Radio Tenthaus 53: #studiostatus – Walter Van Broekhuizen / Soundscape Røst – Elin Már Øyen Vister
15/06/2021 20:00 – 23:00
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Episode 53 of Radio Tenthaus opens with a new installment of #studiostatus composed by artist Walter Van Broekhuizen. We then present Soundscape Røst – Spaces And Species Vol I, the first album in the Soundscape Røst trilogy mixed as a 1 hour long continuous work for the occasion of this Tenthaus broadcast. The soundscapes on the album are from Elin Már ongoing long-term artistic research project Soundscape Røst.
The topic and contents of the album are as actual as ever. The bird mountain of Vedøya has since become silent. The Kittiwakes you hear on track number 3 are now gone. An ancient mountain has gone silent. How do we / local Røst people grieve the loss of a bird mountain? Does the mountain grieve? What about the Kittiwakes?
Kittiwakes are listed as chritically threathened on the Norwegian redlist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-legged_kittiwake
Read an article of what is happening to the seabirds here:
https://seapop.no/2021/06/sjofuglene-roper-varsko/
Soundscape Røst – Spaces And Species Vol II will be released in September on. Gruenrekorder/Leynar Recordings.
Each album is part of “Listening Lounge”. Soundscape Røst-The Listening Lounge (2012)was purchased by the national museum in 2020.
#studiostatus
#studiostatus is a recurring program initiated by Tenthaus in which artists report from their studios, providing a platform to introduce their work and current interests.
This week we hear an 8 minute recording from artist Walter Van Broekhuizen, whose piece describes the time of being in lockdown during this pandemic as well as a self chosen lockdown during a residency in 2016 on Rabbit Island in USA, relating the studio time at this moment to that period of solitude.
Walter van Broekhuizen (22-03-1968) studied at the Akademie Sint Joost in Breda (1987-1992) and attended the Rijksakademie (1997-1998) in Amsterdam, where he was a finalist of the Prix de Rome for Drawing in 1998. His work reflects the current human condition, often with regards to nature. He uses different mediums to remodel our perception of landscape, in miniature to life-sized works. Walter has worked as an artist in South Africa, Norway, France, Indonesia, Canada and the USA, and has exhibited internationally. His commissioned work can be seen throughout the Netherlands. He lives and works in Dordrecht (The Netherlands).
http://waltervanbroekhuizen.com/
Soundscape Røst – Spaces And Species Vol I
Artist Statement:
“I have spent the past two years collecting soundscapes in the fascinating and magical Røst archipelago in Northern Norway. I am carrying on this summer. I have done hours and hours of recordings, and for the first volume in the Soundscape Røst series, Im presenting my current favourites. I would like to remind you as a listener, that these field recordings are only documenting a brief moment in time. They are not meant to be a representation of the ”real”, even though some of them do sound quite a bit like soundscapes on Røst. As a sound recordist I have created hyper realities and made some artistic decisions along the way, that have shaped the content of what you listen to. I hope you take time to listen with a good pair of headphones in a dark, quiet place. However, what you do is your business after all! I hope the sounds will come alive inside you, and that you might be inspired to discover the origins of places like Røst yourselves.”
On Soundscape Røst
“I have been working on the self initiated project Soundscape Røst since August 2009. It begun as a response to the continuous decline in the seabird populations of the Røst archipelago in Nordland, northern Norway, as reported in media summer after summer by seabird specialist Tycho Anker-Nilssen (NINA). I decided to travel to the Røst archipelago myself, begin collecting sound and to document how the soundscapes are changing over time. Røst is home to the largest seabird colony in Norway, with more than 400000 pair of Puffins coming ashore every spring to breed on the rocky and grassy slopes and cliffs of the birdmountains. Norway is home to approximately one quarter of the Northern European seabird population, a huge responsibility when many of the species are on the Norwegian red list.
Røst is ocean, skyline, changing weather, wind, seabirds, birdlife, stockfish, dry fish, fishermen and women, fish factories and the local community. Røst is abundance of coastal history and tradition. I am fascinated by how the sound environment on Røst is, has been and will be. Can we trace a sound history on Røst? What did Røst sound like when the Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen drew his pictures here in the 1880s, before the fishing industry got industrialized? What did Røst sound like when it was breeding ground for the most numerous puffin population in the world, numbering around 1,5 million pairs in the late 70s? And what did it feel and sound like to row past Vedøy when 22000 pairs of Kittiwakes and 10000 or more pairs of Guillemots where breeding there? Today the Guillemot are more or less extinct on Vedøy. I am not the first artist to visit Røst and become enchanted. The fantastic Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen spent a few years on Skomvær lighthouse in the 1880s. His sister was married to the lighthouse guard. As a tribute to Kittelsen, I have used drawings from his Røst stay on the cover and on the back of the record. The authors Carl Dons and Carl Schøyen has also written extensively about Røst and it´s birdmountains and there are archive sound recordings made by Swiss biogist, Norwegian national radio and tv (NRK), and the list goes on.
While collecting sound and other material on Røst, I have understood that I have embarked upon the large task of documenting an important part of not just Norwegian, but worldwide coastal history. However I have no intention of stuffing this documentation in a museum. I would like for it to stay alive and to be like seeds in the fertile ground. I will carry on using the material as a library to create a variation of artworks. I hope to inspire people to keep coastal culture and tradition alive, and to spread knowledge about the serious state of our marine ecosystems and the seabirds and other creatures that inhabit them.”
http://www.soundscaperost.com/
http://www.soundscape-studios.no/english/company/robin.htm
Elin Már Øyen Vister is artist and forager with their base on Røst, South -Westernmost part of Lofoten (Norway/Sápmi). With a broad background in audio and music (as DJ and producer, and in-field recording and radio), they bring an interdisciplinary approach and experience of a multitude of practices to their expression.
Their ongoing long-term projects include Soundscape Røst and Deconstructing Norwegianness and the collaborative project Pluriversal Radio with Serbian artist Mirco Nicolic and the Swedish artist duo akcg.
Soundscape Røst will have a 10 year jubilee exhibition at Lydgalleriet in Bergen opening 4/9/2021. A second volume of Soundscape Røst will be released in September on Gruenrekorder/Leynar recordings.
Pluriversal Radio will produce a new episode for Radio Tenthaus on 27/07/2021, stay tuned!


