“The starting point when creating the ‘HRTBRKS’ was how and on how many ways the heart can be broken”, says Nina Dragičević. The sound composition “HRTBRKS” thus represents an universal theme: a heartbreak and its consequences. But, the author avoids romantisation of heart aches, usually presented as the dark side of love, perhaps of life or existence as a whole, since she recreates (using sound) heartbreaks’ primarily destructive effects from the perspective of the heartbroken.
The composition is based on the author’s own heart beat, and it constitutes of six parts – a consecutive series of heartbreaks, each followed by its consequence: after the first heartbreak, which approaches and strikes with a shrill sharpness, there is the second one (No. 3), a more impetuous, but a paralising one, and the third one (No. 5), which rounds up the overall logic of heartbreaks – their repetition. “No matter what you do”, emphasises the author, “the heartbreak happens again. It does not stop. I could continue this composition forever”. This composition, masterfully presented in sound, needs to be consumed with all intellectual attention: heartbreaks are not something that happens on the way and passes just as easily and without importance. On the contrary, they are, for their shudder and pain, violence in its pure form. The audience should grasp that. And without any expectation of catharsis, romanticism or even survival, please. Let us carefully observe, how the composition ends.
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