‘Earth art’ − that’s what you could call what Berlin sound artist and composer Jana Irmert performs. For her live performance Ashes, which already has the volcanic element in its name, she uses her own field recordings of lava, scree and desert sand. In Ashes, these meet processed vocal fragments, digital and analogue forms of synthesis and manipulated samples − brought together under the umbrella of a sound-like research project in which Irmert puts the terrestrial rock and sediment layers under the microscope of her equipment fleet of electromagnetic coils and contact microphones. In this way, the timeframe of the performance takes on planetary historical proportions, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.

Jana Irmert has long since established herself as a luminary in the field of spatialized sound installations, as a composer and live performer. Her works often explore the relationship between musical (cultivated) sound and (natural) noise. She repeatedly allows arbitrary ‘noises’ to collide and hands over the evaluation of what she hears − into the eardrums of the recipients. At the same time, a direct proximity to scientific methodology is always virulent in the compositions and installations that have made her a welcome guest at all kinds of renowned festivals around the globe.