Near my ears

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To be in a time of war”, a text by the Lebanese philosopher Etel Adnan. Adnan, is the starting point for a ramble through the streets of a city center. Simultaneous to war reports and world events, tourists stream towards the city center, homeless people, working people, children at play, party-goers, follow their everyday lives. As a mobile music theater, Near My Ears seeks out places where the quotidian and the political meet to create an approach to global connectedness.

Our journey to this show actually started 10 years ago at our residency in Brussels at QO2 where we developed the first prototype of our mobile live set up. Actually by then the text of Etel Adnan found us (in this order) — and has been accompanying us through different times. This text-tissue, as Etel would probably called it herself, made us search for her, and in 2017 we traveled to meet her in Paris in her apartment. We spoke about our work and what we would like to do with her “tissue” and she recorded it with us. We are so grateful to have met her in person. We have been patently waiting all these years and knew at some point these recordings will come to live again — which is now in Near my Ears.

I premiered this piece together with two amazing local musicians Dorrit Bauerecker and Rochus Aust, Milena Kipfmüller and Etels voice in Köln, walking through the city and trying to understand and feel what it means “to be in a time of war”…..

In future places and cities we look out for collaborating with local musicians.

concept, music and performance: Sounding Situations / Klaus Janek and Milena Kipfmüller

music and performance (Köln): Dorrit Bauerecker and Rochus Aust

text: Etel Adnan and Milena Kipfmüller

production: Kathrin Goelz

management: Fabia Mekus and Anna-Mareen Henke

pls click HERE for the recording of the premiere of the piece at Sommerblut Festival Cologne 2024

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