This is 12&12, an audible day in the life in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. 12 hours of day, and 12 hours of night, which coincide quite exact with the sunrise and sunset, the main reason why the Ethiopian time count starts at 6 in the morning, meaning at 7 there is 1 hour of sunshine, etc. Which procedure repeats in the evening, when sun sets at 6, so at 7 there is 1 hour of darkness, etc.
12&12 tells the story in audio-only of a day in the life by having one subject for one hour, be it sport, nightlife, work, recreation and a lot of other activities happening in a multi million inhabitants metropole in East-Africa. There are no voice-overs, hardly any edits, and all material was recorded using two microphones only, at the time of the day it is transmitted, adjusted for daylight saving time.
The non-radio version of 12&12 was one of the first, if not *the* first sound exhibition in Addis Ababa. The daily hours were exposed at the Goethe Institute, and the nightly hours at the Alliance Française, both in Addis Ababa in 2011, for whose kind support the artists wished to express his thanks. Special thanks also goes to Melaku Belay of Club Fendika and Kidus ‘Vemund’
Berhanu, for invaluable assistance.
Jeroen Visser, Zürich, Wednesday February 8th, 2017
Night Hour 9 – OROPAX
02-03 am
Baro Hotel Sleeps
Thur, May 01, 2008
As the Baro Hotel was always the centre of my stays in Addis Ababa, it keeps returning in this 24 hour review. This specific hour is visited by arriving guests -one can always tell when a plane has arrived- and by the various clubs around the Hotel, blasting their subwoofers to the max, and usually a bit over it… Not for the oversensitive, so to say.
Night Hour 10 – 50 Hz and coffee
03-04 am
Bole Airport
Sun,March 20, 2011
Place of happy arrivals and mostly sad departures for the biggest part of visitors to Ethiopia, there always was this lady doing the coffee ceremony, a place to drink the first or last St. George, and it is acoustically signed by cleaning personnel, and a broken high pressure light bulb buzzing it’s way through.
Night Hour 11 – Religious Polyphonia
04-05 am
Rain and Mosques in the early morning
Sun, Aug 06, 2006
The Baro hotel near Piassa in Arada also lies in between several Muslim Mosqs and Christian Churches, both of which call for their believers with chants and prayers early in the morning. It makes up for quite a polyphony of religions.
Night Hour 12 – Marathon
5-6 am
Meskel Square Runners
Sat, March 26, 2011
This is the last hour of the night, which is already nearly beginning the day again. We are on Meskel Square, where on the stand of the Parade ground the runners are doing their morning training, before going to work, and before daytime pollution kicks in. No wonder they have such good long distance runners.
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