During 2020-22 Gívan Belá was working on a performance work, in collaboration with Laznia Gdansk, to function as an opening event of the exhibition 'Sense Perception / Sensoria' by Hungarian-Canadian artist-curator-traveller-critic-organizer-writer-… Nina Czegledy in September 2022. The piece is a community based and participative work, performed in open air, and based on the same principles as Fanfara Hranice (2011, 2018).

In February 2020 we visited Laznia, and worked on the necessary prospection, for developing the piece. Both venues where the performances will take place belong to quite different neighbourhoods. Apart from an extensive series of field recordings around Laznia 2 (the harbour) and Laznia 1 (the city), we worked out a further plan of action, meeting the experimental choir 441 Hz and Anna Wilczewska. Meantime the renowned luthier Hubert Połoniewicz, proposed making a replica of the mysterious medieval instrument, the geśle gdanskie. We accomplished 26 hours of field recordings as an initial sound material collection, for further analysis and re-generation electronically. We came back home and started to work preparing the initial the score for the choir. BirdSongs was the working title. The piece would be throughout the years mentioned as Marching Choir, Fanfara, etc. and was several times postponed but finally performed on September 16th, 2022. The 441 Hz choir could not perform it but the Gdansk University Choir proposed to step in and rescue the performance, together with a bunch of visiting international Erasmus students.

Over the years, the pandemic lockdown of borders and cities came in the way, maybe the political tendencies in Europe as well. But art, culture and the social are in flux, and from a ruined mansion in the highlands, surrounded by natural sounds, we continued to work sporadically at it.

Fanfara Gdansk consists of 3 parallell groups:

1. The 441 Hz Choir (20-30 moving singers), with director Anna Wilczewska;
2. Youngsters making their own LOVMI's (10 Low Voltage Music Instruments with IOT sensors)- notice that this can be wired into the live generated version of the score for the choir, and the electronic parts of the DIY-Gęśle instruments;
3. Additional musicians and sound artists (10 DIY instruments based on the mythological Gęśle Gdańska).

What we are working on now:

• the making of an initial score for the choir, and its dynamical changes later on while adding the other groups, including the dva[2]metri choreography which is the blueprint also for the interactions with the score;
• the preparation of LOVMI | prototype raspberry pi's with footstep and environment sensors, and code examples for later workshops with youngsters (8-11, 12-17 years old);
• the 3D models for building modified DIY geśle gdanskie instruments (no one knows how this archeological recent find was played), to be integrated in the LOVMI instruments

The following sections are being updated as we are continuing to work out the ideas…

• BirdSongs, the Fanfara Gdansk score
• dva[2]metri, the Fanfara Gdansk choreography and overall movements on all levels
• LOVMi&Sensors the electronic portable gear, with wireless sensors, and DIY instruments
• The Communication an overview of the communication between Laznia and us
• The Letter of support: laznialetter_guy_van_belle_20200512.pdf