Soundwalk Collective is the sonic art platform and studio led by artist and founder Stephan Crasneanscki and myself (Simone Merli) in capacity of producer and collaborator. We met in NYC sometime in 2008 and that’s when I joined Stephan’s studio. The first project I took part in was a 3-month sailing journey in the Mediterranean Sea following the route of Ulysses in the Odyssey, recording hertzian frequencies, radio interceptions and fragments of sound over the sea waves, along all countries around the Mediterranean basin. This was a commission from a foundation that is operating in the protection of the oceans, and was later shown as a sound installation part of documenta14 and the Manifesta biennale in Palermo. Following this incredible project, we continued to explore geographies and vastly unexplored territories to record sound following specific narratives, and our work progressively expanded from pure field recording practice to interdisciplinary exhibitions and installations.
Sound archives also fascinate us. Stephan had a long relationship with the archives of Jean-Luc Godard and we had the chance to recompose them to create What We Leave Behind, a project that was presented for the first time at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, and later at The Long Now festival in Kraftwerk. We essentially had access to all the unused reel-to-reel tapes of Godard’s film sets, the recordings reveal the moments before and after the camera rolls, stage directions and on-set rehearsals, false starts and outtakes.
Fast forwarding through time - we scored Sasha Waltz’s Kreatur, Exodos and Women; resonated the architectural structure of Berghain; composed a commissioned sound piece for the permanent collection of Louvre Abu Dhabi, among other projects.
Our latest exhibition Evidence was shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris over the past 6 months - it was based on a 5-year collaboration with Patti Smith following the release of three records together on Bella Union (The Peyote Dance, Mummer Love, Peradam), that were inspired by the physical and mental journeys of Antonin Artaud in the Sierra Tarahumara, Arthur Rimbaud in Abyssinia, and René Daumal’s ascent of a utopic mountain that materialised for us in the Nanda Devi. It was always part of our working practice to venture into untapped sonic territories, discover the poetics behind them, and explore how we (as humans) relate to them.
Voice has always been a central element in our work, from both an experimental and narrative perspective, and over the years we established collaborations with incredible artists and voices (Patti Smith, Nan Goldin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and more recently Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt, Paul B. Preciado, to name a few).
In terms of how we operate, Stephan always had a whole sound research and production team in place. There are often constellations of artists and experts from different practices who take part in our projects. The Collective is a breathing organism, continuously reshaping itself and its discipline around experimental sound and contemporary art.
More recently we became part of Analogue Foundation, an initiative promoting analogue culture, supporting local music communities and nourishing artistic collaborations. The soundtrack for All the Beauty and the Bloodshed was recorded at its high-end recording studio in Berlin, Brewery Studios, and is being released via the new Analogue Foundation imprint later this month.