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MANJA RISTIĆ

Awakenings

OUT APRIL 28, 2023

Awakenings is the first album on LINE by violinist, sound artist, poet, curator, and researcher, Manja Ristić. Her work incorporates extensive field recordings, acoustic instruments, and unexpected found objects. RIYL: Chris Watson, Félicia Atkinson, Norman W. Long, Simon Whetham and Tomoko Hojo & Rahel Kraft.

awakenings are my ears underwater. 
awakenings are sand, pebbles, and rocks pushed by the waves in constant motion. 
awakenings emerge from the dissipating whirls. 
awakenings are language so mellifluous it out-voices the sizzling currents. 
awakenings listen to the space through other spaces. 
awakenings are reversed feedbacks of coiled thoughts. 
awakenings are worlds of ruthless and bewitched nature. 
awakenings are endless topographies surrounded by a body of water in constant motion. 
awakenings are where you will find me, talking to the sniffing rocks, growling waves, sleeping vineyard crickets, and plucking trapped air from broken and abandoned instruments. 
awakenings are infinity squeezed between atoms. 
awakenings are the mind’s nocturnal quirks. 
awakenings are silent intrusions into the landscape. 
the spherical geometry of the awakenings moves awkwardly, like a transparent velum woven of thin and uneven fabric, coating the fidelity of the bluff recollections. 
awakenings are the legacy of withstanding. 

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Catalog:
LINE_138
Format:
digital
Edition:
open edition
Release:
April 2023
Tracklist:

1. soft shell (03:05)
2. on the outskirts of time (03:50)
3. dissipating whirls (05:12)
4. within the cave, dreams (04:14)
5. I’m plucking trapped air (07:41)
6. thin and uneven (04:50)
7. in bluff recollections (04:50)
8. coiled thoughts (02:40)

recording locations: Korčula town, abandoned ex-Yugoslav military compound on the island of Korčula, ancient quarry on the island of Vrnik, the village of Račišće, Lumbarda ancient aquatorium, sound pollution of the water traffic in the Pelješac-peninsula channel, Ražnjić lighthouse; a musical playground in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. instruments used: JrF hydrophone & contact mic; violin, various abandoned pianos, toy synth found in the garbage, various objects.

all sounds recorded, edited, and composed by Manja Ristić
contributing artists on track 8: Mark Vernon, Ivana Grahovac
cover art: Manja Ristić / Richard Chartier
mastering: La Plant Studio, Belgrade

Manja Ristić, born in Belgrade in 1979, is a violinist, sound artist, published poet, curator, and researcher. She graduated from the Belgrade Academy of Music (2001), then awarded at the Royal College of Music, London, with PGDip Solo/Ensemble Recitalist (2004). As a classical solo and chamber musician, as well as a composer and an improv musician She has performed all across Europe and in the US, involving collaborations with established conductors, performers, multimedia artists, poets, and theatre/film directors.

Ristić’s sound-related research besides contemporary performance in the field of instrumental electro–acoustics, is focused on interdisciplinary approaches to sound and field recording as well as experimental radio arts.

Ristić has created commissions for Kunstradio – Radiokunst, Radio Cona, Semi-Silent, Radiophrenia, Radio Art Zone, Radia.FM, Framework Radio, and all national broadcasting agencies across SE Europe. She co-curated sonoAdriatic Tales at Ars Electronica 2020 and in the last 20 years curated and developed a distinctive number of cultural events, international projects, cultural conferences, and educational platforms in the fields of inter-media, experimental sound-related arts, scene, and multimedia arts.

The winner of several distinctive awards for solo and chamber classical music, holds an honorable mention from the Phonurgia Nova awards, and a Golden Award for the extended media from the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia. She is a founding member of CENSE – Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies.

In the last decade, Ristić has published sound art independently as well as for labels and publishing bodies: mappa, Verdure Engraved, Cona Zavod, Naviar Records, Flag Day Recordings, Framework, Inexhaustible Editions, Elan Vital Recordings, SIRR-ECORDS, Sonospace, Cities & Memories, UIII / AIIR, 20 Seconds Art Magazine, AMPLIFY 2020, sonic matter, and more.

Works and lives on the island of Korčula, Croatia.

manjaristic.blogspot.com

REVIEWS OF
Awakenings

  • Similarly, in her release titled Awakenings, water becomes the main driver behind a series of compositions made of field-recordings from her home-base in Korčula, Croatia, including, as we read in the press release,  abandoned ex-Yugoslav military compound on the island of Korčula, ancient quarry on the island of Vrnik, the village of Račišće, Lumbarda ancient aquatorium, sound pollution of the water traffic in the Pelješac-peninsula channel, Ražnjić lighthouse; a musical playground in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. Water is a form of awakening the natural against deterioration and negligence, and the dissipating whirlsof water pollution, but also Ristić’s own way of withstanding the passage of time in place, of making her own personal imprint on the topographies she engages with.
    —acloserlisten.com

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    Ethereal drones, eerie piano notes, mysterious noises and soft rippling ambience drifts solemnly through the air over placid waters in a strange desolate landscape. The atmosphere is tranquil and calm, but also somber and tense. The lonely motions of the water allow for quiet contemplation, child-like wonder and deep introspective thought…yet there’s a darkness gurgling away, just below the surface of all things…

    Manja Ristić is a Serbian violinist, sound art, field recordist, poet, curator and researcher. A sick talent and an incredible artist. ‘Awakenings’ is an album of beautiful sound poetry and haunted ambience, made using hydrophone & contact microphones (in various different locations around the Balkans), violin, abandoned pianos, a toy synth found in the garbage and an array of found objects.

    The eight compositions that comprise this album are dreamy, serene, melancholic and strangely playful…with a vast array of underwater recordings taking up the foreground of the mix. You will hear water trickling and gurgling over aqueous rocks, gently rippling and swaying, rushing rapidly through narrow channels, whirling and swirling through drains, sloshing and reverberating through caves, and sometimes crashing violently against everything its path.

    The music that Ristić has layered over these field recordings is minimalistic and subtle, evocative and atmospheric. Mournful organ-like ambience, tingling bells, glistening chimes, sparse piano notes and an array of percussive object sounds dance and ricochet about in quiet freedom and slow sullen beauty…

    ‘Awakenings’ is a beautiful, poignant and haunted sound journey. The mournful tones, mysterious watery textures and plaintive soundscapes that Ristić has created in this album are wonderfully immersive and emotionally engulfing. This is exquisite sound art, and a delicious aural treat. Great stuff.
    —fogsongs.blogspot.com