MARC BEHRENSAUDIOIMAGEINSTALLATIONOBJECTEVENTTEXT
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Texts
Some of Marc Behrens’ sound works or installations feature text or are accompanied by microstories, notes and insights into the creative motivations or a wider context of the works. Collaborative text works are listed here, as well as a number of interviews and articles on various music and art related topics.
2012
ATT IMM MUT TUM MMI TTA MUT ATT NARC IMM, A COMPOSITIONAL AND PERFORMATIVE PROCESS
What reads like a genetic sequence is a condensation of title fragments of various compositions or batches of sound recordings I used for live music performance between 2006 and 2011. The analogy to genetic sequences is intended and makes sense when looking at the processual development of the music for these live performances.
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An article on a cycle of compositions for live performance, IMMERSION, ATTIMMMUT, LE COMBINAZIONI, MUTATTNARCIMM. Written originally for opensound.eu.
2012
BUSHDESERTRAINFOREST AND CROWD, TWO COMPOSITIONS FOR RADIO
Bushdesertrainforest is a composition about “sonic niches” (Bernie Krause), analyzed in natural habitats in three different biomes with very different characteristics regarding the density of animal vocalizations…
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A presentation of two works of musique concrète that were composed for the German WDR radio (WDR 3 open: Studio Akustische Kunst, editor: Markus Heuger): BUSHDESERTRAINFOREST (2009) and CROWD (2012). A much shorter version of this text is included in: Sabine Breitsameter/Claudia Söller-Eckert (Eds.) «The Global Composition, Conference on Sound, Media, and the Environment 2012, Proceedings», ISBN 978-3-00-038817-0.
2012
IRREGULAR ENCOUNTERS
1988
While thinking the sentence “I got up, shaking the ants from my jacket, they were loudly crashing on the ground,” the writer noticed a man squatting under the arcades that lined the big roundabout.
A collection of micro stories complementary to the composition IRREGULAR CHARACTERS.
since 2011
CLOUD/COULD, a work in progress
An airborne descent into a city which is neither origin nor destination of this flight, not even situated on the traveller’s continent of origin. Six hours in an intermediate state, in hot tropical air. The chance of willfully disappearing in this foreign metropolis is there, by simply not returning to the airport, throwing passport and other documents away…
A multi-layered text complementary to the composition CLOUD/COULD. It contains a series of charts identifying supernatural beings imagined in various cultures and epochs juxtaposed with charts listing trivial passenger flights taken by the artist, a collection of micro stories connected to flying and flights, and a personal history of the work’s preconditions.
2010
TEXT TO BE NAMED: A CONVERSATION AS STORYTELLING, THROUGH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, by Ana Carvalho, Marc Behrens and Heitor Alvelos
The work methodology behind «Each Minute Draws Possibilities of Parallel Futures» / Transfamily—Collaboration—Networking / Literature / Fiction / Implant, Explant / Science Fiction / Narrative / Reports of Possible Involuntary Narratives / Future Projects
Published in «Calling All Futures», the book accompanying Futureplaces 2010.
futureplaces.org
2010
EACH MINUTE DRAWS POSSIBILITIES OF PARALLEL FUTURES, written in collaboration with Ana Carvalho
At last, with the end of motors, bidirectional wheels and roads, the Greeks have been surpassed. At the core of belief is now the individual — a self-aware, active agent within the social landscape…
A printed version will be published in: «Sonic Ideas/Ideas Sónicas, Volume 3, Number 1, Autumn 2010», Magazine (Mexican Center for Music and Sonic Arts, CMMAS)
sonicideas.org
An online version can be accessed through any of these addresses:
eachminute.marcbehrens.com
Acknowledgements: Narciso Melo, Miguel Carvalhais, Rajmil Fischman, Allon Kaye.
2009
A NARROW ANGLE texts
Where
Yes, I have a map. And I have it with me when I arrive at the intersection…
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Five micro stories from Taiwan, an island with three names, and after…
A NARROW ANGLE CD
2008
Interview
conducted by Zheng Hong
Published on the website of the Deutsch-Chinesisches Kulturnetz [German-Chinese Culture Network].
de-cn.net [deutsch/mandarin]
2007
Interview
conducted by Jørgen Larsson
Published on the Grieg07 website.
grieg07.com
2006
ARTISTS ACROSS BORDERS
Abstract
Künstler waren schon früh eine reisende Elite. Man denke an die mittelalterlichen Ikonenmaler, die von Stadt zu Stadt zogen, auf der Suche nach Aufträgen. Auch Albrecht Dürer hatte eine “Residency” (wie man heute sagen würde) in Italien wahrgenommen.

download pdf [deutsch]
Lecture held February 3, 2006 at the class «Transnationale Professionskulturen» conducted by Dr. Petra Ilyes, Institut für Kulturanthropologie und Europäische Ethnologie, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
2006
Interview
conducted by Mark McLaren
Featured in «Survey on location based media», interviews with six artists: Chris Watson, Yannick Dauby, Derek Holzer, Julian Weaver, Francisco López, Marc Behrens. Published on the Binaural website.
binauralmedia.org
2005
NOTES ON PSYCHOTOPOGRAPHY: INTEGRATED LISTENING AND SOUND LANDSCAPES
The idea of connecting topographic landscape and the topography of the human mind, and with it the internal representation of the former, goes back through the history of humans, to pre-literate times.
Published in FO A RM magazine, no. 4 (topography).
FO A RM magazine
Acknowledgements: Seth Nehil.

2003
ANIMISTIC texts
(1)
When I was younger I rather frequently experienced a phenomenon that connected my body and my perception of sound/silence…
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Text excerpts from CD booklet.
ANIMISTIC (FOR DONATELLA) CD
2001
ELAPSED TIME
Elapsed Time
is inspired by the book THE SECRET WAR, by Brian Johnson (British Broadcasting Corporation, 1978). The sounds and sequences used in the piece were recorded exactly fifty years after …
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Text from CD booklet.
ELAPSED TIME CD
1999
KEYHOLES texts
(1986)
I owned an electronic organ that I abandoned at the age of twelve after recurring skin allergies which completely absorbed my will to attend organ lessons in the summer. The next time I switched it on I was fourteen …
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From text panels inside the installation KEYHOLES and from the invitation card to its exhibition.
KEYHOLES installation
1996
ROGUE Nummer 33 «Natur & Moral»
Issue 33 of a German art and culture magazine, text and layout by Marc Behrens.
1995
ROGUE Nummer 30 «Der Klang der Dinge»
Issue 30 of a German art and culture magazine, layout and most texts by Marc Behrens and Christian Schröder.
1990
THE HOUSEWIFE texts
with Walter Hartmann
The Housewife
On the kitchen table a pink radio is blaring. Bang goes the pan. But the HOUSEWIFE does not turn her head nor the knob. Instead, the potentiometer of the radio has turned into a parameter …
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From booklet of cassette tape release (including plates and corrected version of layout).
THE HOUSEWIFE cassette tape
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