Leona Jones: apeiron (2024)

Leona Jones: apeiron, a sonic performance (2023) Leona Jones, composition/direction/field recordings/tamtam Audrey Chen, voice Volunteers from Stromness (Orkney), voice Verleihung des Karl-Sczuka-Preises für Hörspiel als Radiokunst 2025 durch den Intendanten des Südwestrundfunks Kai Gniffke «The origin of all things is the Boundless.» (Anaximander of Miletus, 610 – 546 BCE, fragment) Creation ebbs and flows, life begins and ends, an endless cycle of repetition. This soundscape is composed of things elemental but not always recognizable. Power is portrayed, relentless power, a rhythmic pulse conveying the cycle ongoing and growing – but not as a linear progression. Chance occurrences can mean interruptions, diversions and even complete stops. Eddies and backwash play their part. Philosophers, artists, people in general have always been fascinated by the Ocean, Earth's prototype of ebb and flow. Life on our Ocean-wrapped planet depends on water. Humans may have emerged from it, are definitely formed in it in utero, and certainly die very quickly without it. The Ocean maintains our atmosphere and climate, gives us food and other resources, and supports a huge biodiversity. We use it to play in and sit by, as well as experiencing its awesome power and potential for destruction. Sea beings and god/desses are rooted deep in mythologies throughout the world and through ages: Sirens, Nix, Leukothea, Poseidon, Kraken, Selkies, Gorgons and too many more to list. Artists throughout history have tried to capture the majesty of the Ocean in words, images, music. We cannot escape our primal responses to the sea. Two thousand six hundred years ago Thales of Miletus posited water as the beginning of everything. However, his contemporary, Anaximander of Miletus, disagreed saying «The origin of all things is the Boundless». The word Anaximander used for Boundless was «apeiron». apeiron pays homage to these deep links and our emotional responses. Active listening to our environments is essential to active living. Listening is influenced by cultural training; it’s political, never neutral, and creates meaning. Feminist composers like Pauline Oliveros understand listening as relational and always as a collective experience. Elemental sounds and timbres interlock in apeiron, forming abstract environments portraying power – relentless power – the primal pulsings of seamless successions with chance interruptions and mergings. The work acknowledges that life is movement and subject to constant flux, and portrays sensual, unchanging change. It dives deep into the shared essences of all things – letting go, or going with it... Three «protagonists» command the stage – Ocean (field recordings), Humanity (spoken voice recordings), and a powerful multifaceted primeval Entity (extended vocal technique performer). They solo, duet, morph, conflict and merge in their attempts to understand and claim their places in the Universe, provoking questions as to whether it’ll ever be possible for all three to co-exist in harmony. Donaueschinger Musiktage '25 #domt25 https://www.swr.de/donaueschinger-mus... Ausführliches Programmbuch der Donaueschinger Musiktage '25 https://cutt.ly/yr30m4tZ Official Composer Website https://www.leonajones.co.uk/ This video has a purpose of promotion, not for profit. If you have any complaints about copyright issues, please write me a direct message at dhdmlwls03(at)gmail(dot)com before submitting a report to YouTube. Then I will delete the video as soon as possible.