Breathing Music

Programme note
This project is dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Chordos String Quartet and commissioned by the JAUNA MUZIKA festival (LT)

The musicians perform inside kinetic sculptures made of transparent materials. Through the use of the air compression they gradually shrink and get filled with air again, thus constantly changing their form*. Each of them slowly ‘inhales’ and ‘exhales’ in its own tempo, this way governing the dynamics of the quartet’s (musical) gestures. The breathing sculptures serve not only as a visualisation and materialisation of pulsating music, but also as giant mutes (as one of live electronic tools) that inhibits the sound of the strings and transforms the timbre. Silent breathing of air sculptures, contemplative rippling of light/sound and periodic movements of musicians either merge into a mesmerising synchronisation, or intertwine in multilayered counterpoints of asynchronous tempos. 

This installation employs numerous sound sources and the audience is advised to choose from the variety of observation and listening points, slowly and quietly migrating through space.  

* Dovydas Klimavičius first used this kind of air sculpture in his project My Dream Bubble (2005), based on the artist’s idea to get inside the sculpture and realise his utopian fantasy of walking on the surface of the water.

Duration
25'

Performers
Chordos String Quartet (LT)

Performances
14 June 2010 Kings Place London (UK) | 10 October 2009 "ORF Musikprotokoll im Steirischen Herbst" festival Graz (AT) | 20 September 2008 “Vilnius – the European Capital of Culture” programmes, Vilnius train station (LT) | 24 September 2008 MUSIC OF CHANGES festival, Klaipėda (LT) | 28 April 2007 JAUNA MUZIKA festival, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (LT)

The birth of music from the spirit of air | Jurij Dobriakov | Literature & Art

When I witnessed the Chordos string quartet performers placed by the authors’ duo (composer Juste Janulyte and sculptor Dovydas Klimavičius) inside translucent “bubbles” (reminiscent of foetal cauls), arranged in the centre of the unlit hall and slowly shimmering with almost otherworldly diffused bluish light, the first association I had was the Starchild from Clarke’s famous trilogy, whose “reverse” birth Stanley Kubrick visualised so impressively in his adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, it’s not the human birth, but the birth of music and sound that the fixed-duration installation Breathing Music by Janulyte and Klimavičius seeks to portray almost literally.“Isolating” the performers inside the spaces where they are directly dependent on the inflow of air constantly pumped in by the assistants, the artists metaphorically remind the viewers of the fact that sound can only travel in air, which means that music depends on “breathing” just as humans do. Juste Janulyte’s composition itself, resounding with echoes of meditative Indian ragas and La Monte Young’s / John Cale’s drone experiments in their ensemble The Theater of Eternal Music, onomatopoeically alludes to slow breathing as well. Breathing Musicis undoubtedly one of the most original, mesmerizing and refined projects of the 14th Jauna Muzika festival.