In the arms of weirs

"The field recording and the satellite timelapse I chose speak of hydro-power, energy and discontinuity, they tell the story of a voice fragmented, amplified and impeded. There is magic and mystery in the life of these ancient water-beings. Is a river a portal? Is the myth still alive?"Artist and researcher Elizabeth Gallon Drosde introduces us to the submerged at the beginning of the composition. Rivers are story tellers, they are memory. If we deep listen, we might commune with ghosts and tune our bodies to their whispers, we might become a vibration."The sound of wind accompanying this first part and the end of the piece is played on violin by violinist Ida Di Vita (Quartetto Indaco). A long whistle, the primordial element of air swirling and hissing."Later on I join the flow and embody the river, its deep ancestral sound. My poem and my pitched voice in English are there to remind us of the history of this more-than-human being, its force and path, its hunger. "Mystery and magic, and the Lech rivers in reverse. I proceed in Italian overlapping my reversed voice. I get hungrier and hungrier and I go deeper and deeper, till pressure slows down, till noise recedes.Composition:original field recording by Riccardo Fumagalliwind sound by violinist Ida di Vita (Quartetto Indaco)intro poem 'In the interstices of river-portals' by Elizabeth Gallon DrosdeEnglish/Italian poem 'In the Arms of Weirs' by Ilaria BoffaSound effects, mixing and production by Ilaria BoffaPoem, In the Arms of Weirs'Deep-voiced white noiseprogression of pressure spinning of shhh, turmoil.It’s all you can feel in the fall. It’s good to be at serviceto move downwards and collectto come a long way acrossthe Pleistocene moraines the edge of Alps and gravel fieldsto accumulate in the arms of weirs.But I’ve seen algae disappearunder the law of no fish pass. I get hungrier and hungrierI go deeper and deeperas to search for the Styxas to swear by her water.Way less than a good mothermy spawning grounds in degradationmy current impeded, my voicebroken, a life to gauge.Flow continuity hiccups with drawn-out hisses and roarsit self-renders into a different languageit loosens and rivers in reverse.' Poem, Is a River a Portal?'Living between languages, between the here and therelearning to become fluvial,finding shores to breathe on,more than a beginning or an end.The portal, the waters, dams.To remember with water is to submerge in the threshold —this is how the river becomes a practice, a way of moving,a framework for transitionsin the interstices,Linking us to the collective,to the territories that lie beyond, deeper.Listening to the waters between the here and there,becomes a space for what resists being said,a gesture of attention,where meaning slips through,without words.Communing with the ghostsrivers always testify, are storytellersthis means tuning our bodies to their whispersa hum, a vibration, an interference.'Section of the river Lech reimagined by Ilaria Boffa. -------Flow is a creative exploration telling the story of a river through the power of sound. The project is a collaboration between the University of Padova and the University of Würzburg, with support from Cities and Memory. Explore the full project at https://citiesandmemory.com/flow.