devoid of ears – Nik Bohnenberger (2022) (official premiere video)

Описание: for flute(s), clarinet(s), french horn, piano, percussion, violin and cello
commissioned by Kammerata Luxembourg and the Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg
premiered by Kammerata Luxembourg during Echer'Classic festival in Trifolion Echternach on the 6.10.2023
recorded and filmed by Paul Hoffmann

What does a world without people sound like? Is it even possible to imagine this paradox? Because if there are no more people, there are no more human ears to hear this world. What is difficult to imagine can still be felt, one can try to create an invented idea of a sound world without man-made sounds. The danger of such an invented idea lies in the strong, all too human subjectivity of this process. I have tried to avoid this danger by making it clear that man-made structures will continue to have their consequences for the new world long after humans are gone. What do these echoes of human civilisation sound like? What do slowly decaying cities sound like?

Another way out of subjectivity was to listen to pre-existing worlds "after humans", using sound recordings of bats from Tchernobyl, which I was fortunate enough to receive from Professor Timothy Mousseau during the process. Professor Mousseau is a specialist in the field of adaptive evolution - he researches the animals and plants of contaminated sites and how they have adapted to the radiation over the years.

The echo of sound-polluted civilisation and the echo of irradiated bats have blended into a world of sound that, for me, comes close to the paradox of "What does a world without humans sound like?" but also to the future vision of a world of factual ontology.