Tunings of the World 2.0

In his visionary book The Tunings of the World (1977), the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer discussed the character of soundscapes and the specific acoustic identity of environments. “Tunings of the World 2.0” revisits Schafer’s ideas and research and examines the locally shaped soundscapes in a globally networked world. What effect does standardisation in such a networked world have on acoustic environments? To what extent do local and historical soundscapes change over time or dissipate altogether?
The Berlin ensemble KNM has developed this extensive music project together with partners and artists from Korea, India and Taiwan. The main event is a three-day festival at Radialsystem V in Berlin, to which composers, musicians and sound artists from three continents have been invited. The project has also commissioned the artists Martin Hiendl, Carlos Itturalde, Fang-Yi Lin and Ana Maria Rodriguez to compose new works. The Taiwanese composer Fang-Yi Lin will focus intensively on the languages and sounds of her home country. She will be collaborating with the artist Wu, who has actively documented Taiwan’s visual and acoustic landscape for years. The composer Martin Hiendl is developing a new work for ensemble and electronic instrumentation titled “Field Recordings”. In contrast to what one might assume, the new composition will not feature recordings made in nature, but rather imagined, composed and re-enacted ones. Parts of the Berlin festival programme, joint concerts and presentations will be staged at the Jinju International Music Festival in Korea and later shown in India and Taiwan.

Artistic director: Thomas Bruns

Composers and musicians: Martin Hiendl, Carlos Iturralde, Bum Ki Kim, Anantha Krishnan, Fang-Yi Lin, Fangyi Liu, Dick Raaijmakers, Ana Maria Rodriguez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Fred Pommerehn and others

Venues and Dates

• Concert and workshop, Gyeongsang National University (Jinju International Music Festival, Korea): 1–8 Nov. 2019
• Radialsystem V, Berlin: tba
• performances, Goethe-Institut and others, Chennai: 10–18 Mar. 2020
• performances, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts - Weiwuying, Taipei: 9–18 Nov. 2020