implanted memories

lin korobkova: implanted memories

composed ritual for singing performer and self-playing arciorgano (2025) ^WP

Johanna Vargas, soprano

Johannes Keller, arciorgano/electronics

In collaboration with Studio31+

To remember something and rescue it from oblivion: Where the human voice always deviates slightly from the original–in reproducing a melody, for example–and thus creates something unique in every moment, digital machines can reproduce it flawlessly. The computer-controlled microtonal Arciorgano does exactly that: reconstructed in Basel after Nicola Vicentino’s 16th-century organ, it features 36 pitch steps per octave and was historically used in Renaissance choral music, among other things as a corrective instrument.

In the confrontation between the singer and the relentlessly precise organ, Lin Korobkova simultaneously questions the very notion of identity.