Splendid Isolation?

A note before you begin: Due to the electroacoustic sounds, we recommend using headphones.

"Splendid Isolation?" consists of a personal and a statistical level. First, in April 2020, four members of the ensemble aisthesis described in short cell phone videos how they were experiencing the lockdown – which we now know was only the first one. Individual sentences from these videos, analyzed for intonation and rhythm, form the basis of four vocal solos. These were rehearsed at home by members of the Schola Heidelberg and also recorded on cell phones.

The second layer consists of statistics on the COVID-19 pandemic, retrieved from ourworldindata.org, as well as the trends of key economic indices. Set to music using a four-part analog modular system, they bring the contemporary historical context of the spoken texts into sharp focus.

Contributors:

Jörg Deutschewitz
Matthias Horn
Barbara Ostertag
Kirstin Maria Pientka
J. Marc Reichow
Svea Schildknecht
Nikolaus Schlierf
Peter Sigl

Concept, Composition, and Editing:

Ekkehard Windrich

Vocal Texts:

Peter Sigl: Working from home sucks. While I’m cooking, I’m thinking about the work I haven’t finished yet, and while I’m working, I’m thinking about what to cook for dinner.

J. Marc Reichow: Hiking in the woods again – Eastern Bavaria or the Bohemian Forest – soft paths beneath pine trees. I want to – or am supposed to – arrange patches of forest as if they were large pieces of moss. But I don’t know who it’s for. I’m also looking for that empty roadside diner from back then; Pilsner was very cheap there.

Nikolaus Schlierf: Outside, spring is calling out; nature is bursting forth. The world is at a standstill – shut down – slowing down.

Kirstin Maria Pientka: It wasn’t that hard not to eat, and it was a fulfilling moment to have days when nothing mattered, when I didn’t really have to think about anything, didn’t have to do anything, and was allowed to just be with myself.