Peter Eramian

Two wooden resonant structures – modelled on the interiors of bat houses and resembling ritual contraptions – transmit a soundscape composed of roosting bats, a fictional number station, and ELF radio recordings captured in Cyprus near the British RAF bases in Akrotiri, Limassol, and Troodos. RAF Akrotiri served as the transmission locus for a number station allegedly operated by the British Secret Intelligence Service (1960–2008) to send encoded messages across the region. Discovered by radio enthusiasts, the station opened each broadcast with a jingle from the English folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher. The project’s title reframes a couplet from this song as an omen aimed at the ‘magistrates’ and ‘gamekeepers’ active on the island and in the surrounding region, while fictionalising coded numbers through local land histories.

Bats bridge the non-human world with their environment through echolocation, embodying an ecological ‘call and response’, prompting a reconsideration of how we engage with transmission technologies and their ecological consequences. Their calls reinterpret Cyprus’s geopolitical radio history as an ‘antenna island’ shaped by surveillance and eavesdropping. These sonic abodes propose a symbolic reinhabitation of bat colonies near the bases, subverting RAF infrastructures and inviting listeners to imagine rebuilding after misfortune befalls the ‘magistrates’ and ‘gamekeepers’.

Bad luck to every magistrate, and bad luck to every gamekeeper, 2026, Lower Levant Company (Emiddio Vasquez & Peter Eramian) in collaboration with Olga Micińska. Wood, metal, insulation foam, transducer speakers, locking pins. Audio, Stereo, 10min loop with number intermissions.

Presented as part of Sonic Acts biennial 2026: Melted for Love, curated by Angeliki Tzortzakaki, at W139, Amsterdam.