Science and Technology in Cultural Context

Stereophonic Soundscape

Last update: July 23, 2009, at 04:15 PM

Introduction to the SoundScape Project

All of the two channel works chosen for this year's SoundScape programme were selected on their ability to 'evoke' the presence of things or beings in space to the extent that the each work 'immerses' the listener into a real or imaginary sonic environment. Allk of the works fall into to three distinct categories. The first category Real Worlds can be linked back to sounds known to be us from the real world. These sounds are often extended by including those created by electronic means. The artificially generated sounds blend into to the natural sounds in a variety of unique ways, thus provided the listener with an enhanced variant of the everyday sound world. The second category Virtual Worlds, in contrast to the first, uses only artificially generated sounds in order to create an immersive environment that assumes to evoke a natural one. The third category Mixed Worlds includes mostly those works in which the sonic characteristics of both the first and the second can be heard in juxtaposition.

The immersive effect for both 'real' and 'natural' sonic environments has a relaxing effect on the listener and the use of combining natural with artificial sounds demonstrates an interesting incongruous use of audio in that the listener may not be able to distinguish at times between the natural from the artificial sounds, thus smudging the borders between the real and the virtual. The immersion effect is made possible both due to how the works are constructed: little or no silence, long sections of timbre modulations, use of multiple layers of sounds that are not easily discerned by the listener, and how the soundmass of each of the works is projected into the space using a Stereolith loudspeaker. By using this loudspeaker, which consists only of a single cabinet mounted with three speakers, there is no one best listening point and still with locative sound effects.

New: Soundscape review by Rachael Watts available: → (PDF) Δ

Saturday, July 14

Soundscape Presentations

Location: ETH Main Building, Room E41

12:00-12:45	Soundscape Work Presentation I
	Speed Up Sinewaves - 6'50 - Peter Kutin (AUT)
	Descent with Modification - 9'56 - Daniel Blinkhorn (AUS)
	Pièce de Derrière No. 2 - 10'55 - Volker Hennes (DEU)
	Shution - 4'55 - Rebekkah Palov (USA)
	The Voltaic Conversation - 9'41 - Thomas Bailey (USA)
	Dreamfades - 10'39 - Antonia Della Marina (ITL)

13:00-13:45	Soundscape Work Presentation II
	Realness_Cluster 0307 - 10'02 - Nicolas Wiese (DEU)
	Space Dynamics - 10'01 - Hugo Paquete (PRT)
	Depth Perception - 11'22 - Jon Aveyard (USA)
	Nightingale Floor - 10'15 - Ed Davenport (GBR)
	RailLine - 9'51 - Shinichiro Toyoda (JAP)

14:00-14:45	Soundscape Work Presentation III
	Berlin Indoors - 10'15 - Werner Cee (DEU)
	In the Eye of the Believer - 5'31 - Eldad Tsabary (CAN)
	... in the Air Suspended III - 9'59 - Neil Kaczor (GBR)
	Le Complexe de la Goutte d'Eau - 7'36 - Sébastien Béranger (FRA)

15:00-15:45	Soundscape Work Presentation IV
	Change in Summation - 8'30 - Jason Bolte (USA)
	Aria for Breath and Glass / Aria for Voice and Plastic - 8'56 - Nichola Scrutton (GBR)
	Glass Cutter - 11'14 - Christian Banasik (DEU)
	L'Amour Outragè - 10'01 - Massimo Biasioni (ITA)
	StreetSong - 4'21 - Ailis Ni Riain (GBR)
	Ocean Dub Crash - 18'56 - Jeremy Slater (USA)

Programme Notes

Speed Up Sinewaves - 6'50 - Peter Kutin (AUT)

If you play a sinewave at double speed, you´ll hear a frequency 1 octave higher than before: 50Hz x 2 = 100 Hz
According to this ->, 50 Hz x 512 = 25600 Hz – far beyond the human auditory threshold. But why do I still hear something ? What do i hear ? Something that wasn´t audible before becomes audible, something that is a unique phenomenon that only appears in a digital-music system, in a software, cause nothing else makes it possible to accelerate a sinewave 16500 times or even more... i work with these originally inaudible sounds.

Born 1983; studies of electroacoustics and audio-engineering solo releases as kutin: panora (u-cover, oct 2006), menora (karate-joe, jun 2007); founded the ensemble “dirac” together with daniel lercher someday 2005; organizes electroacoustic concert series elak-gala works in fields of radio-plays, live concerts, soundinstallations, sounddesign; http://www.dirac.cc

Descent with Modification - 9'56 - Daniel Blinkhorn (AUS)

The title of the work refers to adaptive radiation, a term indicating the rapid evolution of a single ancestral organism into numerous other organisms that are each adaptively specialized to occupy particular environmental conditions.
Through transformations applied to recordings of fret squeaks and clicks on the classical guitar, I have sought to create a work that, on the one hand captures the torque click of the machine head, the buzz of wound strings on brass frets, droplets of sweat on the tips of fingers and the squeal and chirp of friction, whilst simultaneously occupying a larger framework encompassing ecological diversity; from the single sound to a rapid divergence of highly specialized sonic environments, as in descent with modification.

Daniel is a composer and digital media artist who was born in the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney. His works have been cited, performed and exhibited at numerous national and international events and symposia. Some of his recent activities include a residency at the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Florida, numerous publications on national and international CD compilations and inclusion as part of the Australian national selection at the ISCM - ACL (World Music Days, Hong Kong, 2007).

Pièce de Derrière No. 2 - 10'55 - Volker Hennes (DEU)

The macro-structural syntax of »Pièce de derrière no. 2« is determined by a hurricane that was recorded from the inside of a backroom. Its subtle upcoming, the scary climax with its infrasonic force and the gradual decaying created an unpredictable expression that was full of suspense – appearing in a musical way, not able to be ignored. I began to decompose the reference material by analyzing the different layers in order to distillate its musical scenes and motives. The original phrasing in its horizontal and vertical evidence was then re-composed, condensed on a time scale of 1:12.

Born in Bonn in 1976. He studied at the Academy Of Media Arts Cologne between 2000 and 2005 – degree with distinction for »Sweet Cherries«, a conceptual anecdotic composition. His works range from acousmatic music compositions, multi-channel works, electroacoustic music performances, sound installations to radio plays and sounddesign.

Shution - 4'55 - Rebekkah Palov (USA)

The sound source is digital audio samples from a friend checking in at an unofficial bicycle race. The source was manipulated on Soundhack freeware and composed on Avid Express

Digital audio video artist who currently resides in Baltimore, MD, USA. Received her BFA from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and will be starting her masters training at Alfred University this autumn.

The Voltaic Conversation - 9'41 - Thomas Bailey (USA)

This piece synthesizes ‘low tech’ implements (cheap,‘circuit-bent’ home electronics) with ‘high tech’ tools (‘spectral shaping’ computer plug-ins, binaural effects etc.) in an attempt to imagine sound on a cellular level- to ‘hear’ life as if existing inside of an electrical current rather than a corporeal human form. Steady drones form the backdrop for an environment in which seemingly no sound exists independent of the other: the intense rate of exchange between individual sounds bypasses the predominant issues, concerns, and rhetoric of the day in order to celebrate the flux of raw energy moving in spite of these things.

Thomas Bailey is a nomadic, multi-disciplinary artist concerned with the limits of perception and with synesthesia, simultaneously questioning notions of ‘progress at any cost.’ His sound works are meant to inspire people to re-integrate with the ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ aspects of the universe lost among daily social contact.

Dreamfades - 10'39 - Antonia Della Marina (ITL)

http://www.fades.net/

Realness_Cluster 0307 - 10'02 - Nicolas Wiese (DEU)

The sound material has completely been generated from human voices. From acapella rap vocals, to be precise. Apart from editing, overlapping, filtering and reverse, very few effects have been used. Most of the structures ( or "raw composition layers" ) have been manually arranged via MIDI keyboard, from an AKAI S 2000 sampler, and then transported into ProTools for further editing, overlapping, detailed arrangement and mixing. The sound material is based on the ongoing audiovisual project "The Realness", in which I am investigating ideological concepts, contradictions, authenticity and artificiality in HipHop culture.

Nicolas Wiese, Berlin, *1976
Degree in Communication Design (HAW Hamburg 2005)
Additional studies: Sociology / Philosophy (Hamburg University), MA Acoustic Communication ( UdK Berlin ). Exhibitions / Performances in Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Cologne, Mannheim, Leipzig, Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Neumuenster, Dresden, Preetz, Itzehoe, Kelowna/Canada. Audio publications on: AIC (Hamburg), TwistedKnister (Bremen), Smellthestench (Melbourne), ClinicalArchives (Moscow). http://www.nicolaswiese.com

Space Dynamics - 10'01 - Hugo Paquete (PRT)

In this work I am interesting in explore the knowledge from the reality and the process of communication that go beyond the common perceptive of that elements, I use elements from the city space to understand the conscience level that we have in the contemporaneity, exploring the notion of space habitability I can construct tension with the public and make a distension of there sound perception of concrete elements in the reality. Exploring notions of dynamic and tension to represent a new city sound representation.

Hugo Paquete has making a research in visual arts and sound installation, exploring the complex relation between the man and the Real and its paradigms of language, perception and technology. Its workmanships carry-in the ones for a language purified and synthesized codes with the objective to portray an aesthetic of mental landscapes, trying a conceptualist relation with the objects. Where from the logic we reach the abstraction. Presenting works in: XXIII international biennial of art of vila nova de cerveira 2005 portugal ,art tech media festival 2006 spain, outvideo festival 2006 russia, i.m.a.n festival 2006 Portugal, 2 kargart international video festival 2007 turkey, individual exhibition: r.p.r-seq erro-matching 2003 gallery alvarez salaum Portugal, xyz gallery alvarez 2006 Portugal. And others.

Depth Perception - 11'22 - Jon Aveyard (USA)

Nightingale Floor - 10'15 - Ed Davenport (GBR)

This piece is based on a recording made at a castle in Kyoto, Japan. The floorboards in the area surrounding the sleeping quarters were fitted so that they make a high pitch squeak, apparently akin to a Nightingale. This was a security measure to alarm occupants of intruders. The tourists noisily moving about on the floorboards and the commentary on the loudspeaker gave it a new, intense quality. I built up mechanical, and incidental noise around it, as I liked the idea that the noise was a small part of some grinding, heavy machinery behind the scenes. The tourism machine!

Ed Davenport: "I am a graduate of Fine Art. I have been working with sound for the past six years and film more recently. I am currently interested in the amplification of sounds that are subdued by dominant noise in their sonic environment or by the scale of their physical environment."

RailLine - 9'51 - Shinichiro Toyoda (JAP)

This work “RailLine” was created in march, 2007. This work expresses the scenery of various bullet trains. The bullet train can be considered to be a device that changes not only scenery but also soundscape dramatically. To make the sound of various sceneries stand out, I did various processings such as the combination of train sound and DSP techniques. By using these techniques, I expressed various sceneries that the train potentially had.

Shinichiro Toyoda was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1976. He is a doctoral student of Keio University Graduate School of Media and Governance. He now goes in for interaction design study especially for computer music.

Berlin Indoors - 10'15 - Werner Cee (DEU)

Das Material für dieses Stück wurde ausschließlich in Berliner Innenräumen aufgenommen: Es sind einerseits atmosphärische Aufnahmen von leeren Fabrikhallen, Unterführungen etc, andererseits Szenen aus der Großmarkthalle, Börse etc. Mit dem Berliner Schlagzeuger Peter Hollinger entstanden Perkussionaufnahmen in einer verlassenen Halle im Osten Berlins. Das Stück stellt akustische Schauplätze einander gegenüber, öffnet breite Assoziationsräume und bedient sich dabei lediglich alltäglicher Klänge. Gleichzeitig handelt es sich um eine Momentaufnahme vom Umbau Berlins. Klangbewegung und – positionierung im Raum stellen ein wichtiges Element der Komposition dar..

Werner Cee – ein Weg von der Malerei zur Musik und Komposition. Klanginstallationen, elektroakustische Komposition. Ars-Acustica-Produktionen für Rundfunkanstalten. Seine Arbeiten uerden bei internationalen Festivals aufgeführt und prämiert. Deutscher Klangkunstpreis 2006.

In the Eye of the Believer - 5'31 - Eldad Tsabary (CAN)

In this piece, the beauty of religious service from three religions is mixed together to create a harmonious multicultural, multilingual coexistence in a single sound piece. More specifically, the sound material of this piece is made out of field recordings in a Yemenite Synagogue in Petach Tiqva, the Ethiopian Church in Jerusalem and the Muezzin from the al-Mahmudiyya mosque in Jaffa, all carried out May 2006. The piece begins with a conversation in English with one of the priests outside the Ethiopian church, while in the background Torah reading from the Yemenite synagogue in Hebrew and Aramaic can be heard creeping in. On top of the synagogue ambience (noises and coughing), the Ethiopian priests' beautiful prayer in Gez comes in and intermixes with the (Arabic) Muezzin calls, the (Hebrew) Chazzan readings and the Synagogue congregation's responds.

The works of Montreal-based Tsabary are decidedly inspired by the concepts of constant motion and fluidity and have been presented worldwide in events and venues such as Carnegie Hall, ISCM, and CCRMA. His music was recorded by the Bulgarian Philharmonic and published by Editions BIM. Tsabary is a professor at Concordia University's music department in Montreal.

... in the Air Suspended III - 9'59 - Neil Kaczor (GBR)

Fragments of sound and musical material drift in and out of perception – in the same way particles of dust and debris waft in and out of view through occasional shafts of sunlight – each cell or motif growing in intensity until gently subsiding. An evocation of vague memories and reminiscence – a reverie… This performance will be the world premiere of the piece.

Neil Kaczor is a composer and sound artist residing in London. His compositions - ranging from orchestral, instrumental and electroacoustic works to sound installations, music for theatre, film and dance - have been performed throughout Europe, South America and Japan.

Le Complexe de la Goutte d'Eau - 7'36 - Sébastien Béranger (FRA)

Le complexe de la goutte d’eau is a tribute to all those who have already put a microphone in front of a kitchen sink. The sacrosanct sound recording of liquids in any kind became for the acousmatic art a sort of icon, an unchanging reference in the same way as the string quartets of Beethoven or Wagner’s operas; the droplet became a shape in itself. The initial idea of this piece was to develop all the musical speech by working on morphologies, by folding them, grinding them, by enlarging them until lose the idea of the droplet which falls and crashes. This "sound-reference" becomes rhythm, cell, harmony, and spreads throughout the musical form until being forgotten.

Sébastien Béranger (1977-) studied the composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. In addition, he holds a DEA in aesthetic and sciences of art and a doctorate in musicology at the University of Nice. In 2006, he obtains the musical composition grant from the French “Académie des Beaux-Arts”.

Change in Summation - 8'30 - Jason Bolte (USA)

Change in the summation, is a study of the continuum between the limits of pitched and noise-based materials, a change in the "spectral summation." The title also refers to a change in my own compositional practice; an exploration and conscious integration of controlled pitched material into the fabric and structure of the electroacoustic work.

Jason Bolte (b.1976) is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in Music Composition at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri – Kansas City, where he is a Chancellor's Doctoral Fellow. Jason holds a B.M. with an emphasis in Music Engineering Technology and a M.M. in Music Composition from Ball State University.

Aria for Breath and Glass / Aria for Voice and Plastic - 8'56 - Nichola Scrutton (GBR)

The two-part composition Aria for Breath and Glass/Aria for Voice and Plastic was created for a concert presented as part of the city-wide ‘Glasgow Mackintosh 2006’ festival. The work was inspired by two mixed-media panels, Opera of the Winds and Opera of the Sea, by Scottish artist Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. After studying these finely symbolic visual works my thoughts turned to three main issues: debris, materiality and cycles. Each Aria explores an interaction between human vocal expression and mass-produced materials used in everyday life.

Nichola Scrutton is pursuing her PhD in electroacoustic composition with Nick Fells at Glasgow University, funded by the AHRC. Recent performances include London (DMRN), New Orleans (ICMC), Bristol (RMA), California (WEALR). Nichola is currently exploring the sonorous and expressive properties of the human voice in acousmatic and live interactive works.

Glass Cutter - 11'14 - Christian Banasik (DEU)

This piece was composed with materials of usual table-ware as glasses, cups, some saucers and some kitchen sounds. The rhythms of these original short actions have an influence on the form development and the electronic manipulations. The idea was to create a sound miniature which consists of real daily life parts which are strongly manipulated on the musical level. The algorithmic calculated patterns controle the development and position of the short sampled "house movements" during the piece and the change of single sound parameters.

Born 1963. He studied composition with Gunther Becker and Dimitri Terzakis at the Robert Schumann Academy of Music in Dusseldorf, Computer music seminars with Clarence Barlow at the Music Academy in Cologne. Postgraduate studies with Hans Zender at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt.
His instrumental and electronic pieces have been featured in concerts and radio programs throughout Europe (BBC London, SFB Berlin, HR Frankfurt, WDR Cologne, NDR Hamburg, VPRO Radio Holland, VRT Radio Belgium, Polskie Radio and Swedish National Radio), the Americas, Asia and Australia. Beside live electronics and computer music Banasik has produced works for tape, radio plays and film soundtracks.

L'Amour Outragè - 10'01 - Massimo Biasioni (ITA)

The material used for the composition of “Amour outragé” is a recording of a fragment from Rameau’s “Platée” performed by soprano Annamaria Calciolari, and the title refers to the text of that fragment. I used granular synthesis in order to obtain a continuus morphing from textures in which pitch and timbre are undeterminate, to others in which original pitch and timbre are recognizable. This is obtained changing the duration of the grains, from very short durations to longer durations. The software used is Max/Msp and Pro-Tools.

Massimo Biasioni was born in Trento in 1963, graduated in violin, composition, choir music and choir conducting and electronic music. He composed chamber and orchestral music for traditional and electronic instruments, video and theatrical music. Some of his works have been performed in important festivals, recorded on CD and broadcast.

StreetSong - 4'21 - Ailis Ni Riain (IRL)

StreetSong was commissioned in 2006 by the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland in association with Temple Bar Cultural Trust as an outdoor sound installation to celebrate the 20th anniversary of CMC. It combines Sean Nos singing – traditional Irish song – with contemporary flute, children’s choir within an electroacoustic soundscape. StreetSong was awarded joint-First Prize at the ICSM World Music Days 2006 Short Cuts Competition and was played at the Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany in July 2006.

The Irish composer and writer Ailis Ni Riain is particularly interested in sound installation, voice theatre, public art, music-theatre & presenting contemporary music in diverse spaces. She has been represented by the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland since 1999 and lives in the North of England. www.ailis.info

Ocean Dub Crash - 18'56 - Jeremy Slater (USA)

"( ) ocean_db_crash" consists of layers of found sound and ambient noise that is sequenced to create drones while the computer skips as a result of being overwhelmed by data which fades into an ethereal ambient crescendo. Some copies of this recording have been given to turntablists as a source to deconstruct / reconstruct in improvisational performances. The sound of the record will change and disintegrate—pops and scratches will emerge in the recording over time. Each performance of "( ) ocean_db_crash_nue" will be a sonic event that is unique to the environment, device, and context which it is played.

Jeremy D. Slater : ( ) : is a sound artist essentially, but also works with video and sound in performance and installation settings. Otherwise known as ( ) ... Jeremy uses his laptop computer to create a variety of sound, image, and interactive work. He was one of the 1999 recipients of the Computer Art Fellowship from New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) and has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally.

We thank all of the artists who submitted works, the ETH Zurich for the technical support, Klangpur Zurich for the generous donation of loudspeakers.

Page last modified on July 23, 2009, at 04:15 PM

Documentation 2007