— Whispers of the Valley —
Lorelai Gumeni
In February 2025, we went to Kathmandu, Nepal, to attend the first edition of Boiling Harmonies, an experimental electronic music festival. It was very exciting to immerse ourselves, for the first time, in such a culturally rich country, where ancient traditions are still very much present in everyday life. It felt like a vivid blend of ancestral ways of living and fragments of modern life.
We loved it very much and stayed there for two months, getting involved with the local underground anarchist scene, co-organizing gigs across various venues, and meeting and collaborating with other traveling international artists. It truly is a place of many possibilities, and the people are kind, curious, and supportive of artistic exploration.
This book is a collection of images — Whispers of the Valley — things that captured and expanded my imagination during that time. It is accompanied by a DJ CoSmiC DisaSteR mix CD of field and street recordings from the same period.
With gratitude to all the wonderful people of the Kathmandu Valley.
2025年2月、
私たちは、その魅力に惹かれ、それから2か月間滞在する事に。
この写真集『Whispers of the Valley』は、イメージの集積。カトマンズの滞在時に、
また付属するCDには、dj CoSmiC DisaSteRによる、
カトマンズで、出会ったすべての人たちへ、
Lorelai Gumeni :
Lorelai Gumeni is an artist working across photography and experimental sound, engaged in an ongoing exploration of perception, atmosphere, and human presence.
Born in the historic city of Constanța, on Romania’s Black Sea coast, her practice has evolved through movement across diverse social and cultural environments — from underground communities and free parties to remote territories and transitional spaces across different countries. These experiences inform a body of work attentive to fragile states of intimacy, displacement, ritual, and collective memory.
Working under the moniker Joker, her sound practice centers on improvisation, using found materials, self-built instruments, and bowed cymbals to construct textured acoustic environments and immersive sonic narratives.
Her photographic work focuses on subtle details, peripheral gestures, and shifting atmospheres, revealing hidden tensions and parallel realities embedded within everyday experience. Through fragmentation, texture, and observation, she creates images that evoke altered states of perception and quiet psychological landscapes.
ローレライ・グメニは、
ルーマニアの黒海沿岸に位置する歴史都市コンスタンツァに生まれ
Joker の名義で展開するサウンド・プラクティスでは、
彼女の写真作品は、見過ごされがちな細部や周縁的な身振り、
All photos by
Lorelai Gumeni
Spread by
Refugees On Dance Floor
R.O.D.F. VISUAL 007
1st edition
2026
Full color 216 pages with CD
The included CD features an approximately one-hour DJ mix using only on-location recordings from the "dj CoSmiC "fiEld reC" DisaSteR" field recording series in Nepal, which was uploaded to SoundCloud from the location. The series is a cultural anthropological (?!?!) field recording series from a DJ's perspective, recording interesting sounds encountered like records found in a record store!
付属のCDには、現地からサウンドクラウドにアップされていた、dj CoSmiC DisaSteRによるレコ屋で会うレコード的に、出会った面白い音をレコーディグしていく、dj的感覚視点からの文化人類学的(?!?!)フィールドレコーディング シリーズ＠ネパール、”dj CoSmiC "fiEld reC" DisaSteR”の現地録音音源のみを使用した約1時間のdjミックスCDが付いてきます！！
