Rare earth elements are harmless as long as they rest at their place of origin. When they are extracted, they cause much pain, which the end consumer does not notice: pain for the people who dig for them and handle them, as well as for the plants and animals whose habitat is poisoned and destroyed through the extraction of rare earth elements. During refinement and disposal, great environmental pollution is caused as well. Rare earth elements exist in many products which we take for granted. We don’t know of the pain that is caused. We don’t hear it. The piece schmerz is a noise-composition. It renders the pain audible. Glitches during recording serve as source material: faulty microphones, feedbacks, electromagnetic interferences. Sounds which do not occur during our everyday life, or which are outside our hearing range. These faulty and deranged recordings are synonymous for the aforementioned destruction, which we cannot notice during our everyday life either. The recording sources are devices that contain rare earth elements: computer, hard drives, cellphones, audio recorders, loudspeakers.

Released on Seltene Erden