CONTINUUM has been a collaborative radio performance conceived by Roberto Paci Dalò for TACTUS Radio Festival.

The challenge was to work on radical improvisation without any conduction and prior rules giving a maximum of freedom to the participants. Most of the artists, performing from different locations, didn’t know each other and actually never talked to each other before the performance. Obviously the key of the project was an extreme attention during the performance from any single artist: “the art of listening” with 18 people performing together on-site in the Republic of San Marino and remotely from the USA, Germany, and Austria.

What came out was a surprise. A subtle texture of sounds with an amazing quantity of moments of silence despite the massive use of live electronics. The performance somehow proved that the planned lack of conduction can be balanced by the level of attention and involvement from the performers. It was a mesmerizing immersion in an acoustical world where electronics graciously merged with acoustical instruments and voices. A nocturnal winterreise across galaxies.

CONTINUUM intended to develop the praxis of the “telematic performance” which grew up drastically from the beginning of the 90s of the last century. Especially around activators such as the programme ORF Kunstradio in Austria, the Ars Electronica Festival and L’Arte dell’Ascolto radio festival, seminal projects such as Cheap Radio, Horizontal Radio, Rivers&Bridges, Realtime, designed an innovative use of telecommunication technologies witnessing the arrival of the Internet in conjunction with the broadcasting and telephone networks. The artist Robert Adrian was one of the major inspirations for many artists in the field.

Idea: Roberto Paci Dalò
Station manager and general coordination: Alessandro Renzi
Mixing board: Lorenzo Ricci
Post-production and mastering: Alessandro Renzi