RADMILA VANKOSKA

The film Sound before sound (Interstitial sound field of fiddling practice) by Branislav Stevanović and Radmila Vankoska, documents reality on the ground, developing the genre of experimental ethnographic film.
The filmmaking language employs scientific-research methods of data collection in social-humanistic sciences and experimental methods of building an audio-visual narrative. Traditional methods of qualitative research, such as interviews with informants where the goal is to capture verbal expressions and documentation of performance practices, are intended for conventional topics of study in domestic ethnomusicology. However, the primary method of data collection in this film uses techniques of soundscape, which is of crucial importance for this achievement.
The visual narrative further describes the data obtained using this method, contributing to an independent and interdependent relationship between the two media, placing audio and video data in a seemingly dihedral position. The sound spectrum, from geophony to non-material traditional practices, consists of numerous different sources of sound. Interstitial sound, which is found between the rustling of a maple tree and the specific performance of epic genre by the master of Guslar's practice, is the subject of research and investigation in this film.
The selected sounds create a sonic narrative that aims to show a spectrum of different noise, undefined significance for cultural norms in the community, unlike the clearly defined function of epic genre singing with Guslas.

Directed by: Radmila Vankoska, Branislav Stevanic
Camera and editing: Radmila Vankoska
Recording and sound design: Vladimir Korac
Technical support: Nikola Radeka
Fiddler: Aleksandar Milutinovic
Supported by: SOKOJ
Production: CED (Center for ethnomusicological activities)
Archive recordings: Collection of prof. Milman Parry, Harvard University