Straw bales is a sonic essay by Magdaléna Manderlová, composed of spoken word, fragments of music and field recordings.
Through Straw bales, Magdaléna Manderlová unwinds her sonic memories of a particular bird (Common swift/Apus apus) through writing, and draws connections between the bird's voice, her ancestors, and their life occupation. Manderlová looks closely at her cultural background and personal history, coming from an industrial region where black coal mining has been woven tightly into people's lives. The sound piece exists bilingually in English and Czech. The piece includes the song 'Sarajevo' by Jaromír Nohavica (Warner Music Czech Republic, 1996); and 'Atlantic Canary recording' by Patrik Åberg (recorded at Los Lajas, Tenerife, Canary Islands, 2016). There are quotes from 'Černá hvězda‘, an essay by Jan Balabán, and 'The Letters of Virginia Woolf‘, by Virginia Woolf.
It is curated in response to the exhibitions law of the land by Brian Maguire and Exorcising America by Merritt Johnson at Kunsthall 3,14.
Straw bales was released on Breton Cassette in 2022, and Lydgalleriet published the written version of the piece for Blue Rinse Papers, 2021. Text, music and field recordings by Magdaléna Manderlová (field recordings from Kozmické louky, Dolní Benešov, Løkken Verk and Sulaymaniyah from 2019-21). Straw bales can be listened to in Lydgalleriet's listening library.