Listen on Sunday 2 and 9 June, 21 July and 4 August 2019, 2pm – 9pm at the soundgallery ohrenhoch–der Geräuschladen, Weichselstr. 49, 12045 Berlin to: 

Acoustic Empire. A comment on Brexit. Composed and produced  by Sylvia Necker for the soundgallery ohrenhoch–der Geräuschladen, Summer 2019

On 23 June, 2016, the British held a referendum on whether leave or remain in the European Union. Ever since, the country has been deeply riven and no one knows how to resolve the tensions between the two camps. While the ‚remainers’ still are hoping for a second referendum, ‚brexiteers‘ envision a new British empire. For the sound piece ‚Acoustic Empire‘ the German sound artist Sylvia Necker will set up sound routes along the trade routes of the British Empire. She will tie them in with contemporary debates, which she picked up in newspapers, radio programmes, and conversations with neighbours and colleagues in Nottingham. By merging these contemporary voices with the history of the British Empire, Necker acoustically comments on the Brexit process – a process that involves all of us either as British or as European citizens.

Neckers’ sound piece consists of two parts that emblematise two colonial trade routes of the British empire: Liverpool-Lagos and London-Dehli. The distance between the cities will equal the duration of the respective part: It’s 7,216 kilometres from Delhi to London and 5,261 kilometres from Liverpool to Lagos. So the two pieces will have a duration of 7:22 min and 5:26 min. The exhibition space of the sound gallery ‚ohrenhoch‘ will not only resonate political debates on Brexit but also sounds and music of the former colonies of Great Britain, to which Necker will add her own sound snippets played on electric guitar and synthesizers. At times the two sound routes – Liverpool-Lagos and London-Delhi – will intersect and produce an overlay, which becomes a metaphor for the various protagonists of the Brexit process, who are willing to drown out each other’s opinions.