Musikgenossenschaft

Rite of Passage

I. Separation: the individual loses his or her status and is no longer part of the group.

II. Transition: the individual is suspended as if ceasing to exist; they are without a social role.

III. Reaggregation, incorporation: a new status is given.

We’re standing in the way, in a way. Feeling strange sometimes, not entirely comfortable, and not always sure why. Anxieties, uncertainties, objections, and exclusions have come to live with us; while the pandemic is one thing, what has also been excluding people is – above all, perhaps – the contemporary culture as a whole.

Art often reflects such feelings and makes us face difficult questions, precisely by confronting them. Working along the lines which connect performers with composers, we sometimes find ourselves asking those aloud, if not hearing them between words, between sounds. Whichever the case, we keep going over such matters collectively and repeatedly – this is called practising, first, and then rehearsing, as we know these – to later make that challenging space available to others: the listeners.

Fortunately, the energy flows in more than one direction, never following the same trajectory twice. This allows everybody to come across traces, trails, and tracks of sounds; to be stimulated, guided, and surrounded by them. The tone is what burns particular states and emotions, opening one to encounters with both self and other beings. Its operation lies in detachment – necessarily followed by reunion.

– Martyna Zakrzewska, Spoldzielnia Muzyczna; translated from Polish by Błażej Bauer