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A Recording of Me Listening to Italo Disco on My Balcony In my Absence: accept this recording of me listening to Italo Disco on my balcony (with occasional cues for an accompaniment of gongs), for the opening of LET 'EM KUCHEN ESSEN, by Andrew Thomas Parry, with Platform Berlin. Please also accept that, given the location (and occasion) of the event, the recording may not be heard as clearly as one may wish. This is acceptable to me. In any case, the recording will be of the highest quality, and run the course of the event. This performance sits nicely between something part participatory (like a musical game), and part acousmatic. It is sculpted around the proceedings of the event, and provides an ambience that resembles a 'supply of entertainment', but is in actual fact, a field recording. Setting up a loudspeaker for an audience is a direct indication of the fact that sound (most likely foreign to immediate environment) may imminently be heard, and one may trace that sound to the loudspeaker. One may be encouraged to do just that. The act of setting up the loudspeaker(s) in full view of it's audience, allow that audience more time to understand that there may be a sound to be heard, and may better judge when that sound may be heard. This helps to present sound in an environment where it may not be heard clearly; it may show that there is another sound to be listened to, should one be so inclined. For this performance, A participant will set up the loudspeaker(s), and play the recording of me listening to Italo Disco on my balcony, on my behalf, in my absence. That participant is encouraged to pay particular attention to aspects of the space that support good transmission and intelligibility, and position the loudspeaker(s) at their discretion, in full view of the audience. As the recording has a specific timing, the participant is encouraged to begin playback at the exact beginning of the event and allow it to play while the loudspeaker(s) is/are set up, so when initially powered on, the sound will be present instantaneously. There are no other specific instructions for the participant other than to maintain the above for the duration of the event. The recording is 4 hours long (approx, the audio provided on this page is an excerpt), and has lapses of activity at times that will correspond to the proceedings of the event. I invite two other participants to take a gong and mallet each and go about their normal business for the evening (a yellow bag will be provided to carry these). When the sound of the gong is present in the recording, the gong-bearers must play too, in a similar fashion, for as long as it is heard in the recording (they may play for longer, but it is not required, only if they feel). This will create the occasional soft intervention, and a means to inter-disperse an aspect of the performance in and amongst the socialisation.
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