I THOUGHT GOD CAN BE FOUND IN THE DANUBE – PART 2 is a microtonal work for electric guitar, keyboard, electronic drums, and video, conceived as a series of miniatures that can be performed in any order and connected through transitions. The piece explores the Danube river system as a site where ecological devastation, political responsibility, and human intervention intersect. The river becomes both a geographical landscape and a complex network through which pollution, waste, and the consequences of political inaction travel across national borders.

The work brings together documentary videos, interviews, and recorded material from different locations along the Danube and its tributaries, tracing environmental crises and attempts at remediation. From the toxic red mud disaster in Ajka, Hungary, to the accumulation of household waste along the Tisza and Lim rivers, the material reveals how environmental destruction is sustained by inadequate infrastructure, delayed political action, and fragmented cross-border responsibility. Scientific expeditions, local waste collectors, volunteers, and interviews with political representatives offer contrasting perspectives on the relationship between communities, governmental institutions, and the river itself.

The musical material is derived directly from the sonic content of the documentary videos. Through a microtonal analysis of the recorded speech, the pitches of the voices are examined and translated into the closest corresponding notes of the Fokker 41-tone scale. Spoken language thus becomes a source of musical material, blurring the boundaries between speech and instrumental sound, documentation and composition. The resulting microtonal structures retain a connection to the original voices while transforming them into a new sonic dimension. Performed by electric guitar, keyboard, and electronic drums, the music translates these fragments of speech into an instrumental language shaped by microtonal relationships. 

I THOUGHT GOD CAN BE FOUND IN THE DANUBE – PART 2 is the second part of an ongoing compositional project by Sara Stevanović. The first part, written for orchestra and tape, is based on the Joint Danube Survey 4 reports documenting the quality of the Danube's water and the materials found within it. This research also inspired the title of the project, emerging from the encounter between the river's natural significance and the disturbing evidence of human impact on its ecosystem. While the first part draws on scientific data concerning the river's condition, Part 2 expands the investigation through documentary video, recorded speech, and the political and social realities of pollution along the Danube and its tributaries.​