Hans Berg | Dream Maker
For this episode of Lisson… ON AIR, I am playing the 2017 record called Dream Maker by Hans Berg. Hans Berg is a Swedish musician, producer and composer who since 2004 has also collaborated with Nathalie Djuberg. Lisson presents… ON AIR is written and made by Hana Noorali. Track list: 1. In Dreams: This was made for Nathalie and Hans’ first outdoor sculpture project in Wanås Konst Sculpture Park in Sweden in 2016. Titled “In Dreams” the work consisted of a soundscape and a reflective surface with hypnagogic sculpture atop, installed on the ground of a park which was surrounded by woodland trees. Birds wearing excessive make-up and smoking cigarettes from their bottoms, pink and blue acorns who are wearing crinkled under-ware, bananas wrapped in bows and florescent caterpillars all of which are simulacrums, characters that are bizarre and subversive substitutes for what you might come across in a park are included in the installation. These anthropomorphised animals, fruits and vegetation combine together with sound to create an immersive installation that surreally mimics its environment. An insurgent context manifests within which the viewer questions their understanding of reality. 2.The Secret Garden: This track was made to accompany a large-scale installation which was first shown at ACCA in Melbourne in 2015. The work consists of neon lights and sculptures which are controlled and activated by the music and by the viewers’ movement within the installation. The space is filled with giant flower heads, enormous leaves, golden acorns, chequered florescent cushions, melting ice creams and neon curls all of which are presided over by a clay-mation shaman rabbit. These psychedelic animals, objects and sounds are part of a fictional landscape titled “The Secret Garden” created by Nathalie Djuberg and Hans Berg. The viewer is propelled into a mysterious and ultra-sensory world, an existential and hallucinatory void that is intended to mirror or draw out the infinite possibilities of the audience’s subconscious. The work was also shown at 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai (M21), 2016 and at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) in February 2016. 3. Neon: “Neon” was made for an installation that was never realised. Both Hans Berg and Nathalie Djuberg had wanted to make a work within which lights were controlled by music, “The Secret Garden” was made but “Neon” for now only exists as an audio track. 4. Gas, Solid, Liquid: This song was made for a special edition of Parkett Magazine in 2012, that featured an article on Natalie Djurberg and Hans Berg.