Moniek Darge

Crete Soundies

Three soundscapes of Crete, each 20 minutes in duration

The composer is Moniek Darge, of Gent Belgium and for one of the three pieces, the third one, also Françoise Vanhecke, of Harelbeke Belgium

1. Magnesia (2006), sound Moniek Darge
2. Anemos (2007), sound Moniek Darge
3. East Crete (2008-2009), sound Moniek Darge and Françoise Vanhecke (together the Logos Women Duo FraMon)


Program notes:

The project lets us hear 3 soundscapes of 20 minutes each, made in Crete. It is the result of 2 years of Levka Ori research and a supplemental year in eastern Crete. The composer is Moniek Darge and for the East Crete project, also Françoise Vanhecke. One of the compositions is also an intermedia piece for which Lien Baert made a DVD based upon a 360 degree picture of the Magnesia site.


1. "Magnesia" (2006):
MAGNESIA, PLATO'S UTOPIAN CITY IN CRETE
The philosopher Plato situates the city of his dreams "Magnesia" in Crete. It is an utopian autonomous city to which creative people are attracted as if by magnetic power

“Levka Ori, the white mountains of Crete are made audible
the magic point of Plato's Magnesia is localised there
sounds are transported from one site to the other
sea sounds to the mountains
goat bells and singing crickets
magnesia”

a collaboration of: dany lobe, fernand callebert, logos foundation, moniek darge, barbara buchowiec, lien baert, maarten callebert, nicole bauwens and kurt du tre


2. "Anemos" (2007)
This project is also part of the larger artist event called Levka Ori, which yearly takes place in west Crete. Artists from different media come together and what started off as a landart intitiative became an intermedia event. Central location is a site high in the mountains which we named Magnesia.

When standing on Magnesia all you hear is wind and you have a 360 degree wide view of the mountains around. Quite an impressive experience.


3. "East Crete. Mother Goddess." (2008-2009)
After soundscaping for some years in south west Crete with mainly nature sounds as material, Moniek Darge and Françoise Vanhecke decided to try their chance in the more known part of the island.

We settled down on the east coast and started our sound hunting. Less nature sounds but the always present crickets were there again as well as the varied watersounds.

But here the heavy winds gave way to voices of tourist guides and clouds of folk music in small pubs. Our search resulted in a hunt for the ancient Cult of the Mother Goddess. This cult being much older than Plato. The traces of the Mother Goddess are to be discovered everywhere on the Crete Island, for whom wants to find them. FraMon (Françoise and Moniek) met the Mother Goddess even in the shape of the young girl in the tourist stalls of Kritsa, or in the shape of the old bearded woman at the Panaghia Kera, or the black silent shadow in the back of an empty little restaurant.


With sounds we tried to evocate the atmosphere of the island and recall the ancient hope for a utopian society.


all compositions with the support of the Flemish Government

First web-published: August 2^nd -3, updated 2016-05-20