« We’ll hear more work conceived in a similar way over the coming months, and maybe years, but it will rarely touch such thoughtfoul and emotional heights as this. »

Brian Morton
The Wire, August 2020 (Issue 438)

Nel 2022 il Crown Quartet ha creato A Natural Contract per Resonances IV a Ispra (Italia), presso il Joint Research Centre (JRC) della Commissione Europea. L’opera attraversa i confini attraverso la simultaneità di musica e linguaggio, in uno scambio musicale tra quattro diversi paesi europei. Questi quattro paesi sono stati a lungo difficilmente accessibili a causa della pandemia di Covid-19; l’idea alla base di questo concerto di arte sonora, allo stesso tempo dal vivo e a distanza, poiché i quattro artisti sono collegati in streaming direttamente dai loro studi, è quindi quella di evocare nozioni di memoria, un richiamo agli elementi più essenziali dell’umanità e della società. Oltre alla ricca strumentazione del quartetto, l’opera presenta uno strato testuale integrato nella struttura compositiva, che lascia spazio a uno scambio spontaneo e improvvisato. Il plurilinguismo dei frammenti di testo riflette la diversità dei linguaggi musicali e degli approcci dei quattro musicisti. Ungherese, italiano, vari accenti tedeschi, inglese e croato incontrano l’arte vocale sonora astratta di Mia Zabelka e Tibor Szemző. A Natural Contract parla del superamento dei confini attraverso la musica e il linguaggio, oltre le barriere che si sono chiuse a una velocità sorprendente a causa del Covid-19. In questo senso, l’opera è anche memoria, discorso, riflessione sugli elementi più fondamentali dell’umanità e della società.

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Crown Quartet
A National Contract
progetto di sound art in quattro paesi

prodotto da
Resonances IV – NaturArchy: Towards a Natural Contract in collaborazione con Usmaradio e Giardini Pensili

Crown Quartet is an international ensemble of contemporary music bringing together four distinctive artistic voices: Zahra Mani (Croatia), Roberto Paci Dalò (Italy), Tibor Szemző (Hungary), and Mia Zabelka (Austria). Emerging during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, the quartet was initiated through News from Radio Yerevan – Sound Art in Four Countries, a project organized by the Steirische Gesellschaft für Kulturpolitik. Working remotely from their respective studios, the artists created a live acoustic exchange of music, voice, language, field recordings, and electronic sound, connected through radio and internet transmission. The project explores sound as a communicative, artistic, and subversive medium. Its title references the legendary Radio Yerevan jokes that circulated behind the Iron Curtain, using humor and absurdity to expose contradictions, misinformation, and political realities—an uncanny precursor to today’s culture of fake news. As critic Brian Morton wrote in The Wire (August 2020): “We’ll hear more work conceived in a similar way over the coming months, and maybe years, but it will rarely touch such thoughtful and emotional heights as this.” Since its formation, Crown Quartet has developed a series of works that transcend geographical, linguistic, and cultural borders through the simultaneity of sound and language. Their performances combine composition and improvisation, integrating multilingual texts, vocal experimentation, instrumental performance, electronics, radio transmission, and live-streamed interaction. Hungarian, Italian, Croatian, English, and diverse German dialects intertwine with abstract vocal sound art, creating a rich polyphony of voices and sonic identities. The quartet’s projects have included Dedicated to the Dark for the international Slow Light – Seeking Darkness initiative at Villa For Forest in Klagenfurt, radio broadcasts through ORF Kunstradio and the Usmaradio network, and A Natural Contract, created for Resonances IV at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy. Recent appearances, including performances at Malli Brennerei in South Styria (Austria), continue the ensemble’s exploration of transmission, memory, ecology, distance, and collective listening.