AUDIO BOOK | MAY 2021
The Great Noise (and how it was found) is a story about a nameless person, a He, who lives in a grey city, with grey walls, grey stones, full of grey, grey lives. Thousands of people live behind their windows and don’t do much else than exist. Nobody goes outside. Nobody breaks the silence. Until, on a day as average as any, He hears a sound. It calls him and takes him from the depths of his sorrow out into the world. And so, his journey begins.
SOUNDS OF SOUNDS
All the sounds and music in The Great Noise comes from my own voice and body, just like the sound He finds in the story. It was the most solo of solo projects your can imagine, though that also fed into the intimacy and solace of the work.
In this process, I was inspired by the futuristic manifesto L’Arte dei Rumori by Luigi Russolo (short version: he advocates for the music of the sound, the poetry of the noise). And in the silence the pandemic brought, I found myself fascinated by even the quietest of sounds. And so I wrote this, recorded it, had some fun sampling and now it’s here for all the hear. The narration is in Dutch, which I realise is not ideal when you’re reading this version of this post, but, perhaps the sound tells a story of its own. I recommend listening with headphones.
The Great Noise (and how it was found) can also be found on a website of Toneelacademie Maastricht: https://www.lartedeirumori.com.