The Murder of Crows, 2008
Duration: 30 minutes
Note: The Murder of Crows and The Marionette Maker will play in sequence.
This large installation, The Murder of Crows, explores how sound can be sculptural as well as trying to create a film experience that has no film. Ninety-eight audio speakers are mounted around the space on stands, chairs and the wall creating a minimalist flocking of speakers as if dark crows were above you.
The structure of the piece tries to mirror that of the illogical but connected juxtapositions that we experience in the dream world. One soundscape moves into another with sound effects shifting from factory noises, crashing waves or birds wings and then to an electric guitar and orchestra composition then to a choir sequence and marching band.
The title for the installation is The Murder of Crows, which simply means a flock of crows. The origin of the term comes from the birds long association with death; crows being a carrion bird, they are often on the scene when coprses and offal are about.
Another central theme for the piece is Goya’s chilling etching, Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters from the series Los Caprichos. In this particular one Goya shows a man asleep, his head resting on his folded arms. Owls and bats fly menacingly around his head. The horn in the centre on the small table, mimicking Goya’s figure, has Cardiff’s voice telling a series of troubled dreams, recorded by her bedside while living in Kathmandu. Like Goya’s dreamer, she is helpless to escape from her apocalyptic dreams.
Notable exhibitions for this artwork: The Park Avenue Armory, New York City; The Hamburger Bahnhoff, Berlin; Matadero, Madrid; The Biennale of Sydney; MARCO, Monterrey, Mexico; INHOTIM, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; Vandalorum, Sweden.
Credits:
Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev for the 16th Biennale of Sydney.
The installation was made possible with the generous support of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (now in Madrid), Freunde Guter Musik Berlin e.V., The Canada Council, and Bowers & Wilkins Speakers.
Compositions:
Lightness and Weight by Freida Abtan
Traditional Tibetan Prayer Performed by the Nuns from Thrangu Tara Abbey, Kathmandu, Nepal
Bad Foot March by Tilman Ritter, Orion Miller, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
The Sacred War: composed by Aleksandr Aleksandrov, words: Vasily Lebedev-Kumach
Murder of Crows Aria: music: Tilman Ritter, words: J. Cardiff and G.B. Miller
Dread by Tilman Ritter
Crows Did Fly (Kathmandu Lullaby) by George Bures Miller
All orchestral arrangements by Tilman Ritter, performed by Deutsches Film Orchester Babelsberg, conducted by Günter Joseck
Choir conducted by Viktor Skriptchenko (“Sacred War”) and Tilman Ritter (“Aria”)
Guitars: Orion Miller, Jeff Person, Titus Maderlechner
Bass: Orissa Miller
Drums: Titus Maderlechner
Piano: Tilman Ritter
Additional orchestration: Thomas Stöwer
Singers: Michael Mueller, Sophia Brickwell, Ana Pinto, Anna Retczak, Alexander Steinbrecher, Urmas Pevgonen, Sergej Prjahin, Sergej Shafranovich, Valerij Pysarenko, Dmitri Plotnikov, Nikolaj Pavlenko, Andrej Malynk
Recording, mixing and sound design: Titus Maderlechner
Installation Supervisor: Carlo Crovato
Speaker stand construction: Mick Harms
Excerpt below from The Sounds of Murder, Allison Meier August 14, 2012, Hyperallergic.
“The whole experience is roughly 30 minutes long, pulling listeners into a convincing theatre of sound that had me inadvertantly looking up at the sensations of wings or storms, even though there was nothing there but speakers hanging in the dark. While sound is obviously the substance of the installation, the visual of the circles of chairs and speakers waiting in the gaping space is powerful. Each listen through “Murder of Crows” can be slightly different based on where you choose to sit or stand, and the experience at the crowded opening was even more uncanny, where with the large group hiding many of the floor speakers made it sound like some of the singing voices could be coming from fellow audience members.
Dreams are always most powerful when they’re being experienced in the entrapment of sleep, and so “Murder of Crows” is the strongest when you are fully consumed in its world, its haunting power fading as soon as the gentle ending lullaby sung by Cardiff pulls you away from the disturbing dreams. However, while you are in it, “Murder of Crows” is really an entrancing experience, and like waking too soon from sleep it is easy to let yourself fade into another cycle as it restarts every 30 minutes during its Armory run. And like coming across a strange congregation of crows, there will be something of its disjointed images of horror that will flutter after you from the Park Avenue Armory.”
cardiff miller art warehouse 