Hanna Hartman's "Fog Factory" is based on original sound material and sounds from a Buchla 200 Modular Synthesizer that she recorded at the EMS (Elektronmusikstudion) in Stockholm. The acousmatic piece was premiered on 3 October 2020 at the "Echoes around me Festival" in Vienna.
Commissioned by SEAMS (Society for Electroacoustic Music in Sweden) with support from The Swedish Arts Council.
Special thanks to Elektronmusikstudion EMS, Stockholm, Almgrens sidenväveri, Textilmuseet Borås.
Work comment by Peter Margasak
In her 2021 Karl-Sczuka-Prize winning piece Fog Factory, as in all of her work for the last couple of decades, Hanna Hartman isn't telling a story. She doesn't ask us to seek out meaning. She simply wants us to listen closely, to notice the exquisite, elusive details in her work.
In her notes she thanks Almgrens Sidenväveri, which is a museum in Stockholm with still-functioning fabric-weaving machines, but that's as much background information as we get. The listener gets to fill in the blanks and create meaning from the meticulously charted and carefully assembled composition of sounds – some created with a Buchla synthesizer, but most of them recorded in the real world by Hartman with her collection of microphones, accumulated over years of sound research.
There are industrial thwacks, metallic clangs awash in the reverb of a cavernous space, close-miked crackles, and sibilant hisses, all of which dance around the astringent throb of a synthesizer swell. At least, that's what I think it is. In the final count, however, identifying her sources is irrelevant. Grappling with those sounds and how she constructs her canvas is what matters.
Scale becomes a secret weapon, equalizing the tiniest murmurs with the loudest crashes, reordering the sonic world in a manner that destabilizes our sense of logic. By controlling and manipulating these elements in her mix, Hartman allows us to contemplate certain sounds in a new light, whether through sonic enlargement or a kind of aural feng shui.
Interestingly, as Hartman is honored for the second time by winning the Karl-Sczuka-Prize – she was also awarded the accolade in 2005 – her artistic practice has been changing. More recently Hartman has been increasingly handing over the means of sound production to musicians with whom she feels a simpatico artistic bond. In her 2020 piece The Revenge performer Christian Kesten uses his voice and hands on amplified strings to bring groans and friction to articulate Hartman's graphic score to life. In August of 2021 the members of the Berlin brass trio Zinc & Copper applied their own sensibilities to her gorgeous graphic score for The Garden. The parallel between these visually-stunning scores and her aurally provocative sound pieces is profound. In both scenarios Hartman applies her uncanny observational abilities to help us reconsider sounds and visions that surround us every day into something sublime, mysterious, and perspective shifting.
"Own acoustic language full of poetry" - the jury statement
"The Karl Sczuka Prize 2021 goes to the acousmatic piece 'Fog Factory' by Hanna Hartman. Based on original sound material and sounds of a Buchla 200 Modular Synthesizer, the artist develops her own acoustic language full of poetry. The sounds, detached from their context, gain a new sonic intensity in this audio work. The playfully alliterative title of Hartman's concise work can be read as a description of the artistic process in which acoustic material shifts between different states of aggregation."
The Karl Sczuka Prize is awarded for the sixtieth time
This year, 77 competition entries from 21 countries were submitted. An independent jury headed by artist Olaf Nicolai decided on the winners on Thursday, July 8, 2021, in Baden-Baden. Other jury members were Julia Cloot, Michael Grote, Thomas Meinecke and Julia Mihály.
Hanna Hartman
Hanna Hartman is a Swedish composer, sound artist and performer living in Berlin. She has composed works for radio, electroacoustic music, ensembles, sound installations and given numerous performances all over the world. Her many awards and grants includes the Karl-Sczuka-Preis, the Phonurgia Nova Prize, a Villa Aurora grant and the Rome Prize (Villa Massimo). During 2007 and 2008 she was Composer-in-Residence at the Swedish Radio and in 2019 at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Hanna Hartman is a member of the German Academy of the Arts.
Her work has been presented in numerous concerts and festivals. Such as Darmstädter Ferienkurse , Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival , Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival , el nicho aural Mexico City, Akousma Montreal, London Contemporary Music Festival, Eclat Festival Stuttgart and Cut & Splice Festival Manchester.
