At the source of the River Cephissus in Boeotia, Greece, Ayumi Paul listened for five days to a spring that has been honored, revered and celebrated since long before antiquity. On the flanks of Mount Parnassos, a day’s walk from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the source gurgles among the remains of ancient shrines. Across its currents travel oracular notes between the living and the departed, between friends and lovers, between mountains and the sea. The memories of birdsong, lament and loss, festive practices and secrets intermingle in the water veins which move through earth connecting distant places, lives and times.
After dedicating days to listening, Paul could hear a rhythm. A pattern suggested itself spontaneously, and the response of her voice seemed to come as well from the river. A single-take recording of the spring forms the basis of There Is Always Sunrise, with Paul’s singing layering into the water’s basslines. This act of inspired participation unfolds primordial lullabies into the flow.
Paul’s thought draws from dual wells of European and Japanese cultural understanding. The Japanese concept of utsuroi [移ろい] captures the inexorable process by which all things change: seasons, light, a landscape or the face of a person over decades. The Greek word rhythmos [ῥυθμός] shares its root with rhei [ῥέει] — “it flows.” It is with this potent term that Heraclitus stated his universal insight: panta rhei — everything flows. Paul lends her ears and her voice to these perennial sources.
This September, There Is Always Sunrise by Ayumi Paul will for the first time be presented in a spatialized format at Reethaus. The sound piece was originally commissioned and curated by Natasha Ginwala for the Sharjah Biennial 16.
On Saturday, September 26, Reethaus offers a matinée gathering to start the weekend with a meditation and listening experience guided by Ayumi Paul. The session will be followed by a conversation with curator and director of the Georg Kolbe Museum Kathleen Reinhardt and concluded with tea.
