Now in its fifth year, the CTM 2018 Radio Lab is dedicated to exploration and experimentation in hybrid combinations of radio and live performance. It is a project between Deutschlandfunk Kultur Radio Art/Klangkunst and CTM Festival in collaboration with ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival, Ö1 Kunstradio, and the British music magazine The Wire.

Based on sound material submitted by radio correspondents from all over the world, Olaf Nicolai’s piece "In the Woods there is a Bird" was commissioned by the documenta 14 radio programme and by Deutschlandfunk Kultur. It won the 2017 Karl Sczuka Prize for audio drama. It melds sounds from demonstrations, riots, and rallies originally recorded for news broadcasts. Devoid of their usual radio commentary or written indices, the concrete audio objects become detached and undefined, allowing the artist to mix, reference, and re-reference them into an urgent sonic essay about power and powerlessness, authority and protest. The piece will be performed at CTM 2018 on Tuesday, January 30th and Berghain. 

In this talk, he will discuss this piece together with Marcus Gammel, head of Radio Art at Deutschlandfunk Kultur.