Risse – Butterland
deszpot #007
Limited edition of 200
The fissure (Riss) as a place between existence and decay, friction and presence, word and sound. In their first album Risse, the Stories&Sounds duo Butterland explore home and security as heterotopic desiderata: in-between places – never quite realised or for all, but never quite absent either.
For Risse, Regina Dürig and Christian Müller, who have been working together in the field of text and music for ten years, have changed their practice. Until now, a project usually began with joint research, on the basis of which the author Regina Dürig wrote the text, for which Christian Müller wrote a soundtrack or looked for live material at the end.
The project Risse, however, developed from frottages of cracked kitchen floor tiles that Regina Dürig made. Based on the traced lines, surfaces and division ratios, Christian Müller recorded five electronic compositions with analogue synthesizers and resampling processes. Regina Dürig used these pieces as a sonic template for her texts, which she wrote directly onto the sound. So in the end everything follows the same blueprint: randomness directed towards decay.
Strictly speaking, Risse is an EP – too short for an album, too long for a single – that reflects with emphasis and quiet force on the privilege of belonging somewhere, of being connected to a place like the world.
This release is packed in a hand stamped cover. Each of the 200 copies is unique and serially numbered.
Tracklist:
01 Mitlaut
02 Schwerkraft und Zündholz und Brot
03 (Wechseltierchen)
04 Gedanken aus Glas
05 Richtung Meer
Butterland
Regina Dürig & Christian Müller
Photo © Gaëtan Guélat
The Switzerland based duo Butterland (Regina Dürig and Christian Müller) works in the field of story and sound, their poetical and sculptural pieces seek a mutual approach to narration and reduction. They do live performances, poetic noise, audio dramas and installations. Some of their works focus on exceptional encounters with the audience, like the Little Literary Studio 2017, the Soirées Festi –stories, sounds &dinner– 2015 or the Goodnight Salon 2013. Many Butterland pieces have been shown at sound art festivals in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland, some were broadcast by Swiss and German radio stations. The audio drama Childhood Stories, a poetic documentary about growing up in the 80s in China, was awarded the jury’s price in the category „experimental“ at the Swiss audio festival Sonohr, the audio drama Aus dem Reisewörterbuch received a distinction from the Leipziger Hörstpielsommer. The duo’s actual work «rencontre l’autre» inspired by the French philosopher Luce Irigaray was kindly supported by the Commission francophone chargée des affaires culturelles générales (CFACG) of the Kanton Bern with the grant “Ici & Ailleurs 2019”.