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Opera of the Null Hour

by Nick Sudnick

/
1.
Part 1 09:43
2.
Part 2 04:50
3.
Part 3 10:04
4.
Part 4 09:18
5.
Part 5 08:53
6.
Part 6 09:02
7.
Part 7&8 08:11

about

Lera Nibiru -story,libretto and illustrations
Nick Sudnick - composition,sound objects,samples,voice, recording and mixing
Vera Ogareva - voice
Elena Ivanova - voice
Polina Medvedeva - voice
Natalia Potapenko - accordeon
Natalia Nazarova - cello
Julia Usova - violin
Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky - trumpet

cover design - Lera Nibiru, Ksenia Astafyeva;
translated from the Russian by Emilia Loseva

credits

released July 24, 2017

KROMKHEL'S TRAVELS TO THE SEVENTH HEAVEN

Kromkhel came into the world only a few seconds after the universe had been born. He was a by-product of the separation of Light from the darkness, a slight error, a chip, a gap whose making appearance was unnoticed. He tumbled out of the penultimate spark of the delivery and bounced onto the very bottom of the deepest crevice of the frontier.From there he began his journey.

The first thing Kromkhel wanted to conceive was what he actually was, and after that he hoped to find his position in the chronotope. As to space, he could feel it having been formed inside him when the walls of the crevice pressed against his edges. Then he saw the light pulsating above his being, and he conceived Time. He could not count the time he had spent on the bottom of the crevice, but it was clear to him that he had to move to get out of there. Kromkhel stirred. He was covered with the flexible colourfull rays all along his edges and they were changing their spatial parameters with ease. Kromkhel apprehended then that he was a star, a star which had no permanent position, a wandering comet. He did not know whether there were others like him, and the issue became a part of what he was aiming to research. Kromkhel took the rays and got hold of the edges of the darkness, he pulled himself up, rocked to and fro and splashed out onto the light.

He looked around. There was abundance and diversity reigning in this world and there were no signs or clues for him to be guided in his search for the answers.
All he had was his name. The name made his form. He lent his ear to the sound of his name and sensed the direction in it: "Kromkhel" - said Something, and the way it sounded carried him onwards.
The first sky was melting behind his back, it was disappearing in the haze of oblivion.

Following the first sky, there was the second one waiting for him. It was overpopulated and full of thick materiality. The creatures that lived there were completely confident in their reality. They were so very confident that they perceived Krokhel as an illusion whenever they ran into him. Kromkhel would attempt to talk to the creatures, but they were just goggling at him, then pinching themselves and then just running away. So he started to rummage about the space, peeping in all the cracks and touching the rough fragments of the surface.
Kromkhel was not aware of what he was looking for, but when he caught a gap of the void instead of the promised density, he understood that what he had touched was the way out. He squeezed himself into the gap, having frightened the elements of reality dwelling on the edges by his movements, and bounced out into the following sky like a cork.

The third sky resembled the same universe, but it was kind of microscopic. It was a living cell. It was not clear whether that was a model reproducing the outlines of the universe or that was the universe itself stuffed into the tiny cell which was its basic element by definition. All around the cell, the tornadoes were moving in rings mixing the parameters and orienting points, and Kromkhel
dived into one of them without hesitation.

The fourth sky presented the world of changing forms. Not a thing would remain safe and stable there. The kaleidoscope of meanings was constantly moving creating the refined patterns. Kromkhel was watching all those endless images of transformation striken with awe, but, gradually, he was getting seized with anxiety - he failed to capture the answers and he did not see how he could get out of there. He was trying hard to position himself in the point of an observer and was looking intently at what was happening, he was trying to slow down the time running of his perception. And when the changeableness slowed to the extent that it seemed to be almost the non-movement, Kromkhel sensed an alien presence . Those were the tornado-runners, the creatures that travel using the energy of hurricanes. They moved, holding their ground on the summit, on the selvage of the tornado, an they dived in it reaching the indispensable point in the chronotope. They conceived the world as a certain map, a neuron net which consisted of points and impulses, an they kept moving from one point to another along those impulses.
Kromkhel sat on the tail of a creature, and the creature accompanied him to the point of the exit silently.

The fifth sky was located inside a bubble, in the depth of a stomach of a huge golden fish. The fish was a sort of a postman, it delivered messages amongst the three whales, the seven elephants and the gigantic tortoise that were the creatures holding the world on their spines.
When the fish stopped in front of one of the elephants and opened its mouth, Kromkhel thought he was a message. He swam out of the fish's belly on the sound wave, stood still, and the elephant did not notice him. Kromkhel straddled the reflected sound wave and sailed it onwards.

The wave brought him onto the sixth sky. It was the world of sounds. They interlaced in harmony producing what was called the music of spheres. That world was pulsating and was iridescent, it was penetrating all the surfaces and was not just exerting influence upon Kromkhel from the outside, but it was filling him from the inside.
When the sound filled Kromkhel up to his brim, he understood that he was then in the seventh sky.

The seventh sky was the inmost light, it was the pure light. Being drowned and dissolved in its warmth, Kromkhel was aware that he was a god. He had always been the god, free of responsibility, a stranger, the god not taken into account. And at that point, Kromkhel dispersed once and for all.
And the world became whole again, it became infinite, indivisible and faultless.

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about

ZGA Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

The experimental Russian band ZGA was founded in 1984. The leader of the band Nick Sudnick explores the limits of sound using the elements of noise, industrial, avant-rock, traditional and classical music. He developed the unique sound objects called zgamoniums. His latest visionary project "24 Rush Hours" represents a series of operas and this massive piece of work is still in progress. ... more

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