The Girl, the Turtle and the Earthquake (2014)

Author: Aurélie Lierman
Premiere: October 2014
Venue: Ecolandenfestival 2014, Oeverlanden, Amsterdam
Performers: Maya Felixbrodt (viola), Aurélie Lierman (electronics), Toshie Takeuchi (voice) original story: Lay Sion/ Reiko Ng
Genre: sonic land art

Program notes: The Girl, the Turtle and the Earthquake is Aurélie Lierman’s first work in her new series of many more compositions and installations for “Meanwhile, in Fukushima“. She created an abstracted interpretation of the story of Lay Sion (a 3/11 survivor from Fukushima). The speaking voice is embedded in an electronic maze. You even get the impression that the electronic maze is becoming the voice’s soil, and that from that sonic material it starts to sprout like an “ecology of the voice ” with an awareness for radio activity, without being destroyed or allowing to be destroyed. There’s voice, even there, even now …

The version presented here is the electronic tape version. In a live concert situation there’s also a violist playing along and reacting to the electronic soundtrack. Aurélie Lierman has conceived the composition as a piece of land art. So ideally the performance is not on the radio, not in a concert hall, … but in full nature at night next to a big water mass so that the composition can intertwine with the sound of natural elements such as wind, water and other accidental environmental events.

Technical specifications: 14 min, 4.2 surround speaker set up, viola (amplified)