SOLO

This concert took place at REFLEX Art Space in San Sebastián (Spain) in 2014, the last in a series of concerts called “SOLOS”. The venue owner told me beforehand that they had stopped holding concerts because a neighbor had complained about the sounds and noise, so he asked me not to be loud that night, to avoid further problems with the neighbor and the police. I then proposed using recordings that I had collected over the years in the many empty houses I had lived in. In all of those recordings there is silence, but also the sounds of neighbors. Somehow, we were able to listen to this loud concert because its sound source belonged to them: to our neighbors.

Sounds do not understand walls. Our ears have no eyelids, so we are forced to hear sounds that we did not invite. Loneliness does not know how to be mute, and listening to the sounds of loneliness means amplifying other small presences. Our private space becomes an auditorium, and our neighbors are our best listeners.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Xabier Erkizia, Juan Aizpitarte, the audience and the neighbors.