Founded by German saxophonist Christina Fuchs, German-Indian pianist Jarry Singla and South Indian percussionist Ramesh Shotham, the artist collective SONIQ has been building sound bridges between diverse musical cultures since 2016.
The Cologne-based sound-art duo Merzouga (computer musician Eva Pöpplein & electric bassist Janko Hanushevsky) has been interested in the sound of the world for the past two the decades. They traveled to Greenland, India, Brazil, North Africa and throughout Europe collecting field-recordings for their ars acustica works.
But then came the pandemic – and suddenly everything became very small. Travel was no longer possible, the world slipped through a fiber optic cable and behind a screen. In the digital space, you could hear concerts live from all over the world. You felt connected to colleagues who, like you, were stuck in their living rooms – each one a bit like Robinson Crusoe on his island. The image of the archipelago aptly symbolizes the experienced paradox of being simultaneously separate and connected.
This is how the idea for SONIQ – ARCHIPELAGO was born.
For this project, SONIQ and Merzouga joined forces and invited friends from all over the world to send short audio recordings to Cologne. This could be a field recording of nocturnal temple music from Chennai or a short marimba improvisation from New York. It could be a recording of a chacarera in Buenos Aires, gnawa singing from Morocco, Bolivian charango sounds or a drum groove played on a bass in Vienna.
Merzouga first condensed this material into the 20-minute sound composition that is on display at Betontonton. The media artist and visual artist Uli Sigg developed a video work to go with it. In a third phase, SONIQ, Merzouga and Uli Sigg developed sensual, playful compositions and videos for a full length live concert performance.
Breisgau, Tamil Nadu, Bavaria, Austria, Punjab and the Ukraine – the combination of the performers‘ regions of origin already evokes a sense of the world. All of them have been living on the island of Cologne for a long time, work all over the world and celebrate with SONIQ ARCHIPELAGO a music, which emerged at the height of the pandemic from the island existence and the shrunken world in the digital space – and now can be experienced in public space.
On display is the 20-minute composition by Merzouga Collective.
With contributions from the Archipelago by Kim Efert, Germany – Bohdan Hanushevsky, Austria/Ukraine – Inga Hansen, Greenland – Peter Herbert, Austria – Florian Kmet, Austria – Marco Lobo, Brasil – Lasse-Marc Riek, Germany – Vinayak Netke, Mumbai India – Jarry Singla, Field Recordings, Bolivia/India – Alexandre Lora, Brasil – Christina Fuchs, Field Recordings, Iceland/Switzerland – P. Naresh, Veena, India – Merzouga, Field Recordings – Tavil Narayanan, India – Ramesh Shotham, Field Recordings, Auroville, South India