Totoabas

Featuring: Petr Vrba

After many years of working together on the purely recording-based project Binaural Camping — during which they explored and interpreted various acoustically interesting industrial or sacred spaces through mutual performative interaction — Petr Vrba and Zdeněk Závodný decided to build on binaural camping with a concert project. One of the impulses for this step was, among other things, the meeting of two instruments of Scottish provenance in both musicians’ inventories: Instruo electronic modules and Scottish bagpipes. Gradually, other favorite instruments of both players were added: trumpet in Petr’s case and Zdeněk’s contrabass alto clarinet.

The starting point of the project Totoabas is the live modulation of acoustic wind instruments through Instruo electronic modules (primarily the granular processor Arbhar and the tunable stereo looper Lúbadh). These modules are capable of interacting with the sound signal in a way that elevates them to the level of a sophisticated musical instrument with an incredibly rich range of applications, whose limits are defined only by the performer’s abilities and by the variations in the mutual interconnection of individual modules.

The project places emphasis on structured and partially composed playing, with layers of drones and repetitive rhythmic patterns that both musicians shape in order to create a pulsating musical matter. Within this material, an improvised dialogue between the two players unfolds.

Debut release Winter Spawning is collaborative production of czech label 13 Raw and french label Circum-disc. The title, vinyl cover and some parts of the music are inspired by a legend about residents of the northern part of the Florida Gulf who had been troubled for a long time by strange sounds whose origin they could not determine. Over time, they began to feel that something was happening to their houses, because in some places the noise was so strong that it passed through the walls and made the windowpanes vibrate. No one among the locals had an explanation for it. Even the authorities were unable to uncover the cause. After some time, the people from the coastal homes most affected by the sounds organized a collection to fund serious scientific research that could solve the mystery. To everyone’s surprise, it turned out to be “sounds of love” produced by the marine fish Totoaba macdonaldi during its winter spawning. This fish, commonly known as the American drum, creates these sounds using its specialized swim bladder. That organ has become its curse, driving it to the brink of extinction and also giving rise to its nickname “marine cocaine.” The totoaba’s swim bladder is a rare commodity on the Chinese black market, as it is believed to have extraordinary aphrodisiac and rejuvenating effects. For a one-kilogram swim bladder, the final buyer in China will pay roughly the same amount as for an equivalent quantity of cocaine.