at Volkspark Schönholzheide

solo Seiji Morimoto (polythylene band,whitsle)

duo Seijiro Murayama (voice, percussion)

Axel Dörner(trumpet)

Review on a picnic concert

Thanks to the beautiful weather that truly signaled the arrival of spring, we held a picnic concert at a public park in Pankow, about 20 minutes from the center of Berlin. Personally, this was the second time I had organized a concert at this location. Compared to the previous occasion—when we used a battery-powered setup with a small amp and mixer—this time the event was more purely acoustic in nature. The environment, however, felt busier and more sonically distracting, as many people were already out enjoying the park. As an opener, Seiji Morimoto captured the audience’s attention with a performance that involved walking across the space while controlling a long strip of tape fluttering in the wind. The tape—resembling something one might easily find in a stationery store—produced a dry, almost industrial sound. Each gust of wind blended its artificial tones with the rich acoustic ambiance of the surrounding woods and newly grown grass. Visually, the performance began in a plain grassy area and gradually transformed into a striking spectacle, as an approximately 60-meter-long strip extended across the space. This unfolding scene prepared our attention for what would follow sonically. The resulting blend of sounds revealed the heterogeneity of the synthetic material, turning it into a medium through which the audience could experience a broadened perceptual field. While the object itself could have remained a static installation, Morimoto’s performative engagement with it—treating the process of installation as if it were an instrument—brought it to life as something dynamic and transformative. In doing so, the work embodied a contemporary performative mode within posthumanist sound art. As an opening act, it offered a compelling invitation to those whose auditory awareness may have been dulled by urban life, encouraging a renewed sensitivity to sound. The highlight of the event was a performance by a duo of virtuoso improvisers. While Seijiro appeared more frustrated than usual—understandably, given the imperfect conditions and surrounding distractions—the structure of their music resisted passive continuity and conventional musical expectations. Their use of silence, and its reflective potential, added an existential depth to the experience, coexisting with the surrounding acoustic environment: birdsong from blackbirds and crows, as well as the sound of Morimoto’s tape moving in the wind. It became clear to me that, although the performance was entirely improvised, there was a strong underlying sense of intention. Just before beginning, they asked the audience to relocate about 30 meters away from the originally planned spot, in order to better focus on their performance. Each sonic event occupied its own distinct temporal space. Through their experience and technique, they offered something akin to a phenomenological reduction— suspending one’s preconceptions and knowledge, and return to how one is purely experiencing something. For those who attended, the concert was deeply rewarding and well worth the journey to the outskirts.

for all black and white picture by Orange Ear Frank