Carsten Seiffarth Knihy

SOUND EXCHANGE embarks on a search for the roots and current state of experimental music culture in Central and Eastern Europe, which can boast a lively, internationally-linked scene of musicians, artists and festivals. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, however, local traditions and their protagonists have partially been consigned to oblivion. SOUND EXCHANGE wants to ensure that these traditions can once again be seen, and position them in the context of current developments within local music scenes. Between November 2011 and November 2012, SOUND EXCHANGE DAYS connected to local festivals in seven cities – Kraków, Bratislava, Tallinn, Vilnius, Budapest, Riga and Prague – took place with concerts, performances, workshops and a wandering exhibition on the experimental music scene in Central and Eastern Europe. Together with the co-curators on site, country-specific programmes were developed on topics such as electronic sound experiments, Dadaist happenings and New Wave, minimal music, Fluxus, experimental electroacoustic Music, graphic notations and real-time improvisation. All programmes are presented in a bilateral exchange and in cooperation with local music festivals. SOUND EXCHANGE FESTIVAL CHEMNITZ closed the project in November 2012, bringing together programme modules from the participating countries in a three-day festival.

The international exchange project «sonotopia – the sonic explorers» by «bonn hoeren» on behalf of the Beethoven Foundation for Art and Culture sent six young European sound artists on artistic expeditions to four cities on four continents on the occasion of the Beethoven anniversary year and the conclusion of «bonn hoeren». After residencies with two young local sound artists in each of the respective cities – Tehran, Dakar, and Valparaíso/Bonn – all of the twelve artists came together in Bonn. A final exhibition showed works created in Bonn, documented the working process and the individual works by the young artists, and reflected about the outcomes of the collaborations and the specifics of their local contexts. Materials, field recordings, sketches, traces, sound cartographies, ideas, artifacts, devices, and atmospheres: what and how did the young sound artists hear and what did they experience during their time together? What remains? This publication documents and reflects the process and the results of the residencies with text contributions of the participants and mentors, countless images, and interviews.