Azure chants

  • Listen

Azure Chants is an audio-paper that explores collective practices of listening, breathing, and sounding within the socio-political context of censorship. The work examines sound as a tool of co-presence, offering a means of balancing individuality and collectivity, and developing new strategies for existence. Through this research, we question how rhythms can be created to include everyone and whether these rhythms represent a conscious, decentralised structure where each participant has agency. In environments where the individual voice is often silenced, collective acts of listening, breathing, and sounding serve as methods of resistance, allowing individuals to contribute to a shared soundscape without losing their voice.

By breathing, listening, and sounding together, we not only reclaim agency, but also form a collective presence capable of resisting suppression and fostering solidarity.

We listen - we breathe - we sound

Bibliography

  • Barad, Karen. Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum Physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007.
  • Lefebvre, Henri. Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. London, NY: Continuum, 2004.
  • Oliveros, Pauline. Deep listening: A composer’s sound practice. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, Inc, 2005.

Audio Sources

  • Fletcher, Lucille. Sorry, Wrong Number. CBS Radio, 1943
  • Linklater, Richard. Waking Life. 2001
  • margaritki. Maiden Memory. 2023
  • Unknown Artists. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound…Industrial Coast. 2022

margaritki

margaritki* is an artistic duet of Olga Zubova and Maria Karpovich. They work at the intersection of research, education, sonic and performing arts. Originating from Siberia and Urals.
They see collaborative and community involving practices crucial for their artistic process. margaritki have organised various educational laboratories for citizens to develop critical approaches to sonic urbanism. They have held seminars and lectures on sonic practices. In their performances margaritki work with found sounds, field recordings, live coding and voices, and different listening modes.
* russian for Daisies.