Bridge of Air

Bridgeguard Residency 2016 1st July to 30th September Sturovo Slovakia Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

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Sunday 25th September                posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

This is the second and final part of the sound composition used for the Bridge of Air installation. They were all recorded in our temporary recording studio at the residency in Sturovo. All the singers were from the local area.

15. Rokko Juhasz  16. Kaszlola’nyi Margit  17. István Babindák  18. Dániel Szebellai  19. Molnár Krisztina  20. Martin and Dana  21. Bèla Pathó  22. Dana  23. Tóth Attila and Hajtman Korne’lia  24. Hajtman Korne’lia, Kaszlola’nyi Margit and Simon Regina  25. Bogdányi Kiara  26. Kaszlola’nyi Margit  27. Ivana  28. Josef  29. Tóth Attila and Hajtman Korne’lia  30. Martin and Dana

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Sunday 25th September                posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

This is the first part of the sound composition used for the Bridge of Air installation. They were all recorded in our temporary recording studio at the residency in Sturovo. All the singers were from the local area.

1. Szabó Anikó  2. Dániel Szebellai  3. Orsi Janszo  4. Martin and Dana  5. Kaszlola’nyi Margit 6. Tóth Attila  7. Martin  8. Bogdányi Kiara  9. Orsi Janszo  10. Hajtman Korne’lia, Kaszlola’nyi Margit and Simon Regina  11. Tóth Attila  12. Josef  13. Orsi Janszo  14. Martin and Dana

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Sunday 25th September                posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

This is a short video documentation of the final installation on the bridge. It depicts how people, traffic and the landscape interacted with the songs. We noticed that people clustered around each sound source whilst enjoying the view, as the songs floated off into the landscape.

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Sunday 25th September                posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

We got to the Maria Valeria bridge at 8am to set up the installation for 10 o'clock. We had 5 Minirig speakers which Tim wrapped in green bin bags for an extra bit of camouflage and to make them weather proof. To install them Tim lowered them down within 5 iron girders of the bridge so that they remained hidden from view, three on one side and two on the other. The bridge is 500 metres long, the speakers spanned a distance of 300 metres.

We created a unique sound composition for each speaker from the 27 songs we collected. We considered the order of the songs on the track list, and how the silences between them served to frame each song, as well as how all 5 sound compositions worked together, albeit at some distance from one another.

The pedestrians on the bridge appeared delighted and intrigued by the installation, many stopped to take video clips on their phone of them listening to the installation. Although the speakers were below the walkway many were looking up and around as well as down. Even the cyclists from the cycling event in Esztergom were smiling as they whizzed by.

We enjoyed hearing the songs against the sounds of the bells from the Basilica and the barges that passed under the bridge, as well as the visual landscape surrounding us.

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Wednesday 21st September         posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

This is the poster and flyer we used for our sound installation and supporting exhibition, it is in Slovak, Hungarian and English.

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Tuesday 20th September              posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

In the last few weeks leading up to the exhibition we had a sudden influx of singers who had seen the article about us in the local paper. These included Regina, Margit and Kornelia, they were in a singing group called the Star Flowers, in the 70’s. They also brought Regina’s grandson Attila who sang 3 songs. They came and sang a collection of Hungarian songs including duets, trios and solos. They didn't speak any english but Julius from the museum came and helped us with some of the translation.

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Friday 16th September                 posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

Karol invited us to give a talk about our project to past bridge guard participants. They had come from as far a field as Australia, America and Europe for a bridge guard reunion. They came to the residency where we gave a presentation. We also shared experiences of the bridge guard residency.

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Monday 5th September                 posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

We've been on 2 camping trips since we've been here a few miles east in the Hungarian hills in the middle of nowhere. While camping we have made a number of sound and film recordings of the forest. The first time we had a tent which we left behind under a rock for future camping trips. When we arrived back a few days ago it had gone and we decided we would sleep under the stars. But it wasn't easy to sleep as we could hear loud grunting sounds throughout the night close to our camp. Somebody suggested it might have been a hedgehog but there was really no way of mistaking the gruff and grumpy piggy sounds of wild boar.

This area around Dobogoko is a sacred place for Hungarian Shamans, who believe this is where the maximum number of ley lines intersect with each other on earth, and the name itself means 'the stone that beats like a heart'. This area has been visited by The Dalai Lhama on more than one occasion. We certainly found it peaceful and calming (apart from the wild boars).

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Wednesday 31st August               posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

We've just got back from Nove Zamky to see a collective live performance in the main square between 2 and 5 this afternoon and a further performance at the Riding Hall beginning at 7 o clock. This is all part of the TransArt Communication Festival 2016 which is spread across 3 countries and various venues. Rokko and his partner Nanxi's  project manage, curate and perform  for this ambitious event. We enjoyed how the individual performances interacted with each other and the public. The performances had a powerful, simple and light touch. We were really pleased to see something we could connect with; especially after experiencing the disappointing Berlin Bienn ale.

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Saturday 20th August                  posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

We celebrated St Stephens Day in Esztergom at St.Thomas's the summit of a mount that sits above the town overlooking the river, the bridge and the surrounding countryside. St Stephen was the first king of Hungary (c. 975-1038)

The Hegy Festival was held on the mount, it was run by Kata from Kaleidoscope the art centre in Esztergom  There was various art forms on show over the weekend, dance, rock music and art projections. Rika the young journalist who interviewed us for the local paper was also singing on Saturday evening with her band which we enjoyed!

On our way home there was a large gathering on the bridge as well as on each side of the Danube We waited around and eventually saw a magnificent firework display from the bridge.  

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Thursday 18th August                  posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

Wandering around Budapest, we came across a commemorative installation about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. There was a long gallery of photographs of people who had sacrificed their lives. There was one face that stood out for us, it was her expression of extraordinary defiance, a 24 year old woman called Havrila Belane Sticker Katalin. She had been an armed revolutionist and a member of the Corvin Lane armed group in Budapest. She was executed in 1959. Researching a little into her life we discovered that she had been born and brought up in Esztergom, across the bridge from Sturovo. We would like to reference her life somehow within our River Project sound composition.

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Thursday 18th August                  posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

We went to Budapest on the train to meet the performance artist Rokko and his partner Nanxi. Rokko was born and brought up in Sturovo. He generously sang a song for us, even though he was in the middle of curating an international LIve Art festival called Transart Communication, and was expecting to host 5 chinese artists the same day. They suggested we go to a group performance at Nove Zamky on the 31st August, a small city in Slovakia half an hour train journey from here.

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Wednesday 10th August                                            posted by Tim and Kate

Why did the blackbird cross the road?

This is the new image for the front of our card. We have taken these cards all over town, they outline our project, the Solarium and Wine shop were particularly friendly and knew other people that might be interested. Even though most people say that they don’t want to sing, it has given us the opportunity to meet people and let them know about the project and residency programme. We had a good exchange with a family on a bus yesterday.

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Sitting by the waters edge of the river Danube the sound has a roaring quality about it.

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Coincidentally the lapwing is a bird found along the Danube whose calls resemble the sound of a tuning of an old radio

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Thursday 4th August                Posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

We have started on a second project this week. We intend to create a sound composition focusing on the river Danube and drawing in elements from both towns. It will interweave various and diverse sounds that reference the theme of communication and connection.

 Jozef Murgas was a famous Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter and Roman Catholic priest who studied theology in Esztergom (he later emigrated to America). He was a pioneer of wireless telegraphy (early radio transmission) who created a musical tone system which rivaled Morse code in its ability to communicate data across the airwaves. A method by which varying tones express letters of the alphabet.

 As reported in The Saint Paul Globe (Minnesota), June 12, 1904

‘Musical notes substituted for dots and dashes in the patented invention of the Reverend Joseph Murgas, a Pennsylvania priest.

 Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do.

Real music is soon to be heard over the telegraph wires–or, rather, over the “wireless” wires. It will mean something more than a sentiment, too. For instance, a curious little tune will spell ruin to a cotton broker; another will carry a message of love to a waiting sweetheart from a fervent swain.

    Dots and dashes will have run their race if the system of telegraphy invented by a Catholic priest and patented at Washington on the 10th of May is only a fraction as successful as experts in telegraphy expect it to be.’

Coincidentally the lapwing is a bird found along the Danube whose calls resemble the sound of a tuning of an old radio.

Please see next two audio posts

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Midnight Sunday 24th July           posted by Timothy Crowley and Kate Ogley

Just when we were beginning to think that people were shy about singing here, we were sitting in the courtyard one night and heard singing floating across from a neighbouring garden some distance away. We decided to track it down and walked out into the night. We eventually located a house near the bridge, stood outside on the road and made this recording. They were still singing the next day and we took round one of our cards and knocked loudly on the door but no one came, so we slipped a card under the gate with a note on and left them to it.

We don’t know if the singing is Hungarian or Slovak. Does anyone know?