wafts by KARL HEINZ JERON / EMERGE / GERALD FIEBIG

released May 13, 2013

Berlin-based sound and media artist Karl Heinz Jeron’s “Ritopek” is a collage of processed field recordings made during a trip through Serbia. EMERGE’s reworking of the track turns it into a more abstract, ambient musical direction, while Fiebig’s mash-up of both tracks is sheer rhythmic noise. A fine example of three very different emotional responses to the same material.

“During my three-week long vacation in 2012 I visited Žagubica, Beograd and Požarevac in Serbia. And while I was there I made some field recordings, processed with Audacity, partially changed pitch and tempo, cut into pieces, put together again. Sources: Valie Djordjevic – Milan Jeron – Cicades – Buskers – Builders – Dogs – Cars – Lorries – Rain – Supermarket register – Taxi driver – Gastarbeiter – Roma kids – Custom noise oscillator,” says Karl Heinz Jeron. Fitting the documentary feel of people talking about the realities of modern life, Jeron’s piece has a certain edgy nervousness to it. EMERGE’s little masterpiece “induced”, on the contrary, shifts the scene to more imaginary surroundings, from subterranean halls to windswept plains, sometimes fading into near-silence. Gerald Fiebig’s track “KANiBALi” cannibalises both Jeron’s recordings from the Balkans and EMERGE’s treatment of them according to a randomised procedure and creates a sonic maelstrom of rhythmically pounding noise, faintly reminiscent of certain 80s US noise releases.