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Between Air and Electricity

Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments

  • Overview
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Other Examples

Category: 1980s

Posted on May 2, 2017March 3, 2019

Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

Some objects seem particularly suitable for use in preparing loudspeakers. Perhaps ping pong balls were favored objects for this due to their lightness and characteristic sound. Comparing several of these set-ups reveals that—fortunately!—using a similar technology can still result in … read more

Posted on February 6, 2017November 17, 2021

p. 134 Eliane Radigue

A documentation on Eliane Radigue. She mentions how she places loudspeakers in the concert hall at 10’00”:

… read more
Posted on February 6, 2017February 20, 2017

p. 128 Guai ai gelidi mostri by Luigi Nono

Guai ai gelidi mostri (1983) by Luigi Nono, with live electronics on 10 loudspeakers in the concert hall (of which you won’t hear anything on youtube of course…). A piece to hear live in the concert hall!

… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017August 25, 2018

p. 107 Streetwalker by Ellen Fullman

Streetwalker (1980) by Ellen Fullman, amplifying the skirt with contact microphones:

… read more

Posted on January 31, 2017October 27, 2021

p. 99 Three Short Stories and an Apotheosis by Annea Lockwood

A short fragment  of Three Short Stories and an Apotheosis (1985) by Annea Lockwood. You hear the audience throwing the loudspeaker ball (and laughing while doing this).

This fragment comes from the radio show Speaking of Music with Annea Lockwood … read more

Posted on January 31, 2017November 23, 2017

p. 99 Speaker Swinging by Gordon Monahan

Speaker Swinging (1982) by Gordon Monahan:

… read more

Between Air and Electricity

  • Table of Contents
  • Cathy van Eck
  • introduction

key words

  • (acoustic) feedback
  • (hemi)spherical loudspeakers
  • contact microphones
  • everyday objects
  • flute
  • flying loudspeakers
  • movement
  • percussion
  • phonograph
  • piano
  • pick-ups
  • prepared loudspeakers
  • prepared microphones
  • sound reinforcement systems
  • space
  • tactile transducers
  • ten or more loudspeakers
  • trumpet
  • tuning fork
  • violin family
  • voice
  • walking
  • water
  • wearable

time line

  • 1950s and earlier
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s

Recent Posts

  • Megaphone Music I

  • A hydrophone synthesiser by Tomoko Sauvage

  • in steps by Ricardo Eizirik

  • Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann

  • Kkwaenggwari and Bambusoides by Ji Youn Kang

  • acoustic resonators by Jeff Snyder

  • Ohr-Weide — Salix aurita by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani and Lilian Beidler

  • Drohnenmusik by Genoël von Lilienstern

  • Echo Moiré by Matteo Marangoni

  • Kropka na Ogonie and Soroka Fruwa by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

  • 112 loud-speaking telephone receivers and other early sound reinforcement systems by Ralf Ehlert

  • Transduction and Acoustic Radiator by Kristen Roos

  • Loudspeakeroperas by Huba de Graaff

  • Points of Contact by Erfan Abdi

  • Vestiges of Discomposition and other works by Simon Whetham

  • The Springboard by Eric Leonardson

  • Touche Nature by I-lly Cheng

  • Small Movements by Adam Basanta

  • Speaker Dress by Pauchi Sasaki

  • Apart by Oscar Bettison

  • Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen

  • Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

  • Speaker Feedback Instruments by Lesley Flanigan

  • Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

  • Hemispherical loudspeakers for laptop orchestras

  • Doppelbelichtung by Carola Bauckholt

  • Tonewood by Hugo Morales Murguía

  • Klangflug by Lara Stanic

  • A sympathetic piano by Gökhan Deneç

  • An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

Accompanying website for the book Between Air and Electricity by Cathy van Eck
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