Liner notes from the author: „I’ve lived a nomadic life for years without a place to call home, but I kept coming back to Tbilisi, Georgia. This city mystified and captivated me and I started to collect its sounds. Coming from a documentary film/photo background, I wanted to find another way to create a portrait. I used small, omnidirectional stereo microphones, discreet but not hidden, so in order to make a clear recording I had to be close to a sound source, to become part of the scene. It was a way to come to terms with the city, where I never stopped being a stranger, to bridge the distance and get in contact. The rustling of dry leaves, clothes rubbing in a thick crowd, voices overheard from a window, a blind man’s song in the subway, a stray dog crunching on a bone, echoes of fireworks. I was curious to find a melody in the sound fragments of everyday life.
Mtatsminda can be translated from Georgian as „Holy Mountain.” The downtown of Tbilisi is situated at the foot, in the shadow of this mountain, which is often covered in fog”.
Alёna Korolёva is a multi-disciplinary Russian artist who makes sound collages with field recordings. She also works in photo and video art and curates programes for film festivals. She has a degree in documentary filmmaking and has made a few short films, but since 2018 she’s reinvented her practice with sound art. Alёna is fascinated by the potential of accidental or routine sounds made by people, machines and animals to create music, by the ability of sound to change its power and meaning when put in concert with others. She finds inspiration in exploring the soundscapes of big cities and finding rhythms in chance encounters.
Sounds recorded in 2018-2019 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Field recordings based compositions, photos and cover design by Alёna Korolёva.
Publication date:
2020