International
artists address
the transformation
of the
Emscher Valley

<< 2008

four productions

little wounds need plasters too

Departure opens up a wound. The wounds ripped open by industry leaving the Ruhr are immense. What remains is huge empty spaces that have to be filled: with water. The acoustic journey takes us to the great lakes of the Ruhr, to places where the present comes to terms with the past.
Composition, music playback, direction, production:

Gilles Aubry | Karl-Heinz Blomann

Voices:
 Herr Marks, Rudi Zacharek, Christina Ufer, junk dealer in Dortmund-Hörde et al.

Original lenght: 20:50 min // Audio sample:

Ebel´s child

In interviews and sound collages, Karl-Heinz Blomann and Gilles Aubry hold up a mirror to the people of the Ruhr. Life in Bottrop-Ebel, standing for the region as a whole, impressively raises the question of individual and collective identity in the face of renaturation and structural change.
Composition, music playback, direction, production:
 Gilles Aubry | Karl-Heinz Blomann

Voices:
 Thomas Schwarzer, neighbourhood manager for the districts of Bottrop-Lehmkuhle/Ebel/Welheimer Mark

Participants in memory training for senior citizens at the Ebel community centre
Sascha Mauer, youth coach of VfR Bottrop Ebel 1946 e.V.

Sabrina Hilgert (music director) and Uwe Giesenar (chairman), Spielmannszug Blau-Weiß Oberhausen 1957 e.V. et al.


Using audio clips from the film, “Die vierte Generation” (The fourth generation),
 Germany 1980, directed by Christoph Hübner and Theo Janssen
with kind permission by Christoph Hübner
Original
lenght: 20:45 min // Audio sample:

Water treatment

A trio for saxophone, percussion and waste water treatment. Sounds flow and sparkle like rushing water. Jazz club reminiscences emerge, only to deposit the listeners again in the musical here and now of the pumps, turbines and fans. With the lightness of dance, the piece guides us through various sound spaces, movements of a suite.
Composition, music playback, direction, production:
 Karl-Heinz Blomann | Thomas Gerwin

Original lenght: 21:08 min // Audio sample:

Pumping station

The pumps run, incessantly, evenly, day and night. A current of mechanical whirring forms a static sound continuum on whose surface musical artefacts suddenly appear: the sounds of a saxophone. Minimal changes condense into structures and moulded episodes.
Composition, music playback, direction, production:
 Karl-Heinz Blomann | Thomas Gerwin

Vocals:
 Theo Bleckmann

Original lenght: 20:08 min // Audio sample: