Radiola Springs by Hardi Kurda

This digital music album by Hardi is a curated selection of pieces exploring the theme of radio, created between 2005 and 2020. The collection’s centrepiece is the Radiola Springs project, developed during the pandemic. In this work, Hardi transforms a viola by preparing it with springs and integrating a radio circuit, forging a distinctive sonic identity.

Radiola Springs is deeply personal—born from Hardi's desire to recreate the sound of his stolen violin. His violin, which had originally been imported from West Germany to Baghdad in the early 1970s, was stolen in 2018 from one of Gothenburg's most trusted string repair shops. This loss became a catalyst for experimentation, as Hardi sought to connect the fluctuating spectrum of radio frequencies to the altered viola, searching for echoes of his lost instrument.

Through these pieces, Hardi also connects the sounds of Radiola Springs to his own journey as an immigrant. During his illegal migration to Europe, radio noises were a crucial source of information, shaping his listening experience. The album weaves together nostalgia, memory, and innovation—inviting listeners to traverse the boundaries between past and present, presence and absence, through the unpredictable conversation between prepared viola and radio.

Hardi Kurda is a composer, improviser, and curator of SPACE21 and Archive Khanah in Kurdistan.
space21.org
khanah.org

hardikurda.com