sogno/suono describes a downward spiral, a corridor into ever-expanding silence. the violin as an extension of the body, its sound as an extension of the voice. its interplay based on lyrical fragments and sensory phenomena. acoustic illusions between violin and voice play with the listener’s perception and open the ears to the borderland between sound and silence.
sogno/suono is a 75-minute concert program for violin, preparations, voice, and electronics that moves at the intersection of contemporary classical music, experimental music, and free improvisation. Delicately shimmering soundscapes bordering on inaudibility and acoustic deception invite listeners to sharpen their senses to the maximum and enter a state of concentrated sensitivity.
In addition to her own compositions and improvisations, the program consists of compositions written for Ronja Sophie Putz by composer friends (Jacopo Salvatori: 201Q, Tom Smith: Ulalume). Both pieces are based on literary inspirations: 201Q is inspired by Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84, in which two parallel realities collide and merge. Tom Smith’s Ulalume is based on the ballad of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe, with which he processed the loss of his wife. The eponymous composition suono sogno by Argentine-Uruguayan composer Graciela Paraskevaidis arose from her deep need for silence and truthfulness and creates a space for the listener’s imagination between voice and violin – relentlessly calm and seemingly timeless.
The violin is tuned differently for each of the pieces. Each new tuning gives the instrument a different tone color—the corridor darkens. Improvisations woven between the pieces serve as a connecting element, leading from the sound world of the previous composition to the next, taking unpredictable, sometimes surreal paths. A violin prepared with screws and vibrators comments on the program’s inexorable downward spiral, partly with absurd humor, partly with bloodcurdling intensity.
