The R(A)DIO(CUSTICA) Project Enjoys Success! Elia Moretti’s Composition Won the Palma Ars Acustica Award

This year, the PAA Jury designated three ex-aequo winners. One of them was a production of the German DeutschlandFunkKultur by Fronte Violeta and Martha Kiss Perrone titled "What is Not", which was created in CTM Radio Lab at the CTM Festival in Berlin as a composition and sound installation concerned with the end of Light. The next winner is a composition titled “Tree Spirits | Touch” by Slovenian sound artist Brane Zorman, who engaged trees, their boughs, bark, leaves and the whole forest to cooperate on the composition. His work was entered by the Slovenian Radio. The third ex-aequo winner is a production of Czech Radio – “Once Enea Stuck An Apple Seed To My Ear” authored by Italian musician Elia Moretti, who lives in Prague.

“In this case, the Palma Ars Acustica award makes us happy for two reasons. The first thing that makes us happy of course is the fact that the award was given to a composition that we produced together with its author Elia Moretti in Czech Radio within the Radiocustica project. The second thing, which I believe is extremely important, is that three differently focused works have been awarded ex-aequo. It is a sign of quality, diversity and freedom in the creation that is emerging on the European scene and that promotes diversity in the radio culture and beyond,” says Ladislav Železný, Musical Dramaturg from Czech Radio.

The radiophonic composition “Once Enea Stuck An Apple Seed To My Ear” was premiered in April 2021 as the 194th premiere of an exclusive series on Vltava titled PremEdice Radioateliéru.

Due to the pandemic situation and lockdown during the realization, the composition was realized in cooperation with Austrian ORF and programme series “Zeit-Ton”. The point was that one of the key protagonists, British vocalist Lore Lixenberg, was in Vienna at that time and she could not travel to the Czech Republic or even back to the UK due to the restrictions. Thus, the Palma Ars Acustica award is a recognition of not only Czech Radio, but also our Austrian colleagues.

“I am extremely happy we received this important award. The decision of having three winners ex-aequo is making it even more meaningful. It seems to me indeed that the artistic revolution of today won't happen in the aesthetics as much as in the practices. New creative practices could invite the listeners to reposition themselves, to rethink their values and subjectivities. And that is also the broader focus, or motivation, behind “Once Enea Stuck an Apple Seed to My Ear”. It is a composition that, through engaging various modalities of the score, reflects the situated actions and questions authority,” says the author of the composition, Elia Moretti.

What is hearing and how does it differ from listening? To what extent does hearing influence our behaviour, thinking or motion in space? Or vice versa – how can space and the instantaneous situation affect listening? Can an ear make a sound? And what is radio and how much attention we pay to it? Can you feel radio waves? These and similar questions are raised by the awarded composition “Once Enea Stuck An Apple Seed To My Ear,” which is available for listening here.