© Kai Bienert

Schwebeteilchen / klingende Unterwasserwelten by and with Hatifnatten

The duo Hatifnatten (Sabine Vogel and Ute Wassermann) addresses the manifold sounds hidden under water. Three compositions explore the acoustic pollution of water currents, the sonic life of of an imaginary habitat and the history of a particular place, the Paretzer Erdlöcher.

Schwebeteilchen (Hatifnatten) for voice, flutes, ceramic objects and aquariumf

Interspecies (Ute Wassermann) for voice, hydrophones, objects and aquarium

Tonlöcher (Sabine Vogel) for flutes, preparations, field recordings and objects

Schwebeteilchen: In the joint composition and performance Schwebeteilchen for voice, flutes, ceramic objects and aquarium, specially made ceramics and ocarinas become never-before-heard, acoustically active underwater creatures that communicate with the two performers.

Interspecies: The composition Interspecies for voice, hydrophones, objects, aquarium (Ute Wassermann) is an imaginary acoustic habitat. An aquarium becomes a loudspeaker for acoustic communication of different biological species and technical means of locomotion. The singers voice

Sabine Vogel explores sonically the history of the Paretzer Erdlöcher which were used for clay mining until the 1940s. Nature has overtaken now, the wholes are filled with water again and it became a water bird habitat. Sabine Vogel has brought the clay - in a transformed way- back to and into the Erdlöcher in form of ceramic flutes. Field recordings of the place, and recordings of improvisations with these flutes under and above water became the material for this composition.

Breathing, singing, whistling, Picking up sounds, modulating them, transforming them, letting them wander through the space. In their duo Hatifnatten the two musicians explore the similarities of their instrumentarium: the flute, probably the instrument closest to the voice, is played by Sabine Vogel and often sonically extended by singing, whispering and various mouth percussion sounds.
Ute Wassermann, on the other hand, uses various kinds of whistles, probably the simplest and most original form of the flute, to mask and extend her polyphonic singing. The result is a hybrid vocal instrument with iridescent, swirling, trilling, shrilling, breathy, singing timbres.
Both musicians complement their instrumentarium with various tube-like instruments, mini-percussion, small electronic modules, and a selection of international variants of the flute family (wooden flutes, clay, bamboo, bone whistles). Since 2019 Hatifnatten explore ceramic objects and their manifold sounds hidden under the water surface.

Flutes and objects Sabine Vogel

voice, bird whistles and objects Ute Wassermann

ceramic objects keramukwerkstatt Dorrmann & Wassermann

funded by INM, Musikfonds (Neustartkultur) and INITIAL (Neustart Kultur)