book "Listening to Noise and Silence" by Salome Voegelin, it was chanted in a Vedic like manner.



















The night before I found a very large cardboard box at a construction site near his house which I used for my mega-speaker. For amplification I used my portable audio-system, contact mic and an audio mixer.

"A walk from one domestic place to another" (2013), The Netherlands

This work was a walk and sound performance.
From my home in Amsterdam to my friends home who live in the forest in Driebergen-Zeist.

They are a small family who are living in a fairly socially and culturally isolated area, at least compared to their previous home in the city Utrecht. I decided to visit them and make a small domestic sound performance in their living room.


I have been wanting to go for a walk for some time now. Just using my own body and feet. Experiencing the transition of place through walking speed, leaving the city, the "border" with the outside of the city, passing through villages and towns etc. Approaching the whole as one and incorporating the way there, the movement between one static space to another, within the sound performance.

During the walk sound recordings were made with my portable recorder and contact microphone. The recordings were used in combination with my self-made mallets and small domestic objects (paperclip/elastic bands/tape/glass cup) that functioned as unconventional instruments. I brought my autonomous audio system and needed one of their old cardboard boxes to make my speaker.

The walk was in total 55 km, I managed to walk 42,5 in 12 hours up till Hollandsche Rading. From there I took the train and bus for the last 12,5 km. The whole walk was a full sensory experience, including attentive listening within a flux of soundscapes, till the point where I became so sensitive to my walking surface I was avoiding any concrete or stone pavement/road.

On my way back I walked the remaining 12,5 km from my friends house to Hollandsche Rading and took the train back to Amsterdam. To complete the whole, I made another sound performance the next day at home, just by myself.

I didn't use a map and only wrote down names of streets and roads on a piece of paper and asked people for directions. This way I had some social interaction and met some interesting people along the way. I would like to thank everyone that took the effort to take a picture and send it to me by email.

"This time I went for Monsanto but ended up in another park" (2013) Lisboa, Portugal

In July I travelled with my family to Lisboa and visited my friend Hans Kuiper aka Inspector Casino.
With me I brought my autonomous portable audio system. In the neighborhood cafe's I asked around for some cardboard boxes and made my cardboard speaker backpack. After I made the speakers I was "waiting" for the moment when it felt right to PERFORM. I wanted it to be part of the everyday transition of actions. Just a change of intention. After a full day of activities; going to the city, shopping for groceries, going to the beach and making some field recordings along the way. I ended up making an action in the park of the suburb where Hans was living.

The title refers to two different public parks located in Lisbon. Because of the name Monsanto I instantly had to think of the multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnological corporation. Parallel to the choice of park it also suggests a fictional action, eventually choosing not to go for Monsanto seeds but something that grows organic, for something unmodified, not patented and nameless.

"RadioActivity" (2013) at MilieuServiceNederland Rijksakademie, Amsterdam

For this radio performance I hacked two small portable radio's transforming them into little synth's.
Utilizing radio frequencies and the radio's circuits to create the minimal with the maximum.

You can listen here.

"At first I went for the okra, but then I settled for the yam" (2013) at deServicegarage, Amsterdam

This work is a collaboration between Aditya Mandayam and me as Bingolingo & Foneysoney. As a headphone piece it was part of the 24hour exhibition The Rise and Fall of the Continuous Circle at deServicegarage.

"At first I went for the okra, but then I settled for the yam" (2013) was a new aural piece by Bingolingo and Foneysoney which revolves around the vowel and/or phoneme shifts that occured during the latter part of the Beeldensturm, amongst other events, in Central-West Europe, B&F overlay five vowels sounds sung in a mezzo-soprano on top of each other, in a way of a pyramidal ladder. The effect must be heard to be understood.

For this specific location the approximate dimensions of the space were used in an audio software program to calculate the approximate reverberation time and recreate the effect when it would be sung in the actual space.

Voice: Alexandros Papamarkou

You can listen here