Dr. Klangendum

This is the third publication of a serie of audio reports made by Sajjra Xhrs Galarreta from the transhumance.

You are invited to stun your senses. This episode starts with an invitation to the trance in the blast and the excess of the celebration. A report for harsh ears. There is no room for silence until its conception is killed. The call of a salesman becomes a mantra; the vanity is sanctified: the repetition reveals emptiness, rhythmically, verbalizing the happy death of the intellect.

The raw field recordings for this third report were made in Katmandu on September 2024, during the procession of the living goddess “Kumari” and the preparations for the celebration of the “Indra Jatra”. All sounds are live recordings of a single take, no effects, overdubs or overlays were applied, only small cross-fades, equalizations, mastering and an intense process of exposure to live acoustic experiences during the recordings and their subsequent selection. Recorded and mixed by Sajjra Xhrs Galarreta. Spoken words by Galarreta. All were mixed in Nizhny Novgorod (Rusia) in April, 2025.

English translation of the Spanish spoken words in this report:

“I witnessed the preparation and “awakening” of some masks before dressing them up for an annual ball. They were offered flowers, smoke, food, oil, money, among other things, similar to the way it is customary to pay tribute to the Apus in the Andes. It happened in a long room of a family home that was apparently the guardian of the masks, their art, and the power they carried. This entire neighborhood seemed “enchanted,” full of temples and symbols that questioned the human condition and its beliefs. Its inhabitants came as families without stopping to leave offerings for the masks on silver platters. I entered the house alone, while Mar stayed in the entryway; she refused to take off her shoes because the floor was wet. We had to go in barefoot. When we reached the third floor, it smelled strongly of incense, and I saw an old man respectfully beginning to remove the masks from a huge gilded metal trunk that two teenagers had brought down from the upper floor. The man placed the masks one by one, very slowly and very carefully, on the floor, which was covered with a very clean white cloth. When I saw the masks, I felt a very strong rapture, like a possession. I understood that this was the place I was meant to be. They were handmade masks, so masterfully crafted that they seemed to be made of synthetic material or machine-made. The most impressive thing was their energy. They had slept in the trunk for I don’t know how long until that day, along with the clothes and accessories that would accompany them on the bodies of the dancers, who would embody these divinities. It was useless to try to define whether they were “evil” or “benign” divinities, because that boundary was already broken here. They were pure energy.”

Ruidosa es la diosa y el silencio que viste en trance de sol

Texts by Galarreta
Photo by Milova
Artist site: https://cielopresenteytotal.wordpress.com/