grapefruits fanzine, issue #03: instruments - vergriffen

featuring: Limpe Fuchs, Nina Pixel aka Black Acid, Matana Roberts, Anna Schimkat, Laurie Spiegel, Tina Tonagel We are glad to present the third issue of grapefruits. This time six authors from different professional backgrounds wrote about female* composers and sound artists and their use and understanding of instruments: Limpe Fuchs encounters her instruments from eye to eye. Tones and sounds want to be lured out and listened to with care. Playing an instrument is like an encounter to her, in each of her ever changing performances a new experience. Black Acid aka Nina Pixel is not interested in virtous playing a specific instrument. In contrast to the classic notion of instrumental musicians she feels attracted by instruments either destroyed or instruments she cannot properly play. As a sound artist she turns things and phenomens she likes acoustically into instruments by the means of her music production process. Matana Roberts turns music itself into an instrument to tell history and make it tangible. Anna Schimkat builds her own instruments and uses her field recordings, compositions, installations and performances as instruments for sharpening conscious perception. For Laurie Spiegel programming and composing belong to one process. By developing her own software, she can transform computers into intelligent instruments, making it possible to focus on the intuitive, emotional and almost limitless creation of sounds. Tina Tonagel’s work ranges from sound installations, visual arts and performance pieces with self-built instruments. Enjoy reading! grapefruits is a fanzine about female* composers and sound artists, originating from students of the master programme Klang und Realität at the Institute for Music and Media at the RSH Düsseldorf. The title refers to Grapefruit, a book by Yoko Ono published in 1964, who saw grapefruits as a hybrid of lemons and oranges, a metaphor for her own identity — always being in-between. Appearing twice a year, the first issue was released in summer 2019. The authors, varying from issue to issue, choose the artists they are going to interview and write about by personal interest, always having in mind different genres in the art and pop context as well as a broad international spectrum, including contemporary artists as well as early pioneers. For each issue the authors define a topic which combines the diverse characters, in the same time emphasizing the different understanding each one has on that specific topic. grapefruits focuses on women*, or people who identify as female*, because we, the authors of grapefruits, feel that they are affected by a lack of visibility – historically and at present. Using the gender asterisk, we want to make other genders and gender identities visible and include them typographically, representing inter-, non-binary and trans people.