A work of radio art for four vocal performers and listeners.
Hra na uši / The Ears Game is an abstract sound-music-meditation dealing with the topic of radio production, the creation of radio artworks and their reception by the listener. The inspiration for the author was the archive of the Brno art historian, theoretician, artist and poet Jiří Valoch. Valoch´s short, graphically addressed pieces are rarely longer than a few words. However, their philosophical content is striking. All of them are centered around the phenomenon of ‘word’ as a peculiar and strictly human form. The pieces examine claims for their own truth. Jiří Adámek has applied Valoch´s creative method to the phenomenon of radio artwork and its listeners. Words, sentences and statements take the place of characters, and we witness them grow and deny themselves. (Renata Venclová)
Contributors
Soprano: Vendula Holičková
Alto: Anna Bubníková
Tenor: Pavol Smolárik
Bass: Ondřej Bauer
Direction: Jiří Adámek
Composition: Ladislav Źelezný
Production: Český rozhlas 2018
About the authors
Jiří Adámek, born 1977 in Prague, studied theatre directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in his hometown, where he has been teaching since 2011. He has developed his own type of musical theatre in which he combines the musically composed structure, the dominance of vocal expression and the unusual approach to language. He regularly collaborates with various Czech theatres and Czech Radio. As a librettist and director, he has created operas with composers Martin Smolka (The Lists of Infinity, 2014) and Michal Nejtek (Rules for Good Manners in the Modern World, 2017). With Smolka he has also staged the staged concert Before the Law for the Ensemble Ascolta (2019). The radio version of Ticks Ticks Politics was broadcast on German, French and Austrian radio. He has received numerous awards and scholarships.
Ladislav Źelezný, born 1979 in Jindřichův Hradec (southern Bohemia) is a musician, curator and audiovisual artist and currently lives in Prague. He studied at the Secondary Art School of Ceramics and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts / Brno University of Technology in the video and multimedia department. He worked for a few years as an assistant for audio applications and technology at the same university. Currently works at the Czech Radio as a sound designer, music director for radio drama and as producer and curator of project Radiocustica. His works are focused on different forms of acoustic arts, sound composition for short films, theater, and gallery situations.
