SONIC AGENCY – MIA ZABELKA – “Noise, Listen & Be”

Noise – My music is an outcry, a PROTEST against the current state of our planet. We have to be loud now. Those who remain silent agree. In the face of the climate crisis, exploitation of people, animals and the environment, species extinction, wars, femicides, oppression, abuse of power, distribution and other injustices, resurgent fascism, anti-Semitism, islamophobia, and other horrors, we are called upon to take a stand. And to create counter-worlds wherever possible, however small they may be. Art is an inspiration, a testing ground and a pioneer.

Listen – Finding solidarity again by listening to each other. We only have each other. Solidarity is the realization that the exploited, the condemned of this earth have only one way to assert their rights: by forming majorities.

Be – I want to be radically myself in my art (and in my life in general). No compromises, no pandering, no prettifying. And at the same time cheerfulness, tenderness and a bit of craziness. Always with people, never against them.

“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everyone’s right to beautiful, radiant things.” Emma Goldman”

(Mia Zabelka)

Austrian violinist, vocalist, sound artist and composer Mia Zabelka is at the forefront of international electro-acoustic performance art. She developed her unique musical language in a process she calls “automatic playing”, where the music grows out of her physical movement and finds its expression in her electric violin with electronic devices, alien objects, vocals, and/or the acoustic violin. Using this set-up, she expands her sound range so extensively that the violin itself becomes an interface, an electronic sound generator.
In her music, Mia Zabelka engages with the acoustic interaction between her body and the surrounding environment, with a special focus on the “sonic gesture”. The sonic gesture has to do with how sound moves and how it moves the body at the same time – the embodiment of sound, an intuitive body-sound-machine. Mia Zabelka’s sound art explores this interface and its expression of how communication between humans and autonomous machines can happen; the coexistence of humans and machines in hybrid environments is reflected in sound. Mia Zabelka is particularly interested in the interdisciplinarity between music and science and her work has been described as “scientific music”. It is music beyond melodies, harmonies and rhythm. Scientific music is concerned with making automatic, mechanical processes audible. It is noise, movement, automation, division, symbiosis, dissonance and resonance: an endless adventure of discovery.