Pavilion is a compilation by eight contemporary Lithuanian artists, working in diverse forms and practices, including sound and listening. It’s a selection of 8 sound art pieces and also field recordings for art installations, soundscapes, experimental compositions, etc. Made by the Music Information Centre of Lithuania and supported by the Lithuanian Council For Culture.
‘I Force Myself / Verčiu save’ it’s a piece made by the contemporary artist and curator Viktorija Damerell, who investigates everyday life situations in her artistic practices. It’s a sound sculpture that plays around a machine recording of the phrase by Marcel Duchamp “I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste”. As odd as the meaning of the text might be, the repetitive vocals here convey something else and can generate a quite interesting -and confusing- effect on the listener.
‘I Can’t Get Through to You / Neprisibeldžiu į tave’ is a work by Ramūnas Motiekaitis, composer and humanities scholar. He is specialized in Japanese philosophy, and somehow this can be perceived on this recording. Percussion with different objects that may or may not sound familiar and natural overtones played on a guitar. There is a notion of space, and also quietness.
‘Mother / Motina’ is the creation of Kristina Inčiūraitė, who works mostly in video art, experimental and documentary film. This is a recording of a visit to Motherland, a World War II monument in Kiev, Ukraine. This one gave us the impression that it would reach a more intense aspect if shown in its intended form: followed by photographs screened on 2 HD projectors. In the booklet you can also find the translation of the spoken Russian on the audio. ‘Ablation Zone / Ledo tirpsmo zona’ by visual artist and filmmaker Emilija Škarnulytė is the recording of an excursion through a very old snow-covered sedimentary coal formation on a polar day in Spitsberger, the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway. Climate here is artic, and the result is haunting. It makes you feel that you are there.
‘Year of the Catdog / Katašunio metai’ by conceptual artist Arturas Bumšteinas is our favorite title, together with the first one on the album. It’s an audio documentation of a four-day ritual of semi-traditional Japanese ceramic kiln firing that took place in the forests of Lithuania. Sounds of fire together with the first slighlty recognizable musical hints coming out of the clay whistles, and the English translation from the original Lithuanian conversations turns this piece into something special. It was created in 2016 for the Czech Radio Vltava programme rAdioCustica and performed in Berlin accompanied by the Danish sound artist Ragnhild May playing her own organ pipes. ‘some of all of that / truputis viso to’ by composer and improviser Gailė Griciūtė encourages us to stop for a moment and listen carefully to the sorrounding world. It’s an intended soundtrack of the medieval Gediminas Hill in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. It makes you want to take a deep breath.
‘Sounding Door / Skambančios durys’ by researcher Julijonas Urbonas, Vice-Rector for Art and associate professor at Vilnius Academy Of Arts, is basically a recording of the noise of the door opening at the entrance to the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. It has a heritage value for capturing a bygone soundscape of Vilnius. ‘numbers / skaičiai’ by architect, designer and sound artist Darius Čiuta ends the CD and it’s the only piece that doesn’t have a description in the physical edition. It’s loaded with textures and acousmatic sound art hints. The sources of the sound are diverse and so they unleash different reactions in the listener. Wind, sounds from a distance, repetitive percussion like heavy footseps and interrupted string instruments. There is expectation and, somehow, tension.
Pavilion it’s a very well curated effort that turned into a valued physical edition giving an insightful sample of a selection of the current Lithuanian composers. We only wish to find these type of projects throughout the world, because the documentation here is essential, and necessary
