Always There. My Life with Tinnitus Aram Lintzel / Michaela Melián / Juno Meinecke

»Always There. My Life with Tinnitus« is the second release on Martin Hossbach's sub-label Martin Hossbach Word, which only puts out readings and radio plays.

Aram Lintzel explains: »At first there were no addressees except myself. I later wrote it all down under the title ›Always there. About noise trauma, tinnitus and hyperacusis‹. It was published in autumn 2019 as a kind of self-therapy, because I was on the way to a dangerous depression because of my chronic tinnitus. The letter was a desperate revolt against the agonizing intruder. Because Leif Randt and Jakob Nolte showed themselves to be sympathetic and had an open ear for my story, the text was made available to the public on their idiosyncratic platform Tegel Media, carefully edited by Jakob Nolte, designed by Lena Thomaka. Later there was an abridged reprint in the weekly newspaper Der Freitag. ›My tinnitus text‹, as I soon called it, was also read out at a Tegel Media event (the author was not present, however).

The writing down of my inner (ear) life not only had an uplifting effect, it also relieved me in everyday practical terms. Now I no longer had to verbally torture myself when I had to explain to friends and acquaintances why I couldn't come to this concert or party. I only had to share the link to Tegel Media, and the re-traumatisation was halfway banned. Because I also heard from some British tinnitus-affected friends and musicians in the course of time, I wanted to publish the text in English as well. Martin Hossbach supported me in this project and offered to release the recording on his label, accompanied by music, of course. It was perfectly clear that this had to come from Michaela Melián (artist and bassist with the band FSK): after reading my text, her email was touching in solidarity, mentioning her own ear experiences. I have always loved Michaela's solo albums and her work on memory politics, ›Memory Loops‹. The music for ›Always There‹ is based on the latter, here, too, glasses filled with water and brushed with fingers can be heard. Michaela also worked with different strings and, between the chapters, with kalimba and zither. It also quickly became obvious that her daughter Juno Meinecke should read the text. Because the passages in ›Memory Loops‹ with her voice always put me in a special, sometimes depressing mood. The fact that Juno has already written for Tegel Media rounds off the project completely. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of them and also to Ben Caton for the sensitive translation of the original text into English.«