Radio Pedestrian
Interviews from the street for the street.

When i arrived at central train station Erfurt, I just hit record for 1 hour. I reduced my technical setup as much as possible with only one microfone, that was attached to my boompole. The boompole was on its shortest, short enough that i could also record myself moderating, while walking around.
As the whole show is recorded in mono, this became a very personal and intimate recording of my perceiption of this evening. The listener looses orientation, because there is no space, just the evolving sound itself; the focus; the listener is directed what to hear. This effect is amplified through the special shotgun-microphone used, that only records sound specifically at the point you direct it; nearly everything else is shielded.
It was quite late already and it was getting a little bit tough to see my sign with the question "how do we change?". But in total i made four interviews, which is the right amount for one hour. It can be so simple to do a radio-show.

It was the first time when I decided to walk around, instead of staying in one place. What happened through that was quite interesting: Me, myself, became finally the true "radio pedestrian": A walking microphone that records the city and its many voices, all the micro-universes. Its a much more diverse sound picture of a city, that of course can and never will be complete. The slowly walking procedure soothed me in a meditative state of being; during the interviews I faded deeply in the listening process and had the feeling i could ask exactly the right questions at the right time. There was this magic and intensity of sudden encounters. If you pass by, you only have this one chance. Either you take it and speak up, or you leave it, and there will probably never be something like it again. The walking radio would be gone, soon enough. In total I did six interviews this evening. In the show you can hear only five, since the last one didn't fit in the one hour-format anymore.

In the tradition of urban "sound-bombing" a radio-loudspeaker was placed in the very heart of weimar: The Goethe-Schiller statue at Theaterplatz. Many tourists pass by this place, but also local residents, to eat ice cream and enjoy the atmosphere of this big open space. You can hear a live-re-recording of this situation. The background murmur mixes with the field recordings of the show that were also recorded at the same location. Reality and installation blur into each other. What is installation, what is surrounding? Is the bird chirping coming out of the radio, or is it actually sitting on a tree next to the radio? At some point you can't tell anymore. This is a very special recording of a special moment for me. It took courage placing a sounding object somewhere many people pass by and probably get disturbed. What right do I have to do this? Soon the radio was there before most of the passengers. No one stays long at this place, neither the people nor the installation.

It was a sunny day, still quite warm, some kids were playing football at Theaterplatz. The noisy atmosphere of the four interviews is contrasted by a live moderation that was done in the night, when the whole place is really quiet and peaceful. I decided to cut some parts out of an interview, because it was too long. I felt ashamed as a moderator, that I lost control of the situation, and couldn't interfere with questions anymore to direct the talk in some way. To do that was truly against my concept of maximum authenticity; to not falsify and manipulate in any way. This time I had no choice - also out of an idea of fairness that all interviews should have somehow granted a similar amount of time. Was it right to do that? I decided to upload all the interviews as they were also separately from the shows: soundcloud.com/radio-pedestrian This at least makes it possible to listen back what was cut out if you want to hear the whole thing. My honest excuse goes to Farra!

Accompany me to the place where all the interviews of Jena took place. The soundwalk was made holding a stereo-recorder in my hands, using it as an "acoustical zoom", approaching closer to objects that sound interesting due to my perception. On top of that there is a short introduction: What reason is behind the project, why does it exist? I arrived at the scenery just right to record the tower chimes of Jena that were starting immediately at this moment. Afterwards the four interview's start: "From the I to the We, to a higher state of being.", "A leave falls from a tree", "You have to control and watch if it's good for the sake of humanity", "What are the borders of possibilities?" (concise sentences) 
Ambience recordings in between provide enough space to let the words trickle through and let the own thoughts wander. They also show the perspective of me, myself, the unhearable waiting, smiling, the uncountable amount of eye-contact and non-spoken conversation, interaction.

This specific show was nearly entirely recorded at Theaterplatz, the very centre of Weimar. It consists of musical elements (live recorded compositions and improvisations on the guitar), sketchy speech-diary entrys during the process, ambient recordings of the space, as well as the interviews. All those elements were arranged in a way to be as pleasant and easy to understand as possible. The first and most conventional show of Radio Pedestrian came into being. Thanks very much again to the participants: Paula, the unknown family father and cyclist, Jiabao and Maria Garcia!

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