Tag Archives: DLF Kultur

News, Sound Art Radio

Der Tapir im Birkenwald: Deutschlandradio Kultur, 26.8. 10:05 pm

Self-made Life – The Tapir in the Birch Forest

A homage to the Finnish video artist Erkki Pirtola who died in 2016.
In between the years 2001 and 2016 I had the chance to accompany him on some of his travels through Finland. Erkki died very suddenly and way too early. I still remember, how I stood on a train platform in Hamburg when my phone sounded and I read the sad news saying I was invited for his funeral. And that’s how this half-way crazy documentary radio feature starts…

Itse tehty elämä” is the Finnish name for DIY art and means “self-made life”. “Outsider Art” is just one of the many designations applied to art that exists outside of the art market, and which is created by people who are often themselves outsiders: existentialists, hermits, rebels and the non-marketable. Outsider Art is closely connected to Folk Art and Art Brut. With rare exceptions, this kind of art is seldom presented by official institutions. One reason for this lies in their sheer immovability: converted houses, gardens and sculptures are anchored in their settings. Another lies in their fragile and transitory nature: many art works are of organic origin and will disintegrate over time, others are non-recurring performances or simply one-offs.

Selbst gemachtes Leben: Der Tapir im Birkenwald
Von Gabi Schaffner
Regie: die Autorin
Produktion: Tina Klopp
Deutschlandfunk 2016 –> Wdh. am 26.08.2025, 22.05 Uhr Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Volkskunst, Wahnsinn oder Methode?  Der finnische Videodokumentarist Erkki Pirtola stand für eine Kunstrichtung, die in den Tiefen der finnischen Wälder und Tundren ein einzigartiges Dasein fristet.

Again, my thanks ring out to Sampsa Pirtola and Felix Schroeder, the ITE office in Helsinki, to “feelings dealer” Tixa and all involved.
With the original voices of: Erkki Pirtola, Otso Kantokorpi, Rajala Kauppinen, Tixa.

Last but not least: If you look for ITE art now in the media, you can find numerous sites about the theme; you can find ITE even advertised as a sightseeing “must”. When this radio feature was created, ITE art was still totally inofficial.

FYI:

Oops… yes, I lost the sound files for this edition… but still keep the written archives.

22 Questions on ITE Art.
DE/EN 2007

Itse Tehty Elämä/Self-made Life. Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. Galerie Station (with Erkki Pirtola). Curated by Annette Gloser. Frankfurt/Main

Sound Art Radio

KukkaShopOverdrive, 25.06.21 DLF

Location Podcasts
Zusammengestellt von EBU Ars Acustica Group
Mit Beiträgen von verschiedenen Autor*innen
Moderation: Golo Föllmer
Produktion: EBU Ars Acustica Group 2021
Länge: 54’30A

Pleased to become part of the Location Podcasts, broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur, June 25, 0:05 h.

Admittedly this is a hare and not a hen, and there is also no busy nighttime street pictured…
So, the binaural Kukkashop Overdrive is very different from whatever you might expect. That is probably good.

News, Recents, Sound Art Radio

Duftgesänge

Pleased to announce that the German version of my 2019 “10 (S)Cent Poems” has been accepted for production by deutschlandfunk Kultur (German National Radio). Such, a new “Wurfsendung” is coming up. Curated by Julia Tieke.

Duftgesänge
Poems, recording & composition: Gabi Schaffner
Voice: Hans Kellett
Will we manage before the blooming season ends? Ms Schaffner hopes so!

Lavendel Lavendel Lavendel

Ein Duft steigt auf und rundet sich
schwebt in der Luft und weitet sich
wie ein Ballon…
So breit und weit
Wie der nächtliche Garten
Von einem Winkel
Zum anderen.

Oh würziges Amor-Aroma!
Du weckst die Damen aus der Ohnmacht
Du schöpfst den Trost ins müde Herz
Du bringst den Schlaf
Vertreibst die Pest.
Du wirst geliebt
Vom Hummelvolk
Und den Bienen.

Lavendel Lavendel

Du wehst davon in Wellen
Lavendel-Ballon
Du wehst davon in Welten
Verschwenderisch veränderlich

Ich atme
aromatisches Szenario,
veränderlich verschwenderisch…


Sound Art Radio

Anagrams For Work Places

The compositions explore the several terms taken from the vocabulary of work environments. From “soft skills” to “expense factors”, from “manpower resources” to “motivation coaches”, I always had the eerie feeling that the anagramatic potential of these weird terms holds a different world of meanings. The melodies for this were computer generated via the P22 letter-to-note music generator, the voices are synthetic as well. Selected field recordings complement the tracks. Ten pieces with a duration of less than 45 seconds. Commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Part of the “Wurfsendungen”, online and on air from the 8th of October 2018.

Anagrammatische Landschaften zur Arbeitswelt

Image: Stamped anagrams on paper, ca. 2002. The single words translate into: work station mushroom sensor fissile time snitch mutation heel reptile lightning apart exploding meringue stable trapeze parabel sits

Sound Art Radio

Fazzoletto per un’ eternitá

Handkerchief For An Eternity. New Pandemic Music and the Life of Mauricia/o “Farfalle” Pucci.
The compositions explore the musicality of sneezes within the field of New Music. Parallel to the introduction of “pandemic music” an imaginary biography of the composer was developed. Commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Ars Acustica Group 2017.

Quite a different “walk on the wild side” offers this documentary about the Italian new music composer Mauricio Pucci. Born in 1890 as a girl in a Tuscan village, she ran away and decided to take on the identity of a man. Fate sees her falling in love with New York composer Charles Griffe who later died of influenza. Back in Naples, Pucci founded the world’s first „Sneeze orchestra“ but found a comparatively early end in 1926.

The only surviving set of (longer) compositions, titled „Fazzoletto per un’eternita“ was broadcast with in the frame of an Ars Acustica Project on EBU Concert Season Anniversary in November 2017.

A set of (very much shorter) pieces is available as part of deutschlandfunk’s „Wurfsendungen“ under the title „Sneeze Fantasies“.

„Sneeze Fantasies“ and „Fazzoletto per un’eternita“ form both part of a new biography and music project by Gabi Schaffner aka Sisukas Poronainen.

Sound Art Radio

HIdden Places

Narrated landscapes in Iceland and Australia
Commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur 2016. Composition and text.
Phonurgia Nova Fieldrecording Award 2016: Honorable Mention.

Hidden Places is a cluster of 18 compositions centered on the idea of “wilderness” descriptions from Iceland and Australia.

The concept of landscape is manmade, and it is predominantly Western culture that defines our notion of nature. As a free form poetic quest Hidden Places examines the ways how this is done and it does so by asking people for their stories.

Sound Art Radio

Selbstgemachtes Leben

Der Tapir im Birkenwald. DLF Kultur.
Production: Tina Klopp.
“Selfmade Life”, that’s how the Finnish term “ITE” – Itse Tehti Elämä – translates. Erkki Pirtola who died in January 2016, was obsessed with his life-long project to document on the self-taught artists populating the remote corners of Finland. He produced thousands of video tapes. I was told that a person working daily on Pirtola’s archive would need up to 4 years just to catalogue the material.

Erkki died at the age of 65 – and very suddenly. This feature is my homage to this extraordinary artist and friend. Music: FX Schroeder et al.