The audio performance Audiokaukas by Arturas Bumšteinas, a young Lithuanian composer (b. 1982) was inspired by books published by Eridanas Publishers in the Science Fiction Golden Series and the programme “Videokaukas” broadcast on Lithuanian TV in 1990. The author of the performance devoted several years to reading the books from the series and watched the films demonstrated in the programme “Videokaukas”. He drew the inspiration for the script from more than a hundred books read and films watched. The script of Audiokaukas is a peculiar concentrate of fantasy literature in the form of a story combined using collage principle. It is an episode of several days and nights in the life of a young talented chef, Denisas. At the beginning, the protagonist’s everyday life is depicted in fragments, presenting his extrovert, hedonistic character (Denisas = Greek Dionysos). The defining moment in the story occurs when Denisas, cooking one of his dishes, suffers food poisoning caused by false morel (Lat. Gyromitra esculenta). However, the effects of poisoning do not manifest at once; they are gradually revealed to the listeners of the performance.
Script, composer and sound editor Arturas Bumšteinas
Voice artists:
Vytautas Tinteris (Denisas Denisovas)
Šarūnas Nakas (Apolonijus Polonskis)
Svetlana Bagdonaitė (Radio anchor),
Birutė Mar (Radio anchor’s daughter)
Karina Metrikytė (“Guest of the Day” talk show host)
Irmantas Jankaitis (False Morel)
Benas Šarka (The Shaggy One)
Armantas Gečiauskas (Ambassador)
Mikas Žukauskas (Ambassador’s interpreter)
Aušrinė Benedikt (Jūratė)
Vidmina Stasiulytė (Justė)
Marija Rasa Kudabaitė (Jurga)
Šalnė Bučiūtė (Cita)
Audrius Pocius (Friend)
Žilvinas Andriušis (Librarian)
Nick Bastis (Alien)
Music performers:
Eglė Janauskaitė (flute)
Dovydas Stalmokas (saxophone)
Dominykas Vyšniauskas (trumpet)
Laimonas Masevičius (tuba)
Gailė Griciūtė (prepared piano)
Arnas Mikalkėnas (accordion)
Tadas Žukauskas (violin)
Kęstutis Pleita (viola)
Song soloists: Svetlana Bagdonaitė, Gabrielė Griciūtė
Song choir: Aušrinė Benedikt, Vidmina Stasiulytė, Šalnė Bučiūtė
Performer of foley sound effects Benas Šarka
Recorded at the Audiovisual Arts Industry Incubator (AMII) in 2014–2015
Recording engineer Ramūnas Jasutis
Mastering by Arūnas Zujus
Sleeve notes by Edvardas Šumila
Lithuanian proofreading by Aušra Gapsevičienė
Translation into English by Martynas Aleksa
Design by Vytautas Volbekas
Produced by Operomanija
Duration: 96′35″
Price: 25,00 €
Format: LP
Year of publication: 2019
Operomanija OP-002