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Between Air and Electricity

Between Air and Electricity

Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments

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

Category: 2010s

Posted on July 3, 2019July 5, 2019

A hydrophone synthesiser by Tomoko Sauvage

hydrophone synthesiser by Tomoko Sauvage
Tomoko Sauvage performing at during OOR Salon at Kunstraum Walcheturm, 2018, with bowls, water, hydrophones and speakers. © Tomoko Sauvage. Picture by Lorenzo Pusterla.

Surrounded by 5 bowls filled with water Tomoko Sauvage’s right hand is carefully moving the … read more

Posted on May 16, 2019May 16, 2019

in steps by Ricardo Eizirik

in steps (2018-2019) for five performers and one controller (left) by Ricardo Eizirik. Video still © Ricardo Eizirik

in steps (2018-2019) is a piece for for 5 amplified voices and 1 performer by Ricardo Eizirik. Although six people are … read more

Posted on February 18, 2019February 18, 2019

Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann

sandpaper amplification costume contact microphone
The two Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann. Picture by Georg Klein

By wearing a costume we change what we look like. It is less common to change not only our visual appearance but our sonic appearance … read more

Posted on December 3, 2018April 8, 2019

Kkwaenggwari and Bambusoides by Ji Youn Kang

Ji Youn Kang (aka KANG) searches for set-ups that combine acoustic, analogue and digital instruments and devices. Her works with the Korean gong kkwaenggwari and self-built bamboo instruments are intriguing examples of such amalgams. The kkwaenggwari is a small, hand-held gong … read more

Posted on November 6, 2018April 7, 2019

acoustic resonators by Jeff Snyder

The musical instruments invented by Jeff Snyder are inspired by age-old techniques of instrument building. Combining this inherited knowledge of luthiers with compositional ideas based on intonation alone, it might not be surprising that the work of  composer and instrument … read more

Posted on September 26, 2018April 7, 2019

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

Salix aurita — Ohr-Weide (2018) is a work for 150 floating loudspeakers by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani and Lilian Beidler.  These small loudspeakers travel 500 meters down a small river in the Merian garden in … read more

Posted on June 22, 2018April 7, 2019

Drohnenmusik by Genoël von Lilienstern

Not much music approaches us from above. But with the increase use of drones for all kinds of applications, the birds seem to have lost their unique position for aerial music.  In his performance, Drohnenmusik (2013-2014), Genoël von Lilienstern developed … read more

Posted on May 29, 2018April 7, 2019

Echo Moiré by Matteo Marangoni

Echo Moiré (since 2011) by Matteo Marangoni is an exploration of space, sound, and movement in the form of a robotic opera ballet. Two sonic vehicles drive around the space. These two robots perform a sophisticated choreography, gradually investigating the … read more

Posted on May 19, 2018April 7, 2019

Kropka na Ogonie and Soroka Fruwa by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

Microphone type and microphone placement is crucial for the amplification of musical instruments. In her works Kropka Na Ogonie (2016) and Soroka Fruwa (2016), Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman gives a fascinating example of how this microphone choice and placement can … read more

Posted on December 4, 2017April 8, 2019

Transduction and Acoustic Radiator by Kristen Roos

Not only does Kristen Roos work with the frequency range audible for human beings, but also many other frequencies and vibrational phenomena are of high importance in his work. He makes different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum perceivable for human beings … read more

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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

Recent Posts

  • 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

  • Bandoneonbook by Hans W. Koch

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