Light, Darkness and Tape Recorders (2022)
For prepared tape recorders, prepared dias projectors, episcope and custom made 8-track tape recorder.
Premiered at Klang festival summer 2022
Program notes:Worn out, prepared tape machines, lamps, old slide projectors, found tape pieces: All these things are utilized in Morten Riis', KLANG-Festival's house composer (2022-2024), exploration of fragility, decay, and perishability. Nothing is stable in Light, Darkness and Tape Recorders – the first of a total of three planned works that Morten Riis is writing specifically for the festival: the light flickers dangerously on the brink of darkness, our memories are moments away from disappearing behind the veil of oblivion and the dilapidated objects we desperately try to store the memories in – the tape recorders, the slides – are bordering on collapse. Everything – our technology, our memories, our lives – is fragile.Yet Light, Darkness and Tape Recorders is not a depressing or discouraging work. On the contrary: Morten Riis believes that through a confrontation with the inherent fragility of existence, we can achieve a humility that can ultimately bring us closer to the world of which we are all a part of. Fragility, he seems to argue, is not only a threat to our lives, but also a prerequisite for it. Light, Darkness and Tape Recorders is a unique opportunity to experience this fragility up close.
For prepared tape recorders, prepared dias projectors, episcope and custom made 8-track tape recorder.
Premiered at Klang festival summer 2022
Program notes:Worn out, prepared tape machines, lamps, old slide projectors, found tape pieces: All these things are utilized in Morten Riis', KLANG-Festival's house composer (2022-2024), exploration of fragility, decay, and perishability. Nothing is stable in Light, Darkness and Tape Recorders – the first of a total of three planned works that Morten Riis is writing specifically for the festival: the light flickers dangerously on the brink of darkness, our memories are moments away from disappearing behind the veil of oblivion and the dilapidated objects we desperately try to store the memories in – the tape recorders, the slides – are bordering on collapse. Everything – our technology, our memories, our lives – is fragile.Yet Light, Darkness and Tape Recorders is not a depressing or discouraging work. On the contrary: Morten Riis believes that through a confrontation with the inherent fragility of existence, we can achieve a humility that can ultimately bring us closer to the world of which we are all a part of. Fragility, he seems to argue, is not only a threat to our lives, but also a prerequisite for it. Light, Darkness and Tape Recorders is a unique opportunity to experience this fragility up close.
