COLORREPRODUCTION ON THE COVER (photo:
Logos Foundation Archive): ALICE SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA
"SOUNDS OF SACRED PLACES"
In most ethnic cultures, sacred places serve an important social function. The qualities, typical of these places, explain to western people the magic magnetism of these "holy grounds".
During our international Logos Duo concert tours we have had the opportunity to visit quite a few of these places. Uluru, the "Shadowgiving Mountain" of the Aborigines, better known under its Western name of "Ayers Rock" (Australia), impressed us more than any other. The presence of water and an enormous monolith in the midst of the vast desert plain is given as an explanation for its magical appeal. But to the Aborigines, each little place of the rock contains tracks of their ancestors, the "Dreamtime People", who live in this mountain and speak to them in the sounds of the winds howling through the crevasses and rockholes. Uluru is also the dwelling-place of the "World Serpent", the most powerful totem shared by the surrounding tribes.
"SOUNDS OF SACRED PLACES" attempts to transform the listener into a living witness of the sounds of similar places, not far away in any specific ethnic culture, but in Flanders.
duration: 9'10"
sound sources: soundscapes, voices, violin, n-dimensio nal oscillator-system built by Godfried-Willem Raes
date: 1984-85
"Turkish Square" is a soundscape composition about a square some blocks away from the Logos Foundation Center in Ghent, Belgium.
That year, I made soundscapes, soundcollages, drawings, texts, slides, films of the different seasons and weather changes that affect the square.
The square is bordered at two sides by the power plant, at the remaining sides by small houses, where Turkish "guest"-workers and the poorest of the working-class people live; in the middle, some grass, bushes, small trees, a playground for children and little paths covered by the slag of the plant.
The growl of the powerplant drones on and on, rags of Turkish music and language mix with the far away clanging of a sunday church bell, sparce birdsongs, clouds of Flemish pop music, screams of fighting people, yelling women and crying children.
At times the square is covered with debris and junk; at times it is immaculate, with blossoming bushes and springgreen leaves. Snow, bright sunshine and strong rains affect a transformation both visual and acoustic. So does the smog, when hardly anybody goes out, and even the Turkish children stay inside...
duration: 12'21"
sound sources: Soundscapes of doves on the roof of the former refectory of the St.Bavo Abbey in Ghent, Belgium, of the bell of the nearby St. Macarius Church and of flowing water.
Fellow artists give their impression of the old refectory, now the Lapidary Museum:
Guy De Bievre and Yves De Graeve (Dutch), Franck Venaille (French), David Moss of Vermont, U.S.A. (English), John King and Charlie Morrow of New York City, taped by phone (English)
date: 1986-87
"AbbeySounds" wants to be a ritual celebration of a serenity typical of the twelfth century Romanesque St. Bavo Abbey refectory in Ghent. The hypnotic sounds of the space itself - with their repetitive character and natural echo - are blended into one with the voices. Together they might evoke the mystical atmosphere and the mysterious magnetism of this place.
"AbbeySounds", as well as "Turkish Square", was born out of frequent visits over more than a year to this location, and under very different circumstances. While "Turkish Square" deals with dramatic changes ( seasons, weather variations, different times of the day and presence or absence of children ) , "AbbeySounds" spins a very subtle web of delicate variations, due to the intimate and protective privacy of the space. This fragility is intensified even more by the silent, static presence of the dark grey heavy tombstones, which reminds us of the monolith and its monumentality. The water evokes the timelessness of the rock face, into which the ancestors disappeared. The birds link reality and the dreamworld.
The impressive Romanesque abbey refectory dates from the end of the twelfth century and is the tallest in Belgium. The refectory kept its original function as dining room of the monks until the beginning of the sixteenth century. During more than three centuries religious texts were read aloud from a recess in the southern wall during meals. "AbbeySounds", records some first impressions of this majestic space, resounding from this same niche. Originally the space was covered by a flat wooden ceiling. Eight suggestive rows of white threads hang from the amazing height.
In 1540 Charles V, together with his architect and the feared duke of Alva, while overlooking the town from the top of St. John's church (now St.Bavo's, the cathedral of Ghent), decided to demolish the abbey, to replace it with a citadel, which was scornfully referred to as "The Spanish Castle". But at the very last minute the refectory escaped destruction. After a period of forty years as an arsenal, it was transformed into a garrison chapel: the floor at the east end was heightened a few steps to serve as the sanctuary, the flat ceiling was replaced with an immense roof of girdle vaults. Seven burning "AbbeySounds" candels under seven rusted rings, which give the impression of floating between heaven and earth, are the silent witnesses.
The Spaniard Castle was demolished during the first half of the nineteenth century and the former refectory found new use as the house of worship of St. Macarius, the plague fighter, one of the abbey's most important saints since its early days.
Some fifty years later a new church was dedicated to St. Macarius nearby and the former refectory received another use. From the sixteenth until the eighteenth century churches and monasteries sold tombstones to the citygovernment, which used them as work materials for bridges and floodgates. At the end of the nineteenth century these waterworks were renovated or demolished, many of these often thirteenth century stones were salvaged. The massive black slabs, polished by the water, were stacked in the former refectory. There they remain anchored to the walls, in an impressive unity with the space itself.
Thus the eating monks metamorphose into a silent and immobile row of eroded silhouettes, serene images reclining against the walls.
BLACK AND WHITE REPRODUCTION (PHOTO: BENN DECEUNINCK) ON THE COVER:
INSTALLATION VERSION OF "ABBEYSOUNDS" IN THE FORMER ST.BAVO ABBEY AT GHENT, DURING THE THIRD LOGOS L.E.F. FESTIVAL, AUGUST 1987.
duration: 7'00"
sound sources: voice amplified by a larynxmicrophone, soundscape of rain
date: 1980 (recorded in 1982)
a large closed wooden box / the drone of steady rain / slowly the cover opens
a naked body, hunched up / a voice
the lid descends, slowly
drizzle of steady rain / a large wooden closed box
duration: 10'19"
materials: a soundmontage processed in the Logos Studio of the voice of the "Roland" bell, the moaning of its wooden scaffolding and the echo of several smaller bells of the Ghent belfry-carillon
date: April 1985
"Solstice Sun", a soundscape-montage realised at the request of the New York New Wilderness Foundation, and broadcast by several radio stations in the U.S.A. as a "sample-tape", promoting the Flemish Logos-Duo participation in the "Fifth International Radio Solstice Event", is a celebration of the sun, which has always brought warmth to all creatures on earth with its ray-arms of light.
All of a sudden the tower's mightiest bell starts swinging around its axis and the enormous, heavy clapper slowly strikes the bronze body with a deafening tremendous clang; the wooden framework in which the bell is suspended, creaks and groans, heavily taxed, with a strident and sepulchral voice. A multitude of bells answer in multiple strokes and echoes, in an attempt to seduce time to follow the sun's example, halting for a single moment on its relentless path. At last, the resonance slowly dies out. For the first time in history the giant of Ghent was heard at the other end of the world, celebrating the sun with its fierce voice of freedom, peace and love.
duration: 5'35"
materials: The echo of nine Hemony bells of the Ghent belfry tower. The sounds were recorded with specially built contact microphones by Godfried-Willem Raes, and were attached to the bodies of the bells.
players: Guy De Bievre, Tom Flamant, Moniek Darge
Godfried-Willem Raes (technical work and sound engineer)
date: May 1985 / creation 15 June, 1985
"Three Sunbeams" was conceived as part of the "Fifth International Radio Solstice Event", an hour long live radio broadcast from the Ghent belfry, in multiplex with New York City and Auckland, New Zealand.
Nine Hemony bells of the belfry museum of the tower are gently stroked by mallets with a steady beat.
Slowly, each successive bell sounds the overtones of the one before, followed then by consonant groupings. The score evokes "Three Sunbeams" . . . The sounds slip roguishly through the slats in the windows and merse with the sun.
COLORREPRODUCTION ON THE COVER (photo:
Logos Foundation Archive): ALICE SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA
"SOUNDS OF SACRED PLACES" is dedicated to the memory of Annie Darge, and with thanks to everybody who contributed in a conscious or unconscious way to the realisation of this recording.
This record is produced with the support of the "Vlaamse Gemeenschap".
Thanks to Andrew de Masi (+) for editing the English text.
Published on the web on September 12th 1998 by Moniek Darge
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