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A soft hiss of this world | Tim Ingold<\/a> & Carmen Pardo<\/a> & Mikel R. Nieto<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n INFO<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The research project \u201cA soft hiss of this world\u201d is focused on the loss in many aspects such as the loss of language as a result of the Anthropocene through the absence of certain states and processes that occur naturally in the environment like different states of water, snow and ice. In Finnish there are more than forty terms* to refer to them and because of the loss of these states in the landscape, the loss is also displaced to the language, in this case, the Finnish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This research project took these words as a starting point to make hundreds of hours of recordings in the Finnish landscape. The sound of snow, ice and snowflakes are the reference and the sound material of this research project. And to obtain these sounds, as well as the possible sound differences between each snowflake, special and specific microphones were developed for this very specific and fragile recording process.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is it possible to record the impossible or what does not exist? There are three types of impossibility in each recording: the recording of a sound event due to its absence, its extinction or the impossibility of recording itself. The condition of possibility for the absence is the presence itself.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is known that in the Arctic, people can see and hear things that are impossible in other places on the planet. These phenomena are caused by special atmospheric conditions and some people in these latitudes have described some sounds that happened at great distances or sounds of extreme delicateness. How much of the landscape resides in our listening?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 1985 Joseph Scrimger wanted to calculate the noise generated by rain, hail and snow underwater (Nature 318, 647). Scrimger found an unexpected constant sound during snowfall, but failed to identify its origin. Years later, Lawrence Crum of the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) when listening to these recordings suggested that in this constant sound there were a lot of micro-sounds that corresponded to the tapping of the individual flakes on the surface of the water.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n * Notes: These are some of the words in Finnish used to refer to the different states of water, snow and ice: sataa, lunta, lumi, pyry, myr\u00e4kk\u00e4, rae, r\u00e4nt\u00e4, loska, tuisku, hyhm\u00e4, sohjo, ahtoj\u00e4\u00e4, kide, lumikide, j\u00e4\u00e4kide, kohva, paanne, paannej\u00e4\u00e4, railo, tykky, tykkylumi, iljanne, kaljama, hanki, huurre, h\u00e4rm\u00e4, kuura, kinos, lumikinos, nietos, nuoska, viti, vitilumi, polanne, avanto, jotos, rannio, latu, nirskua, narskua\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE BOOK<\/strong> <\/p>\n This book contains texts by three authors: Tim Ingold<\/strong>, Carmen Pardo<\/strong> and Mikel R. Nieto<\/strong>, on the research carried out by Nieto in Finland during 2016. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The text by Tim Ingold<\/em> opens the book and introduces the reader to the main subjects of the research: language, landscape, sound and listening. This text is easy to read and aims to immerse us in the Finnish landscape and in the listening act to its sounds and silences.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Carmen Pardo<\/em>\u2018s text unfolds first, the way in which the gaze and listening of the snow constitute the experience of a disappearance, of a concentration in the void or nothingness of which A Soft Hiss of this World participates. Secondly, and in dialogue with Roland Barthes, the kind of listening involved in recording different states of snow is questioned. From that listening, the text proposes in the third place, the exercise of recording as an experience that implies a multiple temporality that reminds us that, in fact, it is always habited in a heterogeneity of times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The third text belongs to Mikel R. Nieto<\/em> and is divided into four parts:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first part<\/em> called \u201cThis is nothing\u201d contains Nieto\u2019s texts and thoughts about the most important points of the investigation, such as silence, listening, landscape, language, disappearance and absence, archive, hyperojects and the anthropocene.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The second part<\/em> is a \u201cDiaries (2009 \u2013 2019)\u201d which brings together a selection of photographs and the most outstanding moments throughout the research in a brief direct and poetic format marking the corresponding places and dates.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The third part<\/em> is a code that reflects the loss of most of the sound recordings made during his research with more than 600 hours of recordings. This code is the only thing that could be recovered from all recordings, except the only sound recording published<\/a> in physical format as a transparent Flexi-disc.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Download document pdf \u2192 \u201cThe Complete Lost Recordings Archive<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The fourth part<\/em> is the result of silencing each and every word by John Cage in his \u201cLecture on Nothing,\u201d leaving only the punctuation marks, such as commas, periods, separators and the last sentence of the text of Cage. <\/p>\n All texts are in three languages and in this order: Basque, Spanish and English.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE RECORDING<\/strong> <\/p>\n The only recording recovered has being published physically as transparent flexi-disc. Every time it\u2019s played, the player needle wears away the vinyl and making the sound of the recording disappear. Therefore, each listening destroys the sound<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The flexi-disc has been published by Gruenrekorder in collaboration with \u042f Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: The distribution of the object is not assured by the usual channels. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photographic documentation of the project<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n ngg_shortcode_4_placeholder <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Biographical notes of the authors<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tim Ingold<\/em> is an Anthropologist and Professor of Social Anthropology. Some time ago Ingold spent two years in Lapland (Finland) and is very familiar with snow and the many different words in Finnish to refer to the different states of water, ice and snow. He is also familiar with the extraordinary silence of midwinter and how small sounds from miles away can pass through it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Carmen Pardo<\/em> is a Professor at the University of Girona, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the IRCAM-CNRS unit in Paris and her latest publication is \u201cEn el silencio de la cultura\u201d (In the silence of culture) (Published by Sexto Piso \/ French version by Eterotopia France)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mikel R. Nieto<\/em> is a sound artist and researcher. His work is based on field recordings and their possible meanings and uses in different contexts. His previous book \u201cDark Sound\u201d, printed in black on black, has been described as the black book of the sound landscape.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Support<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This publication has been possible thanks to the support of the Basque Government as part of its programme of grants forthe encouragement and development of plastic and visual arts, in the publications category (2019). <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This project was made possible with the support of Tabakalera<\/a>, Kone Foundation<\/a>, Etxepare<\/a>, the Spanish embassy<\/a> in Sweden and EMS Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm<\/a> (Sweden) (2016).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Translations: Illart Alkorta <\/p>\n 1 Track (06\u203200\u2033) <\/p>\n Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder <\/p>\n <\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A soft hiss of this world<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n textura<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n Issued as part of Gruenrekorder’s Field Recording Series in a 500-copy edition, A soft hiss of this world is, in its visual presentation, a logical sequel to the previous book project by sound artist Mikel R. Nieto: whereas Dark Sound challenged the reader by having its words appear black on black, the new book presents its texts by Nieto, Tim Ingold, and Carmen Pardo as white on white. Such a choice might seem perverse, but there is a reason for it, given that the research project has to do with the \u2018sound‘ of snow, which on the immediate experiential level seems non-existent, and relatedly silence. As with the previous book, the new one’s texts are presented in multiple languages, in this case Basque, Spanish, and English.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The genesis for the project was 600 hours of field recordings collected by Nieto in the Finnish landscape, recordings of snow, ice, and snowflakes made using microphones capable of capturing activity at a level below the threshold of human audibility. One particularly fascinating thing about the six minutes of material presented on the transparent flexi-disc is that every time it’s played the turntable needle wears away the vinyl such that, like the snowflake, each play brings the recording one step closer to extinction; in Nieto’s words, \u201ceach listening destroys the sound.\u201d The disc content sounds, in fact, like material decaying before one’s ears, the piece unfurling as a blistered, rippling stream of static, noise, and chatter. The impression created is of inaudible phenomena that through magnification reveals the presence of sound, the effect similar to a physical entity that appears static but at a microscopic view shows robust cellular activity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ingold, an anthropologist and Professor of Social Anthropology, and Pardo, a Professor at the University of Girona, make compelling contributions to the book. His \u201cSounds of Snow\u201d casts a phenomenological eye on snow by contrasting a snowflake’s sound with that of a raindrop, which makes a tiny plop when it strikes the surface of a lake and loses its form when it hits the ground. But as rain turns to snow, Ingold writes, \u201cthe landscape vanishes from hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pardo’s \u201cCrystals of Silence\u201d begins with an historical account of snow-related visual records, drawings, for example, having appeared in 1637 in Descartes‘ Discours de la M\u00e9thode and a Vermont farmer Wilson A. Bentley recognized for having taken in 1865 the first photo of a snowflake’s structure. Yet while the visual classification of the subject advanced, a grasp of its aural character would prove less easy by comparison, especially when the snowy landscape appears to be silent (as Pardo notes, Kandinsky regarded white as both a \u201cnon-colour\u201d and a \u201cnon-sound\u201d). An appreciation for Nieto’s project follows for his attempt to capture the snowflake’s sound and recognition of the subject’s imminent disappearance, what she characterizes as a \u201cparadoxical search for the appearance and the disappearance at the same time. [Nieto’s work] intends to put on record the different sounds of the snow, while at the same time showing that all recording is already a registration of the disappearance of that having been recorded.\u201d His flexi-disc is ostensibly, therefore, \u201cevidence of a disappearance.\u201d She then explores issues of temporality, silence, and nothingness before introducing ideas from an article by Roland Barthes and Roland Havas about different modes of listening and considering Nieto’s recording in light of them. At essay’s end, a final move sees Pardo referencing the famous scene in Welles’s Citizen Kane where the snow globe, itself containing snow falling over a house, falls to the ground and shatters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nieto’s own text contribution, \u201cThis is Nothing,\u201d is in four parts: the first a collection of thoughts on silence, listening, landscape, language, and more; the second a diary-like account that includes photographs; the third code representing \u201cthe only thing that could be recovered from all recordings\u201d; and the fourth a treatment of John Cage’s \u201cLecture on Nothing\u201d that alters the text by omitting everything but punctuation marks and its closing sentence. Pithy quotes by Nietzsche, Eliot, Lyotard, and Wittgenstein also appear, as does reference to Heidegger’s Dasein. <\/p>\n Richard Allen | a closer listen<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n Again, those who purchase the bundle will need to deal with some necessary frustration. The type is best read on an angle in direct light (sunlight being better than artificial light in this instance). The Flexi-disc ~ which fortunately does not need to be cut from any mooring ~ is the only sonic document, serving as a parable of abrasion. As the label writes, \u201ceach listening destroys the sound\u201d (italics included). In short, don\u2019t look for it on Spotify or iTunes. Once upon a time, this was the way we listened to music, and there\u2019s an invisible reward to such tactile interaction, along with a certain sadness: this is fragile, this is temporary, this is already changing as a result of my touch. Nieto underlines the point in a visual experiment, portraying first the code of lost files and then John Cage\u2019s \u201cLecture on Nothing,\u201d erasing all but the punctuation and final sentence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before we reach that point, a series of essays prepares for the experience of sound. Tim Ingold contributes \u201cSounds of Snow,\u201d a thought exercise that emphasizes the properties of precipitation, accumulation, and deterioration (the life cycle of Frosty the Snowman). The wind becomes a supporting character, along with the ice, decorated with dirt and bubbles of air. From here, Ingold branches into the sound of interacting, which for humans is mostly walking on snow (though the author neglects to mention shoveling!). And then there is a beautiful section on the Finnish language\u2019s 40+ words that refer to water, snow and ice. Carmen Pardo Salgado follows this with \u201cCrystals of Silence,\u201d expanding from the photography of Snowflake Bentley to the paintings of Kandinsly to Debussy\u2019s \u201cThe Snow Is Dancing\u201d to Walter Benjamin\u2019s prose and eventually to Citizen Kane, focusing on \u201ca new silence,\u201d once described by Wallace Stevens as \u201cthe nothing that is.\u201d Selgado\u2019s final section contains a light language barrier, as the North American reader soon realizes that \u201csnow ball\u201d means \u201csnow globe\u201d and not the thing we throw at the heads of people we love. And then Nieto leads us to the recording through \u201cThis is nothing,\u201d a lovely extended poem that meditates on snow and scale, sound and silence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And now, the moment you\u2019ve all been waiting for: what does the recording sound like? A soft hiss of this world is not as soft as the title implies, but it\u2019s fascinating. The timbres include squeaks and squeals that are akin to the yanking of a photograph needle, and below that a light static and pop (or is that the needle? It\u2019s impossible to tell). The overall impression is of paratrooper flakes landing on an ice field in a moderate wind, which is something like one might expect given the photo on the right. The twist is that when one thinks of snow, one thinks of sight rather than sound, and the only way to catch this sound is through amplification. This is less Christmas card snow than glacial melt. The \u201cnothing that is\u201d may one day be the nothing that isn\u2019t, melting away like the static below the needle as it reaches the end, producing something that sounds like what we would imagine snow to be, although ironically it\u2019s the only part that isn\u2019t snow at all. <\/p>\n \u0141ukasz Kom\u0142a | Nowamuzyka.pl<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n Tegoroczne wydawnictwo A soft hiss of this world jest owocem wsp\u00f3\u0142pracy Nieto, Tima Ingolda (brytyjski antropolog spo\u0142eczny specjalizuj\u0105cy si\u0119 m.in. w badaniu lud\u00f3w fi\u0144skich) i Carmen Parado (badaczka z tytu\u0142em profesora na Uniwersytecie w Gironie, zajmuj\u0105ca si\u0119 muzyk\u0105 wsp\u00f3\u0142czesn\u0105).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Czy zastanawiali\u015bcie si\u0119 nad tym, jakie odg\u0142osy wydaj\u0105 \u015bnieg \/ p\u0142atki \u015bniegu i l\u00f3d? Je\u015bli tak, to ten projekt z pewno\u015bci\u0105 was zainteresuje. Nieto zrealizowa\u0142 takowe nagrania w Finlandii w 2016 roku, a do tego celu opracowa\u0142 specjalne mikrofony umo\u017cliwiaj\u0105ce rejestrowanie delikatnych odg\u0142os\u00f3w, by m\u00f3c odr\u00f3\u017cni\u0107 d\u017awi\u0119ki mi\u0119dzy poszczeg\u00f3lnymi p\u0142atkami \u015bniegu. Pytanie: czy mo\u017cna nagra\u0107 co\u015b tak nieosi\u0105galnego lub wr\u0119cz nieistniej\u0105cego? Nieto dowodzi, \u017ce tak. Cho\u0107 tego typu badania by\u0142y prowadzone ju\u017c w 1985 roku przez Josepha Scrimgera, kt\u00f3ry znalaz\u0142 nieoczekiwany sta\u0142y d\u017awi\u0119k wybrzmiewaj\u0105cy w trakcie opad\u00f3w \u015bniegu, ale nie uda\u0142o mu si\u0119 zidentyfikowa\u0107 jego \u017ar\u00f3d\u0142a. Dopiero wiele lat p\u00f3\u017aniej Lawrence Crum z Uniwersytetu Waszyngtonu s\u0142uchaj\u0105c tych nagra\u0144, zasugerowa\u0142, \u017ce w tym sta\u0142ym d\u017awi\u0119ku by\u0142o du\u017co mikro-d\u017awi\u0119k\u00f3w, kt\u00f3re odpowiada\u0142y uderzeniom poszczeg\u00f3lnych p\u0142atk\u00f3w o powierzchni\u0119 wody.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Niestety Nieto straci\u0142 ponad 600 godzin nagra\u0144, uda\u0142o si\u0119 uratowa\u0107 tylko jedno, kt\u00f3re trafi\u0142o na oryginalny no\u015bnik, czyli przezroczysty Flexi-Disc. Mo\u017cna go naby\u0107 za darmo przy zakupie ksi\u0105\u017cki A soft hiss of this world, za\u015b ka\u017cdy ods\u0142uch tego fragmentu sprawia, \u017ce no\u015bnik powoli niszczeje.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u0141atwo mo\u017cna wywnioskowa\u0107, i\u017c arty\u015bci koncentruj\u0105 si\u0119 na takich procesach jak \u201eutrata\u201d czy \u201eznikanie\u201d. Ich przes\u0142anie mo\u017cna odczytywa\u0107 w kontek\u015bcie utraconych nagra\u0144 czy zanikaj\u0105cych form j\u0119zykowych. W j\u0119zyku fi\u0144skim istnieje ponad czterdzie\u015bci termin\u00f3w dotycz\u0105cych r\u00f3\u017cnych stan\u00f3w wody, \u015bniegu i lodu. Wraz ze zmieniaj\u0105cym si\u0119 krajobrazem zanikaj\u0105 s\u0142owa. W podobnym antura\u017cu jest utrzymana sama tre\u015b\u0107 ksi\u0105\u017cki A soft hiss of this world \u2013 jak i Dark Sound \u2013 teksty s\u0105 ledwie widoczne, wi\u0119c lepiej je czyta\u0107 w \u015bwietle dziennym. Teksty zosta\u0142y przygotowane w trzech j\u0119zykach: baskijskim, hiszpa\u0144skim i angielskim. Ostatni rozdzia\u0142 powsta\u0142 z inspiracji \u201eWyk\u0142adem o niczym\u201d (1959 r.) Johna Cage\u2019a, w zwi\u0105zku z tym znalaz\u0142y si\u0119 tu jedynie znaki interpunkcyjne: przecinki, kropki, separatory i ostatnie zdanie z tekstu Cage\u2019a.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zach\u0119cam do si\u0119gni\u0119cia po to niecodzienne wydawnictwo i po zawarte w nim teksty Tima Ingolda, Carmen Pardo i Mikela R. Nieto. <\/p>\n Rigobert Dittmann | Bad Alchemy Magazin<\/a> (104)<\/strong> <\/p>\n Frans de Waard | VITAL WEEKLY<\/a><\/strong> A soft hiss of this world | Tim Ingold & Carmen Pardo & Mikel R. Nieto Gruen 191 | Book & Flexi-disc > [order] Bundle: A soft hiss of this world + Dark Sound > [order] Flexi-disc > [order] Reviews INFO The research project \u201cA soft hiss of this world\u201d is focused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17859","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17859"}],"version-history":[{"count":82,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18101,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17859\/revisions\/18101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGruen 191 | Book & Flexi-disc > [order<\/a>]
\nBundle: A soft hiss of this world + Dark Sound<\/a> > [order<\/a>]
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\nReviews<\/a>
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\nThis underground record item is not for sale. Please, ask us if we still have some copies and we will send you one for free with any purchase.<\/p>\n
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\nDesign: Sonia Ciriza<\/a>
\nPrinted in: Leitzara\u0301n Grafikak, S.L.<\/a>
\nAnti-copyright. Except \u00a9 from the authors.<\/p>\n
\nBook & Flexi-disc (500 copies)<\/p>\n
\nGermany \/ 2019 \/ Gruen 191 \/ LC 09488 \/ EAN 194491017088
\nISBN 978-84-09-12861-7 \/ Legal Deposit: SS \u2013 733 \u2013 2019<\/p>\n
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\nGruenrekorder upholds its reputation for unusual catalogue items with its latest releases, the more conventional of the two a vinyl set by Seoul-based piano-and-drum duo 11min (the album’s actually issued by Weather Music with vinyl distribution handled by Gruenrekorder) and the other, a book-and-flexi-disc research project titled A soft hiss of this world, more characteristic of the label’s experimental-leaning output. […]<\/p>\n
\nWhile Nieto’s and Gruenrekorder’s commitment to presenting the project with integrity warrants admiration, some small degree of concession might have been made in the book’s colour design. Considering that presumably only the most determined reader will have the patience to read its contents in its published form, one wonders whether a more readable light grey type would have been the more pragmatic choice. Though the text can be read with relative ease under certain lighting conditions, little would have been lost in making a slight adjustment to the type colour. It’s a fascinating and provocative project, regardless.
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\nFour years ago, Mikel R. Nieto released Dark Sound, a black book with black type and a black CD that served as a meditation on noise. A soft hiss of this world is the yin to its yang, a white book with white type and a clear Flexi-disc that addresses silence, sound and snow. The two form a fascinating diptych. Dark Sound is the more political, an indictment of the intrusion of noise from profit barons and non-indigenous people; in this stark context, silence implies silencing. Yet while A soft hiss of this world is less overt, its societal implications range from the censorship of speech to the extinguishing of languages. Just as snow can muffle or amplify, and the color white can mean all colors or none, the winter landscape ~ and in this case, soundscape ~ is transformed into a tabula rasa.<\/p>\n
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\nW 2016 roku opisywa\u0142em na Nowej Muzyce poprzedni\u0105 pozycj\u0119 ksi\u0105\u017ckow\u0105 autorstwa Mikela R. Nieto pt. Dark Sound. Hiszpa\u0144ski artysta d\u017awi\u0119kowy przybli\u017ca\u0142 tam wiele interesuj\u0105cych zagadnie\u0144 zwi\u0105zanych z ha\u0142asem, cisz\u0105 i s\u0142uchaniem. Do ksi\u0105\u017cki by\u0142a do\u0142\u0105czona p\u0142yta wype\u0142niona nagraniami terenowymi pochodz\u0105cymi z las\u00f3w tropikalnych po\u0142o\u017conych we wschodniej cz\u0119\u015bci Ekwadoru.<\/p>\n
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\n[…] 11s Cover f\u00fcr „snow“ ist wie ein Einzelbild aus MIKEL R. NIETOs Videoessay „Citizen Kane“. \u00dcber Schnee im Stummfilm (Alice Guys ‚L’Hiver, danse de la neige‘) und bei Debussy (‚La neige danse‘). \u00dcber Schnee als Borrom\u00e4ischer Knoten aus Naturph\u00e4nomen, Erinnerung & Tod, zwischen kristallisierter H2O-Physik, Johannes Keplers \u201eNeujahrsgabe oder \u00dcber den sechseckigen Schnee\u201c (1611), Ernst Haeckels \u201eKristallseelen\u201c (1917), Conrad Aikens \u201eSilent Snow, Secret Snow\u201c (1934), Yoko Onos ‚Listen, the snow is falling‘ (1969). Mit Andr\u00e9 Bazins ‚Il neige sur le cin\u00e9ma‘ (1948) als Spur hin zur Schneekugel von „Citizen Kane“. Schnee bricht den Schlafzauber der Wicked Witch of the West, DiCaprio bricht mit seinem „The Revenant“-Oscar eine Lanze f\u00fcr mehr Schnee, und das Geheimnis von ‚Rosebud‘ quillt als schwarzer Rauch wie aus einem Auschwitz-Krematorium. Schwarz wie „Dark Sound“ (2016), das schwarz auf schwarz gedruckte \u00f6kopolitische Statement des baskischen Bioakustikers & Konzeptk\u00fcnstlers gegen die \u00d6lindustrie. Dem er nun A soft hiss of this world (Gruen 191, Buch & Flexidisc) an die Seite stellt. Wei\u00df auf wei\u00df gedruckt gibt es zu entziffern: ‚Sounds of Snow‘ von Tim Ingold, Professor f\u00fcr Anthropologie, ‚Crystals of Silence‘ von Carmen Pardo, die Musikgeschichte an der Universitat de Girona lehrt, und ‚This is Nothing‘ von Nieto, in ihren Muttersprachen Englisch, Spanisch und Baskisch. Drei Meditationen \u00fcber den Schwund von Schnee und wie dieses Schwinden immer lauter dr\u00f6hnt. Dar\u00fcber, wie Schnee klingt, wie Wei\u00df klingt – so laut wie Gedanken? Was es verschweigt oder verr\u00e4t, bei Kandinsky, Malewitsch, Debussy, Mallarm\u00e9, Maurice Blanchot und Roland Barthes. Als Sendbote des Nichts in Gestalt winziger Sterne, als lautloses Gest\u00f6ber von Lettern wie bei Walter Benjamin, als aus Schnee geballte Erinnerung. Nieto selber raunt und ich versuche zu \u00fcbersetzen, was er sagt, was er zu sagen versucht: Wir sind blind f\u00fcr das Nichts. Wir wissen nichts. Wir interagieren mit dem Unh\u00f6rbaren. Wir segeln auf einem Ozean bewohnter Stillen. Klang wiegt nichts. Er f\u00e4llt nicht. Er hat keine Form. Er existiert als solches nicht. Der einzige Klang der existiert, ist der, der wahrgenommen wird. Die Aufl\u00f6sung der Geschichte – hisstory – wird lautlos sein. Noch tr\u00e4gt das Gebot der Stille ein Versprechen in sich. Eine Spur. In Stille, Asche und im Schatten von Worten gr\u00fcndet Unsagbares. Die Natur der Sache, die sich verbirgt, Heraklits Wesen der Dinge, das sich versteckt. Nieto l\u00e4sst, wie ein zweiter Mattin, Schnee rumpeln, wei\u00df rauschen. Jedes Pfl\u00fcgen der Nadel nutzt etwas davon ab. Schon komisch, dass Schall und Geh\u00f6r nur auf der Erde existieren. Any Body Sounds. Silence Kills. Im gro\u00dfen Alles & Nichts explodieren selbst Supernovas nicht lauter als Schneeflocken.
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\n[…<\/a>] If I could do that all day, plus listening to music (without the obligation to write about it) and drink coffee (and hopefully still sleep well at night), then that would almost perfect; maybe watch one movie every evening. But a book that makes it difficult for the reader is not well spending on me. Mikel R. Nieto already published a hard to read a book (Vital Weekly 1037), called ‚Dark Sound‘. That book was all black letters on black paper and you would have to sit either in sunlight or a strong lamp. I tried and I failed. This new book is about silence and the sound of snowflakes. And snow being white, of course, means that we deal with a book of white paper and very light grey ink, and you need the same procedure of holding book against the light to read it. I have up after a few pages. I copied some info from the likewise difficult to read the website (warning: very long quote ahead; you may label this as laziness on my part). „This book contains texts by three authors: Tim Ingold, Carmen Pardo and Mikel R. Nieto, on the research carried out by Nieto in Finland during 2016. The text by Tim Ingold opens the book and introduces the reader to the main subjects of the research: language, landscape, sound and listening. This text is easy to read and aims to immerse us in the Finnish landscape and the listening act to its sounds and silences. Carmen Pardo\u2018s text unfolds first, how the gaze and listening of the snow constitute the experience of disappearance, of a concentration in the void or nothingness of which A Soft Hiss of this World participates. Secondly, and in dialogue with Roland Barthes, the kind of listening involved in recording different states of snow is questioned. From that listening, the text proposes in the third place, the exercise of recording as an experience that implies multiple temporalities that reminds us that it is always habited in heterogeneity of times. The third text belongs to Mikel R. Nieto and is divided into four parts: The first part called \u201cThis is nothing\u201d contains Nieto\u2019s texts and thoughts about the most important points of the investigation, such as silence, listening, landscape, language, disappearance and absence, archive, hyperojects and the Anthropocene. The second part is a \u201cDiaries (2009 \u2013 2019)\u201d which brings together a selection of photographs and the most outstanding moments throughout the research in a brief direct and poetic format marking the corresponding places and dates. The third part is a code that reflects the loss of most of the sound recordings made during his research with more than 600 hours of recordings. This code is the only thing that could be recovered from all recordings, except the only sound recording published in physical format as a transparent Flexi-disc. The fourth part is the result of silencing every word by John Cage in his \u201cLecture on Nothing,\u201d leaving only the punctuation marks, such as commas, periods, separators and the last sentence of the text of Cage.“ Did I just read the word Flexi disc? Yes, I did. There is indeed a Flexi disc with this book. Ever since I was kid and music magazines sometimes had a Flexi disc (Flexipop and the Dutch magazine Vinyl) I love Flexi discs. They are fragile and simply look great. Mikel R. Nieto recorded the sound of snow falling for this one-sided Flexi disc. I was trying very to remember if someone had done this before, and I am almost convinced someone had (John Hudak or Stephan Mathieu, I was thinking of), but I might be wrong. Hearing snowflakes is not easy, and I have no idea what kind of equipment Nieto has but it sounds a bit distorted, like a microphone being snowed in (no pun intended), but it sounded very nice. Even when I am not particularly fond of snow and ice myself, I always enjoy the way the environment sounds so different after the snow has fallen, like a blanket covering your ears; that is something I heard in this music as well. I trust this is not the review Nieto has hoped for, but alas, so it is.
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