The project //2009// – what do you make of what I say? started on 4th of january 2009 and ended on 13th december 2009. It was a succession of sound recordings made over the course of one year by ten artists who had each four weeks to respond to the recording of an unknown predessessor. They got no other information then this recording itself. Each recording is 7 minutes long and is accompanied by two pages in a diary. Recordings, diary and reflections are brought together in a listenbook.The aim was to investigate how we perceive music, in a more precise way than ‘I liked it’ or ‘it spoke to me’ and whether it is in any way possible to ‘understand’ experimental music. The proposition of the research-part of the project was that mis-understanding could lead to creative interaction, presupposing that there is an active and open listening.

The involved artists were Julia Eckhardt, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Mieke Lambrigts, Manfred Werder, Annette Krebs, Tim Parkinson, Olivier Toulemonde, Manu Holterbach, Aernoudt Jacobs and Anne Wellmer. Their contributions provide in their wide diversity a reflection of the experimental music field, which seems to be very much in flux at the beginning of this century. The book is released by label ‘compost and height’ and was presented in collaboration with STUK (Displaced Sounds) on 16th of May at q-o2, in presence of the involved artists.

Kansen voor het misverstand – Dorothea Franck (NL)

Interview with Tim Parkinson

Interview with Manfred Werder

Listen to CD