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The “This Land is Not Mine” LP combines 7 songs by musician and sound artist Kat Austen. Austen’s maverick style melds acoustic and electronica with field recordings, in this homage to a landscape ravaged by open cast mining: Lusatia, at the German-Polish border. Realised over the course of 2 years, This Land is Not Mine is a modern-day protest album, telling the stories of villages lost to the past, rivers that harbour secrets and communities that rebuild in the wake of mine closures.
Austen’s musical roots hail back to classical piano, metal and folk. Since 2018, Austen has been releasing music that mixes field recordings and ambient electronic sounds with traditional instruments to create a unique and evocative sonic tapestry.
Some field recordings for the album were gathered through a crowdsourcing platform Lausitzklang that explores the sounds of Lusatia.
Album release and Live-Performance
The Album release performance took place on 27th January 2022 at roam project space as part of the transmediale Vorspiel. Austen played specially adapted scientific instruments using local water samples, alongside video projections contextualising the soundscapes, to create an immersive and moving journey through contemporary Lusatia.
The Perfomance was streamed live.
A recording of the live stream will be released soon.
Here is the recording of Kat performing 3 songs from This Land is Not Mine | Album at Serbpop 2.0, 18th September 2021:
This Land is not Mine Performance at Wendisches Museum