Ideas for a Very Long Rural Concert in Summer 2022

RuralDevelopment are discussing how to make a 22-h long radio piece for Esch's Radio Art Zone on 23-24 August 2022. It is part of Esch-sur-Alzette being one of European Capitals of Culture in 2022.

THE SHAPE OF 22 HOURS

Wondering about planning creativity with premeditated and accidental events, designing envelopes over longer and shorter times, eliminating unwanted noise and glitches, living with endurance and breakdowns, dropping in and out, seeing laziness and energy, keeping up attention span while forgetting, how evolution and bifurcations or choices in nature and in our imagination clouds immediate actions, are there memories without history, and are we mere anecdotes looking forward or back, where are the rhythms?

The longest piece I have actively listened to was probably La Monte Young's Well-Tuned Piano, which lasted 7, 8 or maybe 9 hours. Can't remember anymore since it was probably 30 years ago or more, somewhere in Germany, can't remember even where. Maybe around that time a friend took me to the village where she was born, around Easter time, near Murcia. There happened to be an annual traditional ritual called Noche de los Tambores. A crowd of drummers of all ages started banging loud from noon till the next day, ending late in the afternoon. For everyone it was all about endurance, children almost falling asleep on the spot while banging a can, and when looking aside I saw the hands of one of the musicians bleeding. But I never listened to the entire 15h Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle by Richard Wagner in one go. Though I listened to a very long piece by Morton Feldman, long ago in Middelburg, but actually I cannot remember how long that lasted. There must be more... And now you will come up with John Cage's organ piece ASLSP that lasts 639 years, but I haven't listened to it yet, though eventually the years will run out.

TOOLS FOR A VERY LONG PERFORMANCE

One of the techniques to “stay on the job” is a training in bi- to polyphased or segmented sleep, like done before by politicians, soldiers, cosmo- and astronauts, solo sailors, artists and scientists. Buckminster Fuller, Napoleon and Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci or Tesla, they all did it. And when we were babies we were all doing it as well. Monophased sleep seems to have taken over recently, probably due to the industrial and office timeschedules. Each can find a comfortable polyphased sleep schedule while the idea is not to limit the hours of sleep. Salvador Dali, but also Thomas Edison and Alexander the Great were doing a different thing, by trying to wake up in the N1 stages of sleep, creating dreamlike movements which combine the last awake experiences with related memories and wandering thoughts. But that is a different idea.

In our case, to create a 22 hour performance, if each of us would be phased differently, we could guarantee that minimum trios, quartets, or even sextets to happen without additional fatigue symptoms while playing. Over the last years, the following schedule seemed comfortable and allowed an efficient working/creating schedule: first an early 3-hour sleep till 1 am followed by being awake for 2 hours, then another 4-hour sleep often interrupted by a maximal 1 hour awake period, provided a minimal half an hour siesta is enjoyed after lunch. But let each and all find their own relaxed phased timings.. sure a sleep based time fragmented composition can be made out of this. Various Artists, the artist has been experimenting with this for years, and is living in a triphased sleep existence, and promised to enlighten, train us a little in the coming months.

22 HOURS OF OPEN MIKES

Using streambox and PD, icecast MTP server.
In relay to Esch. The streams could be arranged in a circle (ambisonics), Maybe this could be integrated with the radio, but in any way it could run over https://locusonus.org/soundmap or Udo Noll's infamous https://aporee.org/ OR.. Maybe RDsrr (our Super Radio Rural, see below) will work fine for this?

SUPER RADIO RURAL

The idea is to create a super-radio of all local rural radios, with a shared playlist and soundfiles. Why would we flee from project to project without a more sustainable outcome, something that can be used afterwards for the benefit of our beloved real rural development? Set up so far by: Radio Zá (Chotebor), radioK (Kerminy), but others will join in for sure!
An inspiring talk with Jeff Rolez and Dom Leroy from Kerminy produced a plan! An enigmatig day: 20220211!

22 SONGS

Geza Bopp screamed: “songs, more songs!”
So let's make 22 songs. Everyone can provide a basis. Everyone can add tracks anywhere.
Let's start right here, right now! New campfire songs that will be remembered forever.
Let's make a list of them here and we can play them outdoors in the fields first..

PRELIMINARY PROPOSALS FOR A NEW POETIKA

HOW TO AVOID (and keep it open ended):

automatism

commenting

concert spaces and indoor venues

conventions

covers, tributes, reunions, homages and reminiscenses

dogmatism and habits

emptiness

explanations

humanoids

ideas from the past

ignorance

imitation

management by ourselves

manuals, tutorials, examples

mystery and other metaphysics

noise and glitches

ontologies

past aesthetics or elaborations on that

pastiche

perpetuation

playback without processing

repetition

security

silence

simplicity

solenoids

soloing

studios

talking on

teaching anything

things we have done or tried already

to have to do things

walking away

what we hate to play

what we honour or remember

what we know

what we like

wisdom

the ones that are dead or alike

radio as it was (former media and technology) and is (current media and technology)

slowing down or giving up the quest for an original expression, even if it takes 22 hours

coming up later:

IDEAS ARE IN[T0RN]VENTIONS

P2P JAM SHOWS [NOT PEEP SHOWS, DUMMY!]

FURTHER ONLINE THINGS AND SOLUTIONS

[ART TOURISM OR..] MOBILITY AND ONSITE ISSUES

[Title of Work] for Radio Art Zone as part of Esch2022 - European Capital of Culture