Nine-sum sorcery is an audio-visual piece that debuted at Berlin Atonal in August of 2019.
Composed in 3 chapters - The Wheel, Cyclone, Xerodrome - it draws inspiration from Reza Negarestani’s theory-fiction book titled, Cyclonopedia which imagines oil as a sentient being. The work presents itself as a lament, telling an allegory of global complicity with strange and dark forces, and engages with ‘oil’ as a ‘narrative lubricant’, ‘pipeline crawler’, and ‘hydrocarbon corpse juice’ that runs through the far-away past into the present, until it consumes the entire future. The object of desire defines the means of destruction, using capitalism, conflict, and human greed to free itself from the depths.
The visuals by Evelyn Bencicova and Enes Guc combine different approaches to the 3D-realm closely related to the concept of each chapter: 3D-modelled objects, drone scans, and point clouds representing the data-dust of the infinite desert - the Xerodrome. The sound of nine-sum sorcery unites the computer music of HATAM with Persian/Kurdish vocalist Hani Mojtahedy and percussionist Colin Hacklander in a bold synthesis of traditions and sculptural digital sound practices. The piece is completed with an original graphic illustration of specific occult imagery by Zeynep Schilling inspired by ‘Hydroglyph, or simply snake-writing,’ another reference to Cyclonopedia . Together they form Mi†ra.
Mithra is "truth-speaking, ... with thousand ears, ... with thousand eyes, high, with full knowledge, strong, sleepless, and ever awake." (Yasht 10.7)
selected presentation:
2019: Atonal main stage: Kraftwerk,Berlin
2020: Regeneration: De School, Amsterdam, curated by Josephine de Fijter
2021: Ancient Futures, Istanbul Archeology museum (left), Kunstlerhouse Bethanien, Berlin (right)
Studio Labour: EP release:
https://studio-labour.bandcamp.com/album/nine-sum-sorcery
made with Lay Theme