Kilian’s Antipodean Dream (duration 51 minutes) is based on the true story of the Sorb pastor Jan Kilian (1811-1884) who, to keep his Old Lutheran faith from the clutches of the Prussian government, dreamt of salvation in a foreign land. His initial emigration plan, was to go to a continent of which he could have only have had a very vague idea: Australia. To create this new work Black traveled to Kilian’s homeland in Upper Lusatia (East Germany) and made location recordings of Kilian’s churches, his home, interviewed Sorbs, researched historical documents and recorded Kilian’s text on location. From this material Black composed what Deutschlandradio describes as an “akustisches Phantasma” [acoustic phantasm] of his own homeland: Australia, “einem schillernden Klangraum zwischen Imagination und Realität” [a shimmering sound space between imagination and reality]. In fact Jan Kilian never set foot on Australian soil, he changed his mind and emigrated to Texas (USA) in 1854 with 550 other Sorbian Lutherans.
Première Broadcast 21 May 2010 Deutschlandradio Kultur
Credits:
Composer and Producer: Colin Black
Executive Producer: Marcus Gammel
Sound Engineer and Location Sound Recordist: Colin Black
Realised and Mixed at Cydonian Sounds for DeutschlandRadio Kultur 2010
Jan Kilian’s “Zbudżenje za Serbow” [“Wendish Awahening”] poem translated form Sorb to German by Madlena Mahling
English text translated into German by Brigitte Seega
Sorbish bagpipes: Tomasz Nawka
Featuring the voices of:
Brigitte Seega, Arnd Sobe, Rev. Jan Malink, Rev. Hinrich Müller, Tomasz Nawka, Fabian Kaulfuerst, Hans-Peter Petrick
Special thanks to:
DeutschlandRadio Kultur, Marcus Gammel, Arnd Sobe, Yanna Black, Brigitte Seega, Rev. Jan Malink, Rev. Hinrich Müller, Tomasz Nawka, Fabian Kaulfuerst, Hans-Peter Petrick, Trudla Malinkowa, Bosčan Nawka, Rev. Michael Voigt, Peter Milan Jahn, Annett Brězanec, Sorbisches Institut in Bautzen, Sorbischer Rundfunk in Bautzen, Sorbisches Museum in Bautzen, Berliner Phonogramm Archive and the Niedersorbische Sprachschule in Cottbus.