HALT HALTUNG VERHALTEN
​21.01.2021
TOWARDS SOUND presents selected contributions of its
​FLEETING ARCHIVE  
at the closing event of the Artistic Research Laboratory 
​@Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
in response to the topic
​Artistic Action between Contemplation and (Political) Activism:
ONLINE VERSION - Program   here
FARNAZ OHADI
Living in Vancouver, Canada, Farnaz Ohadi is an Iranian singer/songwriter whose fierce independence, fueled by repression, has given birth to the PersianFlamenco project Mashregh Ensemble which fuses the lyrics of Persian poetry with rhythms and melodies of flamenco song.
Sketches from the first Sketchbook for PersianFlamenco 
MICHELE ABONDANO
Sketch for
'A Weightlessness Process  (or how to become ethereal)’

The expression 'As if it were nothing at all' belongs to a book that has deeply inspired me during my research on timbre: Dust: a history of the small and the invisible by Joseph A. Amato. The piece is part of my current PhD research in composition at the University of Leeds in which I am studying timbre specifically from its multidimensional condition. Therefore, it responds to an exploration of mass as a timbral dimension, and I was focused on developing instrumental techniques that allowed me to approach the perception of weight reduction.
COLIN ROCHE
​LE LIVRE DES NOMBRES
LE LIVRE DES NOMBRES als performativer Akt
In the life of a composer, the time of writing is infinitesimal compared to the time of thinking. I wanted to find a way to materialize the time of thinking.  As long as I'm not writing music, but thinking about it while sitting at the table, I note the silence of not writing while I record my heartbeat via a monitor, in the form of pause beats. The heart is ultimately very much connected to my physical presence, but also to all the emotions that can pass through me.
Livre 1 Nombres 25  - 28  (copyright Maison ONA - Paris / courtesy of La Non-Maison)
AFARIN MANSOURI
My creative work  originates from a very deep emotional connection to a place that I am not normally connected with. There is a metaphorical knowing here -  a knowing which is different from a knowing of knowledge which happens in my intellect and I recognize that.  I am getting to a point that I am going to believe that there is an absolute consciousness in this world and I can connect to it on some levels in some moments.
I had this one very strange experience in my life. I had a miscarriage in 2012. The baby was still in my belly and it was gone obviously. The doctors gave me a date for surgery to take it out, but I had to wait for one week. So I had to deal with that baby, knowing it was gone. This was one of my darkest emotional states  I suffered so much - I was suffering and suffering and praying inside. One night I had a dream - I am standing in a place and there are so many lights and so many people around and I am singing a song for them. And the song with the melody and the song wit the poetry are so clear . And I am waking up at 6.30 am and write it down in my own language, I speak Farsi. Then the feeling was gone, the suffering pain was gone and I was so happy, This was very interesting as the subject of the poetry of that song was celebrating life and moment. Because life is love and you just celebrate. I didn’t know where that came from. This was the first time that also the music was given to me, I did not have to try to write the notes. The melody was written already , I was performing and singing it. This was in 2012.

In the year 2016 the director of a theatre company was calling me and asked me to sing in Farsi at his Gala event. He came to my place and I showed him this and that and this and that and suddenly I remembered that song from 2012.  I played it to him and that was the song he chose, he said „this is you,  when you sang this song you sounded different from when you were singing the other ones."  The night I performed this, the setting was exactly the same as in the dream I had had: the lights shone in my face, I could feel the presence of the audience without seeing them. They were  all seated around  me and I was in the middle of that circle. I don’t know what to say - sometimes I am speechless. I know that the mind can create something like this, it sometimes makes irrational connections, but …. What can I say? 
ATEFEH EINALI
Sketch for GIVE ME MY VOICE BACK
This piece is going to start with a closed mouth,  later on the mouth is going to be opened. This is indicated by the crossings in the first part of the sketch. This was a project in my university about protest. I had a Santoor in this piece. First I intended to play the Santoor under  the chador,  but later I realized that is it impossible to play in that condition. I changed my mind and conveyed the feeling I had in mind through a video of my eyes protesting, which I presented behind myself. However, I had a friend wearing a chador standing at the door during the whole piece observing us. In Iran there are people like this when you show your ticket before a concert. They check your ticket, but they also check if your hijab is arranged correctly. I wanted to show that part of the concert halls in Iran. If there is a female singer on stage in Iran, only women are allowed to go to that concert, men can’t. The  whole process of that performance is on this one page. It’s not just a piece.
BERTRAND CHAVARRIA-ALDRETE
Sketch for fomio (from the Troubadour Songs)
BERTRAND CHAVARRIA-ALDRETE
​Sketch for Requiem for a beetle