Ödipus, Herrscher Mieko Suzuki

»Ödipus, Herrscher« is the debut release of Japanese sound artist Mieko Suzuki on raster. Her work is the result of a composition commissioned by Schauspielhaus Bochum.

The classic, timeless material of Oedipus has been staged as a gloomy dystopia in Bochum since 2021. With her immersive sound layers for the play, Suzuki focuses on the processing of archaic resonance media such as wood, stone, metal, fur and clay. Already before the first words of the play are spoken, the auditorium is filled with a gloomy, static drone; a sound that anticipates what will later become the bitter basic tendency of the material on stage: pestilence, decay, fear and resignation. Anticipating the plot theme with this drone also underlines the key role of the sound, the importance of the music for this production. Suzuki processes sounds with contact microphones, gently stroking on wood, but later increasing to scratching and hitting. Only in the background the sound sources are electronically manipulated, alienated and distorted. Her central concern is direct interaction, the correspondence between acting and music through the direct improvisation of her sound spheres. Without the primary use of classical instruments, music emerges that includes the gesture of triggering sound events. The titles of the individual tracks such as »Disaster«, »Taboo«, »Pest« and »Vertigo« express the underlying story line musically and emotionally without illustrating it as a compositional narrative. »Vertigo«, for example, features a constantly playing Shepard tone, expressing the inevitability of the abyss.

In addition to this production, Suzuki is involved as a sound artist and musician in other theater plays such as “Hamlet” at Schauspielhaus Bochum and “Richard II” at the Vienna Burgtheater. She has performed at Mutek.JP (Tokyo), CTM Festival (Berlin), Human Club (Barcelona) and E1 (London), among others, and co-organizes the Berlin event series Kookoo. Mieko Suzuki lives and works in Berlin.