Radio Papesse

The Dog That Licked Up A Star – Orchid Mix is a radiophonic suggestion for deceleration. The composition features (among others) a singing dog from the town Hengchun, in the South of Taiwan. While I sat in the patio listening to his voice, a cloud passed. The other afternoon I sat under a tree next to the lake of Luan and recorded short wave radio in the rain. The dog and I also went up to Maokong mountain in a gondola where we met with Mr. Hu and the Orchid Lady. On the way down we noticed something glittering in the mud. It was a tiny star.

Recordings for this piece were made in: Treasure Hill Artist Village, Bamboo Curtain Studio and Maokong mountain in Taipei; Yilan, Yilan District and in Hengchun and Hengchun Folk Museum, Houbihu and Longluantan, Pingtung District, South Taiwan.

Mr Hu is the oldest inhabitant of Treasure Hill Village. 93 years old, he likes to study books on the history of China and he loves to sing to the ladies. Translator: Catherine Lee, director of Taipei Artist Village (TAV).

Margaret Shiu is the founder and artistic director of the Bamboo Curtain Studio, an ecologic artist residency in Tamsui, New Taipei. Excerpt is taken from our ‘Plum Tree Talk’, February 2019.”

Gabi Schaffner works as an interdisciplinary sound artist and curator. In her artistic practice, she merges ethnography with poetics and the arts of transmission. She also she cofounded Datscha Radio, a temporary garden radio station that connects the spheres of radio art, gardening and ecology. She is active as a radio artist, writer, translator and poet. Since 2005 Schaffner has realised productions with Deutschlandfunk, HR2 Kultur, radia.fm and ABC Australia. Gabi Schaffner lives in Berlin.