A site-specific electroacoustic composition along Stříbrnický Creek explores the soundscape of this melodious watercourse in Bertino Valley in Ústí nad Labem.

Bertina Valley is a piece of nature hidden almost in the center of the city. It is a place that is part of the city yet remains somewhat removed from its usual hustle and bustle. It was named after Bertha Schaffner, the wife of the director of the Association for Chemical and Metallurgical Production, who, at the end of the 19th century, was instrumental in transforming it into a nature park with rest areas and supported this idea with a financial donation. The Stříbrnice Stream flows through the valley parallel to a road that winds several times into steep switchbacks along the slope. However, many people simply drive past the valley rather than venturing in to stop for a moment. 

The starting point for the sound installation Along (Stříbrnický Stream) is the sound itself, which Ian Mikyska perceived in a changing relationship to his own movement during his first walk through Bertin Valley. The electroacoustic composition, which invites auditory contemplation, includes—in addition to field recordings from Bertin Valley—a classical guitar part and electronic sustained tones (sine waves), which are resonated through the bubbling sections of the Stříbrnice Stream. The sound of water here is not merely a recording of a specific place, but part of a structure in which space, movement, and time intertwine.

The composition even specifies the tempo and the speed at which listeners are to move through the space. The musical tones thus enter into a dynamic relationship with the sounds of contact between stones and water, birds, and the more distant sounds of civilization. Here, the composer does not treat the recording as a mere documentation of the landscape, but as a means of reactivating the experience of a specific place. The composer has created three versions of the piece, each of which approaches the “place–recording–music” relationship differently, allowing listeners to perceive the environment of the Stříbrnice Stream from various perspectives. 

The first version combines field recordings with a live instrument performed by guitarist Ondrej Veselý. It is further supplemented by a musical layer consisting of electronic tones and additional recordings of the Stříbrnický Stream captured using both a conventional microphone and a water microphone (hydrophone). The other two versions of the composition separate this connection—one works solely with the musical component, the other solely with the field recordings. The composition thus creates a parallel sound track along the stream, in which the specific soundscape of the location is intertwined with composed music. 

The installation at Gallery 3 of the Ústí nad Labem House of Art transfers this experience into a space where it is not necessary to actually walk the route (although it is definitely worth making the trip to the site). While listening directly in the valley always depends on the pace and manner of walking of the individual listener as well as on the current state of the environment, in the gallery, listening can become not only an evocation of the journey but also its new, imaginary continuation. Ian Mikyska further explores the themes of movement, lines, and traces in a small publication featuring drawings, new texts, and paraphrases from the book *Lines: A Brief History* (2007) by British anthropologist Tim Ingold.