Symposium Musicum // Symposium Musicum LP

Slovak field recording artist/experimental musician Symposium Musicum released this record in May 2023 from the experimental label mappa in Lucenec, Slovakia.

Contains 10 collage fieldwork songs based on field recordings and interviews recorded in Romani settlements in eastern and northeastern Slovakia.

Mastered by Giuseppe Ielashi.

Below is a commentary by the label.

”The album Symposium Musicum is the result of field recordings, interviews and observations collected in the villages of Podolínec, Lomnička, Levočské Vrchy and Kolačkov, Romani settlements in eastern and northeastern Slovakia. The resulting work invites us to listen to the delicate negotiations of language, gestures and storytelling.

Collaborating with local participants can seem lighthearted and whimsical on record, but this seeming ease is clearly the result of intense fieldwork planning and post-production.The curated compositions focus on, express and emphasize not only the performative aspects of sonic activity, but also the seemingly unproductive aspects of creation such as silence, confusion, observation, perception and waiting. .

Experimenting and preserving sound is not the only purpose of this project.Lomnichka locals say the recorder spent the first night in the villageThey were non-Romani.

Often these recordings explore marginal spaces that have lost their original function (ruined churches and abandoned grocery stores), creating active areas for sonic exploration and playful interaction. This is what happened.For example, on track 7, "Kavka," local children use crackling leaves as percussion.

Moments like this demonstrate a heightened interest in the nuanced details of the recorded space and its social ecosystem.According to the creators, their creative activities involve "social sound practices" as an attitude to explore sound in a social environment.

The Symposium Musicum leaves behind many aesthetic conventions about how to perceive sound and what is considered "musical", including the usual notions of linguistic units, stories, memoirs and play.Instead, it poses self-reflective questions about how we listen to the world around us.

This projectIt invites us to experience a place outside the sociolinguistically fragmented countryside where the Romani community has migrated and been neglected for many generations.The result is in many ways revelatory and poetic impact. ”

*If you would like a digital sound source, please feel free to contact us.

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12" black vinyl. Ask us for digital files.

Map:

"The album Symposium Musicum is developed from field recordings, interviews, and observations collected in the villages of Podolínec, Lomnička, Levočské Vrchy, and Kolačkov - all areas of the eastern and north-eastern Slovakia with significant Romani enclaves. Encourage the listener to tune in for a delicate negotiation of language, (audible) gestures, and storytelling.

The collaboration with the local participants appears lighthearted and whimsical on the records, but this seeming easiness is clearly a result of devoted fieldwork planning and committed post-production. to seemingly non-productive aspects of creation, such as silence, hesitation, observation, perception, or waiting.

Sound experiment and preservation is not the only goal of the project. Some of the records capturing acoustic activities in peculiar places but also carry an element of social novelty that accompanied their making - according to the locals in Lomnička, the recording visitors were the first non -Romani persons who spent the night in the village.

In many instances, these recordings explore liminal spaces that have lost their original function (a church ruin or an out-of-business grocery store) and became a lively territory for acoustic exploration and playful reciprocity. For instance, in track 7, "Kavka", local children used crackling leaves as percussion devices.

Such moments betray a high level of engagement in the subtle details of the recorded spaces and their social ecologies. According to the creators, their creative processes involve "a social sound practice" as an attitude towards exploring sound in its social setting.

Symposium Musicum leaves behind many aesthetic conventions of sound capture and what is considered "musical", including the usual notions of a linguistic unit, narrative, memoir, and play. Instead, it engages in a self-reflective questioning of the way we listen to the world around us.

This project invites us to experience places outside the sociolinguistic provinces, resulting from multigenerational displacement and neglect of the Romani communities from the explored areas. The result is in many ways revelatory and poetically impactful. " 

Artist : Symposium Musicum

Label: Mappa