I will be posting translations of all the texts Oswald Egger reads in The Middle of Life (Die ganze Zeit). But as that might take a while to complete, I thought I would provide one from the first passage heard in the piece, just to give some idea of what it's like. This comes from Egger's 2010 book Die ganze Zeit:
Wie geht es mir? Halte ich inne und schaue nach
innen? Sage ich »gut«? Oder: »es geht«? Und bin umgänglich oder imstande,
umgehend zu sein, unumgänglich soundso, so geht es und soundso nicht, mir
nicht, dir nicht, ich habe keinen Umgang, mehr geht ja nicht, weil nichts mehr
geht. Rien du rien. Ist keinen Umgang haben unumgänglich? Ich habe keine
Zeit dafür, und ich nehme mir nicht die Zeit dazu. Ich kann
sagen, was ich will, solang ich denke, daß ich spreche, genügt es.
Die Innenwände der »Gänze« bilden gleichsam eine
Menge von Landschaftsskizzen, deren verwickelte Aventüren aus einem Guß
entstanden sein wollen. Die gleichen Areale, oder beinahe die gleichen, sind
stets von neuen und aus verschiedenen Richtungen her angepaßt, wie angegossen,
immer neue Bilder entwerfend, für deren Grund plus Figuren große, durch Singen
und Stimme zerspringende Steinchen verwendet werden, worin arealflächige
Fenster und Felder, in welche die das Muster zusammenbildenden Kieselstücke
exakt verkittet in Vertiefungen und caréts eingebeetet scheinten,
hineingepuzzelt oszillieren: die ganze Zeit ist eigentlich nur eine
Inkrustation bunter Steine, aber mehr als arktisches Trikot als ein trojanisches
passim-passepartout.
How
am I? Shall I pause and look inward? Do I say “good”? Or: “it’s going
fine”? And am social or capable of circulation, unsociable thisandthat, it’s
like so and not like soandso, not
for me, not for you, I have no contact, it doesn’t work for me, because nothing
works. Rien du rien. Is it
anti-social to have no contact? I have no time for that, and don't make
the time for it, I can say whatever I want, it's enough, so long as I think that I speak.
The
inner walls of the “whole” form at once a set of landscape sketches whose intricate
adventures must have come from a cast. The same areas, or almost the same, are constantly
adapted from new and various directions, poured into a mold, always new images
outlined, for their ground plus figures, large, to be utilized with the help of
singing and voice shattering stones, where area surface windows and fields, in
which those that form the pattern pebble pieces puttied exact depressions and carets appeared embedded, puzzle-piece oscillating: the whole time is
really only an incrustation of colored stones, but more like an arctic jersey
than a Trojan passim-passepartout.
GW 008:
The Middle of Life (Die ganze Zeit) (2011/2012)
(47’20”)
Michael Pisaro: composition, recording, piano, electronics, mixing, mastering
Oswald Egger: poetry, reading
Julia Holter: voice, composition
Speakers (in order of first appearance):Oswald Egger: poetry, reading
Julia Holter: voice, composition
Taku Sugimoto (Japanese and English)
Kristín Haraldsdottír (Icelandic and English)
Kunsu Shim (Korean)
Graham Lambkin (English)
Didier Aschour (French)
Lucie Vitková (Czech and English)
Julia Holter (English)
The speakers are reading translations of the first sentence from Oswald Egger’s Diskrete Stetigkeit, Poesie und Mathematik (edition unseld, Suhrkamp Verlag, 2008): “Mitten im Leben fand ich mich wieder wie in einem Wald (ohne Weg).” Snippets of a home recording by Graham Lambkin are heard throughout this section.
Oswald Egger was recorded on 16 July 2012 in the fields outside of his residence in Hombroich, Germany. He is reading passages selected by Pisaro from Die ganze Zeit (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2010). The illustrations by Oswald Egger also come from this text.
Two field recordings made in Neufelden, Austria during the second year of flussaufwärtstreiben are used. The first, fading in at around 6’00”, was recorded on 2 July 2012, on the banks of the Grosse Mühl river near a small rapids. The second, fading in from about 24’20” was recorded on 4 July 2012, about 500 meters further down the river. Antoine Beuger was playing the flute. An excerpt of Michael Pisaro’s Ascending Series (5.2), performed by the Dog Star Orchestra, is heard intermittently throughout this section.
An excerpt from Julia Holter’s For One or More Voices for piano (performed by Michael Pisaro), is heard from 42’22” until the end, and is used with permission of the author.
Cover Illustrations by Oswald Egger
The speakers are reading translations of the first sentence from Oswald Egger’s Diskrete Stetigkeit, Poesie und Mathematik (edition unseld, Suhrkamp Verlag, 2008): “Mitten im Leben fand ich mich wieder wie in einem Wald (ohne Weg).” Snippets of a home recording by Graham Lambkin are heard throughout this section.
Oswald Egger was recorded on 16 July 2012 in the fields outside of his residence in Hombroich, Germany. He is reading passages selected by Pisaro from Die ganze Zeit (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2010). The illustrations by Oswald Egger also come from this text.
Two field recordings made in Neufelden, Austria during the second year of flussaufwärtstreiben are used. The first, fading in at around 6’00”, was recorded on 2 July 2012, on the banks of the Grosse Mühl river near a small rapids. The second, fading in from about 24’20” was recorded on 4 July 2012, about 500 meters further down the river. Antoine Beuger was playing the flute. An excerpt of Michael Pisaro’s Ascending Series (5.2), performed by the Dog Star Orchestra, is heard intermittently throughout this section.
An excerpt from Julia Holter’s For One or More Voices for piano (performed by Michael Pisaro), is heard from 42’22” until the end, and is used with permission of the author.
Cover Illustrations by Oswald Egger
Design: Yuko Zama
GW 009:
The Punishment of the Tribe by its Elders (2012) (57’20”)
to Jon Abbey
Michael Pisaro: guitar, bass, percussion, radio, electronics, recording, mixing
Mastered by Joe Panzner
The field recording beginning at around 8’00” was made in Neufelden, Austria in the roof studio at the Station. Thanks to Joachim Eckl for providing the space and for much else.
Cover Photo: Michael Pisaro
Design: Yuko Zama
