Maja Jantar (Pl/Be)

1 November 2019 City Sonic

Petrichor + Improvisation on Musical Hypotheses of Stephan Dunkelman (creation)

Petrichor took shape at the Sounding Paths Residency in Ano Syros (Greece), in the Summer of 2019. It came from a desire to connect with the sounds of stones and pebbles, a longing to explore what it is like to crave the rain, to wait for, to make ritual for rain. How it would be like, in a place of consistent drought to experience Petrichor – the smell that rises from the ground when rain falls after a long dry spell.

πέτρα (petra) meaning ‘stone’, ἰχώρ (ichor) meaning ‘blood of the gods’ and more recently : ‘watery discharge from a wound or ulcer’
This word petrichor, fascinated Maja Jantar, a word filled with longing, a word evoking stones – the sound of stones hitting other stones, a word with a metaphysical connotation, a mythical story, a word evoking sound rituals to communicate with the clouds, the ocean and the tides.

In addition to the vocal performance Petrichor, Maja Jantar will improvise on an electronic sequence extracted from the Musical Hypotheses, composed by Stephan Dunkelman (in his Écoutilles device).

As part of the Ecoutilles device

Stephan Dunkelman‘s multi-channel device hosts several sound-selection programs as well as performances throughout the City Sonic @ Louvain-la-Neuve course, to be savored sitting at the bottom of a deckchair or on a cozy cushion.

Biography

Maja Jantar is a multilingual and polysonic vocal artist whose work covers the fields of performance, musical theater, poetry and visual arts. Co-founder of the band Krikri, she has given solo and collaborative performances throughout all Europe. She has been working on poetic sound works since 1995. From 2001 to today, Maja has directed ten operas, including the Monteverdi classic Incoronatione di Poppea and the contemporary Infinito Nero de Sciarrino. A part of her visual poetry has been published in various publications, including the book Zieteratuur (Nl), and her visual work has been shown in several exhibitions, recently a selection of ink and paper from his Lilith series could be seen at Kunsttempel Kassel (De). She also participated this year in the collective exhibition La voix libérée at the Palais de Tokyo (Fr). Finally, she continues to collaborate with Canadian poets and interdisciplinary artists.