Језик, pronounced Jezik and meaning “tongue”, but also "language" in Serbian, is a composition made of 11 short pieces, each being centered around the theme of human speech. These are short studies in language articulation, utilized by musical means. In a broad sense, the subject of the work is language as represented by human voice in a post-digital soundscape. Behind the computer screens, in the virtual space dominated by text and images, speaking voice as representation of the body, of the self, becomes modulated by the technology and deconstructed to the level of malfunction (glitch). Just as our attention is being dispersed due to the multitude of simultaneous events, the language (or the ear that perceives it) in the same way reaches the ultimate fragmentariness. This was the reason why in the selection of materials I worked with, I predominantly focused on very short cut-ups of variety of voices, with emphasis on paralinguistic elements from which I carefully moved towards larger units. I found musicality in the smallest cracks of speech and meaning, and I made the language struggle for its existence through many musical obstructions.

From appreciation of spoken words in all their acoustic subtleties, to artificial and enforced musical (rhythmical) structures that are not inherent to speech, I was testing the elasticity of language, stretching the boundaries of its musicality to the point of rupture. For me, within these ruptures, new (musical) meanings arise.

Svetlana Maras
Belgrade, 2016

All vocal materials are cut-ups from number of radio shows found in the archives of the Radio Belgrade and the recordings were kindly provided by them.

A coproduction of Radio Belgrade and Ö1 Kunstradio.

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