Mondlane (Lisa Fabian)
“I hear her call: Salome…? Danu…? Come ah-come…”
TX: Saturday, 12th April – 6:00 – 6:30pm / Monday, 14th April – 12:00 – 12:30pm BST
‘I hear her call: Salome…? Danu…? Come ah-come…’ is a surreal folkloristic sonic tale or a journey through memories encountered in a fever dream. Scenic echoes intimately evolve, looped until they burst into strange atmospheres and rhythms. We meet a hopelessly entangled voice, haunted and lost. Bewildered by fragmented distortions she attempts to unpick a series of flickering scenes. Delving into the emotional world of both adult and child. Something significant that happened. Imprinted in memory. Amorphous and vague. A lament. The forest is crying against a blurred background. A ritual unfolds, lifts a spell of silence. Hidden behind the noise she remains indistinct. Vibrant matters pulsating. A gatekeeper of invisible worlds. An empty corridor filled with footsteps. She flees into the river. A ghostly figure. A cry. A flower left on the kitchen table. A chant.
She leads us through chaotic waters of electro acoustic instrumentation, field recordings, noise, singing, spoken narration, decaying tape loops, and a rich tapestry of both analogue and digital experimental recording processes. Mocking, hiding, guiding, waking, haunting, lost, mourning, grieving, she runs through rhythmic glimpses, moving between nuances of lightness and downfall.
Mondlane is the solo moniker of sound artist Lisa Fabian, also in the Glasgow trio NEY. As Mondlane, she layers field recordings with processed vocals and manipulated fragments and electroacoustic instrumentation. She draws from a growing library of intimate recordings, using her narrative rich samples as instruments in improvised performances.
Interested in the personal and collective experience and unconscious, she explores the fragmentation and reassembly of narrative. Often touching on themes of intimacy, temporality, otherworldliness, and relationships that materialise in-between bodies and memories, as well as archival or collected material.
Most recent work was shown at: The Old Church Stoke Newington (London), Cafe Oto (London), The Old Hairdressers (Glasgow), EXIT (Glasgow), 90mil (Berlin), Globe Gallery (Berlin), The House of Bell Street (Glasgow), The Briggait (Glasgow), Hoxton 253 (London), Keep in touch Gallery (Seoul), CCA – Centre of Contemporary Arts (Glasgow) amongst others. Recent residencies include CCA Creative Lab Glasgow (2023), Countdown Grabowsee Berlin (2024), Countdown Grabowsee Berlin (2023).