A rhetorical question: Is it possible to construct an identity without memory?

A rhetorical remark: Memory is nothing but implanted sequences and narrations as vignettes.

- Basak Senova -

(K-RAA-K)3 PRESENTEERT: KIDNAPPING EUROPE Zaterdag 15 november, Recyclart, Brussel - 18h00

VOLKER ZANDER [calexico - ger] JAMES M THOMAS [hessen - usa] SOGAR [fr] GASTON [ger JULLANDER [ger] WIO [portables - b] PETER JAM LIP [ger] CHRISTINA CLAR [fr]

Kidnapping Europe is een zoektocht naar identiteit, migratie en nomadisme anno 2003. Geïnspireerd wor- den door een simpel beeld uit de Griekse mythologie, de mythe van de mooie vrouw Europa die ontvoerd werd door een fascinerende stier, kan helpen bij het begrijpen van de toestand van de nomade in en uit zijn thuisland, als inwoner en als vreemde, die zoekt naar identiteit en geheugen. Dit project werd ingezet met een tentoonstelling in Los Angeles. Peter Jam Lip en Christina Clar onder- vroegen daarvoor een maand lang migranten over hun dromen, wensen en ervaringen. Deze installatie wordt in Brussel in kleinere vorm herhaald. Dit wordt thans ook zeer sterk uitgebreid met een muzikaal luik, met enerzijds een compilatie-cd ge-titeld “Turning Dreams and Shifting Harbours” en anderzijds dit muziekfestival.

-> Calexico is nooit te beroerd geweest om zich te mengen in het migratiedebat. Hun hoezen en teksten staan bol van de verwijzingen naar (grens)conflicten. Volker Zander is bassist van Calexico en zal voor ons hun cd deelname vertolken.

-> Hessen was verantwoordelijk voor één van de meest indrukwekkende singles van de jongste jaren. James M. Thomas is de belangrijkste persoon achter dit project.

-> Sogar is voor ons zonder enige twijfel de beste artiest op het hippe 12K label van Richard Chartier. Hij slaagt er om minimale electronica toch warm en aangenaam te doen klinken.

-> Gaston is een vierkoppige groep die prachtige instrumentale post-rock maakt in de lijn van Tortoise, Fridge, Mice Parade ...

-> Jullander is een oude bekende voor (K-RAA-K)3. Ze brachten zonet een nieuwe plaat uit op het eigen Beau Rivage label. Schitterende mensen en muziek!

-> Onze eigenste Wio maakte ook een bijdrage voor de compilatie. Eén van zijn zeldzame solo-optredens! www.kidnappingeurope.net CD COMPILATION Turning Dreams & Shifting Harbours

a musical contribution to the Kidnapping Europe project.

(K-RAA-K)3 040 | CD | Out 15 Nov 2003

The project The Kidnapping Europe project was initialized by the German artists Christina Clar and Peter Jap in 2001. Based on the “Europe Myth” (Zeus kidnapped the phoenician princess Europe and brought her to a continent which now has her name), the project aims to approach the topic of migration and the dreams, hopes and visions of migrants, in particular, from a contemporary perspective. In addition to their own work, which resulted in an installation that made its debut at this year’s Los Angeles International art show, Christina and Peter approached a number of people from other disciplines – e.g. film, graphic design, perfume making) and asked to put together a music compilation for the project.

The album When chosing whom to ask for a contribution, there never was a plan to pursue a certain musical style or to go only for big names – all musicians where selected because we felt that they would come up with interesting and excellent contributions. The musicians were provided with the necessary information about the project, but they were given complete freedom to approach the Kidnapping Europe topic in whichever way they liked. “Turning Dreams & Shifting Harbours”, then, is the heterogenous result of this process. Several musicians chose to work with instruments and production methods they had not used before or collaborated with partners with whom they had never written music together. This added to the overall diversity and resulted in a stylistic variety that goes from classical songwriting over many shades of electronic music (minimalistic, abstract and danceable) to rather open compositions and field recordings. To bring some elements of the Kidnapping Europe installation back to Europe and to celebrate the release of “Turning Dreams & Shifting Harbours”, a one-day festival has been organized by Beau Rivage & (K-RAA-K)3 in the European capital of Brussels for November 2003.

The contributors and some of their usual musical context JOCHEN BRIESEN (Berlin, Germany) – Semuin, Gaston, Taunus INGWIO D‘HESPEEL (Gent, Belgium) – Wio, De Portables JULES ETIENNE (France) – Jules Etienne DAVID GRUBBS (Chicago, USA) – David Grubbs, Bastro, Gastr del Sol JÜRGEN HECKEL (Paris, France) – Sogar, Ion+ PHILIPP JANZEN (Cologne, Germany) – Kleine Wohnen, Hessen, Urlaub in Polen, Von Spar ANDI KÜNNECKE (Hamburg, Germany) – Künnecke & Smukal, Unhold CHRISTOF KURZMANN (Vienna, Austria) – Christof Kurzmann, Orchester 33 1/3, Charizma Label CHRISTOPH LEIDIG (Göttingen, Germany) – Hessen, one third of Beau Rivage HOWARD MONK (London, UK) – Billy Mahonie ALEXANDER POLZIN (Hamburg, Germany) – Alexander Polzin JUKKA REVERBERI (Italy) – Giardini di Miro STEVE RODEN (USA) – Steve Roden ANDI SCHOON (Hamburg, Germany) – Jullander, Kanton DAVID SHEPPARD (London, UK) – State River Widening, Ellis Island Sound, The Wisdom of Harry CHRISTIAN SMUKAL (Hamburg, Germany) – Sport, Künnecke & Smukal, Mobiles Klangkommando LOZ SPEYER (London, UK) – Loz Speyer Quartet CHRISTOPHE STOLL (Hamburg, Germany) – Nitrada, 2-nd Records LUKE SUTHERLAND (London, UK) – Long Fin Killie, Bows JAN THOBEN (Berlin, Germany) – Gaston, Taunus, Kinn JAMES MERLE THOMAS (Pittsburgh, USA) – James Merle Thomas, Hessen VOLKER ZANDER (Kassel, Germany) – Calexico, Sommerweg Records BACKGROUND INFO The Alchemy of Memory through Formulas for Identity by BASAK SENOVA

It is impossible … to decode the cultural texture of Europe straight away or to estimate how the diversities of this texture have fused into the globe and in return absorbed the unknown treasures of other geographies. The inheritance of the cultural image for Europe is the amalgamation of Greco-Roman Antiquity, Old and New Testaments together with Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Anglo-Saxon, Turkish-Muslim (Ottoman) and Arabic- Muslim civilizations. This amalgamation presents a highly schizoid picture for any attempt for framing Europe in a homogeneous understanding. Today, together with the unstable dynamics of this picture, and along with the influences of the colonial inscriptions, “collective memory” has been shaped locally and temporally in the contemporary European cultural social and political landscape. It is mostly constructed by how the recent past is remembered in various geographies. With the influence of the ideological division of the East and West brought forth by Communist pasts, the social construction of collective memory in contemporary Europe during the Cold War and after the fall of Communism in 1989 constantly reveals new and widely divergent sequences and narrations in different geographies within the continent.

Then, here comes the migrations from/to/in Europe together with the impact and problems of increased global trade, communications on international and national governance, creation and distribution of wealth and information, cultural heterogeneity, and environmental awareness. Being more and more invisible as a “nomad” on such shifty grounds of the globe.

Being inspired by a simple imagery -like the myth of beautiful Europa who was keenly abducted by a fascinating bull- could help to understand the “state of being nomad” in and/or outside your homeland as an inhabitant and/or a stranger who seeks for identity and memory.

All of the big global cities have become temporary shelters for contemporary nomads.

Cities covered by techno-surrealist images, picturesque sights, hi-life regions, poverty-stricken districts, glamorous entertainment zones with cut and paste designs, hygienic and synthetic shopping centres, hi-tech buildings and superimposed historic references. Los Angeles, Berlin, London, New York, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Paris…The desire for living in one of these cities is as attractive as the bull, yet it needs the courage to mount upon his back…but nobody knows the rest… Europa was never found by the Phoenician relatives who sought her.

It is not surprising to detect searches for uniform identities, collective memories and even a desire to believe in meta-narratives. Now it is the physical and psychological traces that create memory. Not altered histories but only evidence and real life experiences articulate sequences and narrations as vignettes of memory. At that point, the complex relationship between memory and forgetfulness starts to operate.

“Kidnapping Europe” will re-write a collective memory once again. This time with different formulas as the outcomes of the project. The representational routing of the dialogues of the migrants in Los Angeles will complicate the fragments of the nomadic identity. The aural axis of this projection will manifest itself through a CD. The name “turning dreams and shifting harbours” already implies the drive of this projection: the mobility between spaces, experiences and lives, which give the hints for the cultural texture of the globe. It will not be Europe. It will not be the United States. It will be the picture of the current shifty ground generated by time and enforced mobility.

more (band)info/interviews: (K-RAA-K)3 vzw Scheldestraat 169, 9000 Gent, Belgium [email protected] / www.kraak.net - met steun van de vlaamse gemeenschap & recyclart