And everyone else is also groping in the dark

Еlectro-acoustic play about the muteness of language and the voice in the face of catastrophe.

The first part of the composition is constructed around an excerpt from an English translation of a poem by the Spanish poet, playwright, and anti-fascist Miguel Hernández in which there is a vague presentiment of the losses of a previous life.

What does the wind of bitterness want
that it comes down the gully
and forces the windows
while I dress you in my arms?

Katya re-records her own voice numerous times with the help of a looper, finally deconstructing the text to the point of zero semantic content. This process aims to hear what is between the lines, among the splinters and lacunae of language, which cannot express the experience of tragedy.

The second part of the composition was created together with the sound artist Yura Kuznetsov and is an original inversion of the first part—a nullification, careful listening to the search for that which cannot be expressed directly. The basis of this part was Shirshkova’s repeatedly resynthesized voice, which is transformed into a disturbing flow of sound. The movement of this flow is not fast and is nothing like a river. It is better compared to a cautious wandering in the dark or feeling one’s way.

Cover: Courtesy Zhanna Tatarova

Biography

Katya Shirshkova is a vocalist and composer of experimental music who works at the intersection of the academic avant-garde, sound art, and performance.

Yura Kuznetsov is a musician, media artist, and sound artist and the founder of the music label Cancelled Records.