Furnica
Olga Kokcharova
Furnica originates from a field recording that gradually turns against its own means of production. As ants invade the recording device, environmental sounds become increasingly intertwined with electronic interference, until the system ultimately falls silent. The work transforms an unforeseen encounter between living organisms and recording technology into an autonomous sonic composition.
Speckled Toshe 2022, SPT21-1
One sided 12′ black vinyl disc in a folded, screenprinted grass cardboard cover.
Furnica begins with a simple act of listening. While recording the sounds of an anthill, Olga Kokcharova’s recorder is gradually invaded by ants. As they enter the device, its electronic components begin to fail, producing glitches that increasingly displace the surrounding soundscape until the recording abruptly collapses into silence.
The malfunction was accidental. Kokcharova decided to retain the damaged recording, allowing the ants’ interference with the equipment to become part of the work itself. What begins as an environmental recording is gradually altered by the activity of the very organisms being recorded.
The one-sided LP presents this process as an uninterrupted sequence. Sounds from the anthill give way increasingly to glitches and electronic instability as the recorder deteriorates, until the device ceases to function. The duration of the record follows this transformation without reconstruction or correction.
Furnica thus documents not only the sounds surrounding an anthill, but what happened to the recording apparatus while those sounds were being captured. The recorder is no longer a neutral means of observation: its physical presence in the environment becomes audible in the recording itself.
A1, (one sided), Furnica, 11:57
Olga Kokcharova – concept, field recording and composition
Pali Meursault – accompanying text
Lucile Durpraz – translation
Giuseppe De Giacomi – cover design and screen printing (Hùrdega stamperia d’arte)
Cedrik Fermont – mastering
Flo Kaufmann – lacquer cut
Furnica originated from a field recording made by Olga Kokcharova at an anthill in the forest. During the recording, ants entered the device and gradually damaged its components. The resulting glitches increasingly overlay and displace the sounds of the forest until the system collapses and the recording falls silent.
The one-sided 12-inch record is housed in a twelve-page, multi-folded cover, screen-printed on grass cardboard. It includes an accompanying text by Pali Meursault in French and English.
Olga Kokcharova
Olga Kokcharova is a sound artist and composer based in Geneva. Her practice encompasses electroacoustic composition, field recording, installation, performance and radio. Working with recorded environments, acoustic phenomena and spatial conditions, she examines how listening shapes our perception of places and the relations that unfold within them. Her projects often develop through site-specific research and collaborations across sound, visual art and performance.
Speckled-Toshe is an independent publishing platform for artist records and sound editions. Working in close collaboration with artists, musicians, composers, writers and designers, each release is conceived as an editorial work in which sound, texts, images and design form an integrated whole rather than separate components.