I THOUGHT GOD CAN BE FOUND IN THE DANUBE
FOR ORCHESTRA AND FIXED MEDIA
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COMMISSIONED BY RADIO ÖSTERREICH 1 IN COOPERATION WITH ORF MUSIKPROTOKOLL, WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE VGR VERWERTUNGSGESELLSCHAFT RUNDFUNK AND THE BUNDESMINISTERIUM FÜR WOHNEN, KUNST, KULTUR, MEDIEN UND SPORT ÖSTERREICH
PREMIERE ON OCTOBER 3RD 2025 AT ORF MUSIKPROTOKOLL IN HELMUT LIST HALLE, GRAZ (AU) WITH ORF RADIO-SYMPHONIC-ORCHESTRA VIENNA CONDUCTED BY VIMBAYI KAZIBONI
Similar to counting red cars passing by on a highway, growing up in the Balkans we counted domestic appliances drifting past us in the Danube’s stream. There was never really anything romantic about the Danube. I was almost a bit afraid of it.
Until one day in the port of Linz, I discovered JOY and, right next to it, SPIRIT OF THE DANUBE, AVALON TRANQUILITY, and my personal favourite: EXCELLENCE QUEEN. Danube cruise ships promise exactly that: finding romance in the Danube, as seen from a king-sized bed facing the window. Or, as the Danube panorama to make you feel good phrases it on their website: "Through the lovely Wachau, the wild and romantic Carpathians, and into the gentle paradise of the Danube Delta, the 'Queen among Europe’s rivers' makes her way to the Black Sea.”
At this point in my research, I thought maybe romance can be found in the Danube, but there was something more to it than just the color blue that I couldn’t, and still can’t, see.
In his symphony DUNAJ (THE DANUBE), Janáček describes the power of Danube’s current, its endless carrying-away and the two poems underlying the piece depict struggling women who jump into the Danube in search of salvation, rebirth and relief.
There was indeed something more to the romance and the panorama that makes one feel good. The taking over and carrying away of the struggle. But where to?
This was my final clue, and the reason why
I THOUGHT GOD CAN BE FOUND IN THE DANUBE.
There was only one thing left to do.
So I jumped, and all I found was cocaine, coffee, artificial sweeteners, tobacco, steroids, industrial chemicals, pesticides, microplastics, and bacteria.
PART 1 - ❄️💪🏼🚬☕️ (illicit drugs/drugs of abuse, steroid hormones, tobacco ingredients, caffeine)
PART 2 - 🎊🧴👚🦌 (microplastic, BPA, benzododecinium (industrial chemical; used in textile industry,
fabric softening, road construction, cosmetics), galaxolidone (musk fragrance in cosmetics))
PART 3 - 🍬🧲🦠💊 (artificial sweeteners, gadolinium (rare earth element; used for MRI), antibiotic
resistant bacteria, pharmaceuticals)
PART 4 - 🚽 (E-Coli)
I THOUGHT GOD CAN BE FOUND IN THE DANUBE
puts in parallel the recent analysis of Danube water by the ICPDR - International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River and the romance of Danube cruise ships. ICPDR conducted four previous Joint Danube Surveys with the goal of collecting data on special parameters that are not normally analysed. The last one, JOINT DANUBE SURVEY 4: A Shared Analysis of the Danube River took place throughout 2019 at 51 sampling sites in 13 countries across the Danube River Basin. Some of the fundings from the JDS4 report, on which this piece is based on, are: hundreds of pharmaceuticals, 87 compounds of illicit drugs, drugs of abuse and their metabolites (cocaine in particular), steroids, galaxolidone (used as a musk fragrance in cosmetics), tobacco ingredients, caffeine, 6 artificial sweetener substances, industrial chemicals and PPPs (benzododecinium in particular, used as biocide, fabric softening, wetting agent by the textile industry, road construction and cosmetic industry; furthermore 19 PPPs and 8 industrial chemicals exceeded their respective ecotoxicological thresholds in various matrices), microplastics, antibiotic resistant bacteria, rare earth elements: gadolinium (used as a contrast agent for Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI analyses; after injection in the human body, the Gd contrast agent is excreted within a few hours by urine and ends up in wastewater, but because of their stability, Gd-complexes are not removed by conventional wastewater treatment plants) and ytterbium (so far, there is no mention of such anomaly in natural water in the literature: therefor it is unclear whether this anomaly is natural or due to anthropogenic inputs), bisphenol A (BPA) found at all seven groundwater sites and exceeding the quality standard by 9 to 16 times, microbial faecal pollution or rather E. Coli (in Austria the samples from Linz exceeded slightly the moderate to critical pollution), etc. For many of detected substances no quality standards exist.
Many thanks to the ICPDR for the permission to use their data in my artistic work.