BE: You’re a bit of a mystery man to me. You suddenly seemed to appear on GAS with very good videos with music which you’ve created. You say your a sound engineer. Tell us about that. What does that entail?
JC: Sound engineers work in film, television and theatre. They record the sound, for example the individual instruments of a band, they mix it, they add effects and ensure a good
balance. Therefore you need a lot of technical knowledge and experience but - above all – a feeling for the music.
I started out in theatre, worked with musicians, went into film and finally back to theatre. Nowadays I produce my own music. I use software instruments, digital effects and a digital
audio work station, which also allows video insertion and editing. All this fits on a laptop. A lot has changed in this profession, but you still need the experience, the feeling - and much passion.
How I came to GAS is easy to tell.
I used to say “rather hell freezes over and becomes an ice rink before I go to Facebook”. But I was looking for an online platform for my videos and YouTube turned out to be too
unspecific. Then a musician friend of mine told me about the many art groups on Facebook. He specifically mentioned the GAS - group and I am happy he did. I have discovered many
wonderful artists from all over the world in this group and had the pleasure of working together with some of them. I appreciate that very much.
BE: When I first “met” you you were working in Germany but you live in Greece. Do you travel to different countries for sound engineering jobs or just back and forth to Germany?
JC: As a young sound engineer, I traveled extensively on tour and had the pleasure of seeing many countries and meeting many interesting artists. For example, I was on the road with West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar and did technical support for various bands and theater productions. To be honest, that would be too exhausting for me today. Working on tour means 10-12 hours work a day plus the traveling (and the parties). That's great if you're 25 or 30, but I'm 60 now and prefer a slightly healthier life - and the romantic dinners with my wife..
By the way, it's the other way around (unfortunately). I live and work in Berlin, but I travel to Greece whenever I find the time.
BE: Do you work with anyone who will hire you as a sound engineer or do you have a special area where you work? I remember you mentioned working with a puppet theatre?
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JC: Oh yes, the puppet theatre in Berlin Neukölln, it's in my neighborhood. Very charming and lovingly furnished. They do children's theater, but also a lot for adults. I attended a "Faust" show a few weeks ago and met the owners. Very nice people. We chatted over a bottle of wine and got to the topic of Dylan Thomas (of course). Then we (I..) started fantasizing about how Under Milkwood could be staged as a puppet show, with music and a good sound design. To cut a long story short: I'm thinking about it... By the way, on the same street as the puppet theater is another theater where I worked for over 10 years, the Heimathafen Neukölln. It is over 100 years old and heritage listed, also very charming and beautiful. Concerts, readings and theater performances take place here. If you ever visit Berlin, check out both, they are worth it..
BE: I think you said you were also a poet. Would you like to share one of your poems with us?
JC: I wouldn´t consider myself as a poet. I write a lot of texts, whether they can be described as “poetic” in any way is up to the reader. But I´m happy to share the lyrics of my new video
with you guys, and you´ll find out for yourself...
Paradise Lost or: The End Of The Line by RC Roden
The valleys passed by in the blink of an eye, the mountains touched the moon
and one with the mountains, the moon and the stone on which he walked, the merchant looked up to the sky, but - he found no solace in it
The many summers he had seen on his way to the sea, the clouds rising and the winds rushing down, the voices that had circled, the gazes that had embraced him,
All this led him now to the end of the line
Carefully he examined the withering fields of memory whose fruits he hoped to find in the water, like the light of the sun that multiplied and dissolved there,
that spoke of memory as of a woman in labour with wide open eyes
and of her child as of a ghost
One day, before the next life or after the last love, he would think again of the mountains, of the roots of the earth and the misty candles of imagination
where seconds ago a heart had beaten in his breast,
where a single imagined syllable had unleashed a torrent of words inside him
and a single step had led to a half-empty, half-finished paradise.
And he, who dreamed the world in flames,
and kept a double-tongued fairy tale between his lips,
which asked and answered,
at the same time, with the same voice,
which once exposed, twice took a new shape,
He, who incessantly mocked the song of birds, the fear of the blind on the
pavements, and the tales of day and night, of brotherhood and freedom..
He - suddenly stood by the sea
and spread his arms
The merchant opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of the city
He stared at the neon lights in which the moon was fading
He listened to the sound of the surf dying away in the din of traffic,
and for a last time a wave rose,
high as a mountain,
and smashed on the pavement of the street.
“If you're running out of time”, said the merchant, “buy as much of it as you can....”
He heard himself laughing and time
gave answer.
***
I originally wrote this text in German, in 1992. The war in former Yugoslavia began and I got more and more the impression that madness rules the world. That's why I started writing, maybe to get rid of it.
100 years ago, after the first world war, William Butler Yeats wrote the line "The darkness drops again" in one of his poems. Many wars were to follow. Today it´s the one in Ukraine, nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. I'm still writing, but the new lyrics are similar to the old ones.
More than 30 years after the first words I wrote, madness still reigns and darkness drops again. Still, I have hope. I may not believe in humanity, but I believe in the love and the
power of the individual human being. I can see it, everywhere and every day.
I see it in the eyes of the noisy children on the playground in front of my house and in the smiles of their mothers. I see it in the old couple from the house next door still walking down the street hand in hand after 50 years of marriage. I see it in my wife's empathy when she talks about her social work and in my best friend's passion when he talks about his art.
So, the Darkness may drop, but we we are prepared.
In my Craft or Sullen Art by Dylan Thomas, art by Belinda, video and music by RC Roden.
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