#080 In darkness let me dwell

Awarded Radio Play of the Month, December 2016

"22. Juli. Nachts einen Orca-Angriff im Wedellmeer gehört. Seeleoparden, Krabbenfresserrobbe und die absteigenden 'Chirps' der Wedellrobbe. Plötzlich von fern das leise, hohe Klicken mehrerer Orcas, die mit Echoortung jagen. Irgendwann peilt ein Orca eines unserer Mikrophone an. Hellwach."

We find ourselves in Antarctica. Four underwater microphones from the Alfred Wegener Institute record the underwater world of the Weddell Sea around the clock. Not far from the PALAOA observatory, Sir Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition failed one hundred years ago. He wanted to cross the Antarctic continent on a sledge. His ship "Endurance" was destroyed by pack ice before he could even land. In winter 2016, the research vessel Polarstern set out for Antarctica once again.

Based on these underwater recordings, Duo Merzouga combines the fiction of a modern expedition and Shackleton's story with an electro-acoustic composition. At the transition of water, ice and air, the genre boundaries dissolve. Radio play and sound art, history and present, science and contemporary music touch each other. And listeners dive into the unheard soundworld hidden in the deep darkness beneath the ice.

Live performance from the Chamber Music Hall for the Cologne Congress 2017.

Composition & direction: Merzouga

Live performance with:

• Christian Brückner and Ulrike Schwab
• Vocals: Tobias Christl
• Drums: Lucas Niggli
• Electric bass: Janko Hanushevsky
• Electronics: Eva Pöpplein
• Video installation: Luis Negrón van Grieken
• Editing: Sabine Küchler

Production: DLF/HR 2016

Supported by: Filmstiftung NRW and the AG Ozeanische Akustik of the Alfred Wegener Institute.