Song of [Y] is a video / sound composition based on the sounds recorded during the fermentation process of wine. As the fermentation takes on, the yeast breaks down the sugars and turns them into alcohol and Co2 – the Co2 pushes out the air through the airlock – the airlock resonates in the vat – There is synchronicity of sounds, a communication between the vats – the various development of the yeast within each vat – depending on who interacted with it, changing the wild yeast balance, and therefore the end product – changing the sound. Multiple vats together in a room create a music of their own.
In the video / sound piece the aim is to work with this material musically, while keeping the sound unaltered. Visually the organic processes will take the foreground in texture images and the bubble rhythm of the airlock. A live part, a performance (or this part too can be recorded, depending on the circumstances of the venue) consists of improvisation on the Song of Seikilos, the oldest complete surviving music composition in the world. The song, an epigram: “As long as you live, shine / Let nothing grieve you beyond measure / For your life is short / And time will claim its toll”. Its current placement is in the National Museum of Denmark, in Copenhagen.
The Seikilos epitaph is a drinking song – it seems fit to accompany it with the bubbling sound of the fermentation of wine. A drink enjoyed by the greeks – a cult even – that of Dionysus – of which the female followers – maenads – a word derived from ‘mad’ – meaning ‘raving ones’ – were a perfect image of how society fears women who step out of its boundaries.
why Y:
Y – a letter that in most european languages is a foreigner, i grec
Y – that indicates the unknown, the variable
Y – the rune eihwaz – tree of life and death transition, initiation, world between worlds, yggdrasil
Yeast – a migrant travelling interspecies
Yeast – the variabel – unknown, that affects the outcome of the fermentation
Yeast – creating the transformation – a world between worlds – between life and death.
Y – also looks like a drinking glass, and the female reproductive organs
This project is a first step in the creation of [MAD] a collective dream of Ásgeir Bergmann Pétursson and Maja Jantar, to fuse their love for each other and their passion for tastes. MAD stands for Maja and Ásgeir’s Delicious… devine, delusional,… MAD merges their expertise, Ásgeirs knowledge as sipsmith and cocktail bartender, Maja’s heritage of liquor making, and home cooking from her Polish roots. MAD is about being mad, mad for new tastes, new experiments, mad combinations. MAD has its heart at the home base, the garden, experimenting with herbs and fruits growing there, or harvested at other friends gardens, foraged in nature, in Belgium, France or Iceland. MAD is nomadic, as it can travel and travels with us. MAD goes in all directions, from creating sweet and savory muffins to MAD walnutport, MAD distillates, MAD breads with home grown sourdough, MAD fruit wines, MAD brandy, kombucha, cocktails, tinctures, bitters, hot sauce, syrups, pickles …
Flowing the red line 