Throughout 2025, from January 1st to December 31st, there is a durational installation present in ausland, called Minute/Year. This installation, by the artist duo Kata Kovács and Tom O’Doherty, automatically records the sound occurring in the main concert space of ausland, for one minute exactly, every day at 20:25. Simultaneously, it plays back the previous day’s recording, thus creating a layered audio portrait of the space over time, and creating and recording emergent room tones and spatial drones as it goes. This work has been ongoing in annually-altering locations since 2016.
On the evening of March 7th, there will be an event, featuring Aidan Baker, Leah Buckareff, and Ángela Muñoz, which will use the archive created by the daily recordings captured by Minute/Year as material for two live concert sets. The evening will begin with a short introduction by Kata Kovács and Tom O’Doherty about Minute/Year. There will then be a one-minute-long intervention-performance by Ángela Muñoz, at 20:25 exactly, during the time when Minute/Year is active. This will be followed by an evening-length concert bill of two sets, the first by Ángela, the second by Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff.
Ángela Muñoz’s one-minute intervention-performance, and subsequent concert set, derives from her ongoing research project, Palmeras, deconstructing and reimagining the potential of clapping as it is present in flamenco music. As she describes the work:
“Clapping is a way for human beings to communicate, and to perceive a sense of belonging to a group of people or community. It is fascinating to recognise behavioral patterns that we execute without realising, as something intrinsic in us. From a choreomusical point of view, clapping is a clear referent of the relationship between physical movement and sound. The research in Palmeras emerges out of a personal interest to analyse the prominence of clapping in the music and dance of Spain, particularly during the emergence of the form known as flamenco in the eighteenth century. In this intervention, the use of clapping is observed as a choreographic as well as musical action. I intend to start from flamenco clapping and rhythm, deconstructing it slowly in order to understand its concreteness.”
In the second set, Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff will play together, using the archive of recordings generated by Minute/Year as a starting-point for a drone set. Manipulating and looping the archival recordings and slowly layering their own live sounds produced by guitar and bass, the duo will create an immersive, maximalist soundscape akin to their more drone-oriented work in their project Nadja.
Participant biographies:
Ángela Muñoz is a dancer and musician from Seville, Spain. She completed her Bachelor of Arts at London Contemporary Dance School and an MA in Performance Practice and Visual Culture at Universidad de Castilla La Mancha. She is interested in the act of listening and the influence of sound on the body, not only as a somatic outcome, but also as an identity builder. Since she moved to Berlin in 2010 her work is been driven into the field of movement and sound, dance and music, working both independently and in collaboration with other artists. Currently Angela plays drums and vocals with several groups including Nunofyrbeeswax, Vrouw!, and Tavare.
Leah Buckareff is a musician, bookbinder, artist, and curator from Toronto, Canada, based in Berlin since 2010. She performs in the duo Nadja, which has toured around the world, appearing at international festivals including Supersonic, SXSW, Amplifest, Pop Montreal, and Unsound, and with albums on numerous labels, including Southern Lord Records, Hydrahead Records, Southern Records, and Alien8 Recording. She also performs as sole instrumentalist in The Psychedelic Choir, runs the Japanese paper company Pulp Papier, and is curator of such projects as The Wunderkabinet and The Lesen Lounge.
Aidan Baker is a classically-trained multi-instrumentalist, originally from Toronto and currently based in Berlin. Using prepared and alternate methods of playing the guitar, along with various electronic effects, Baker creates music which generally falls within the ambient/experimental genre but draws on influences from rock, electronic, classical, and jazz. A highly prolific artist, Baker has released numerous recorded works, both solo and with such group projects as Nadja, Tavare, and Hypnodrone Ensemble, on a range of labels, including Gizeh Records, Karlrecords, Ici d’ailleurs, and Important Records. Baker is also the author of several books of poetry. A regular live performer, Baker has toured extensively around the world, including appearances at such international festivals as FIMAV, SXSW, Incubate, Donaufest, and Mutek, among others.
Kata Kovács and Tom O’Doherty have worked as a collaborative duo since 2011. Their work combines elements of durational and time-based art, minimalist movement, and electroacoustic music and sound. They are interested in processes, sounds, and movements that come close to imperceptibility, and the ways in which this material can be transformed through repetition, patterning, layering, and archiving.
Clockwise from top left: Leah Buckareff, Minute/Year (as installed at ausland), Aidan Baker, and Ángela Muñoz.
