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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

Tag: everyday objects

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 March 24, 2017March 3, 2019

Klangflug by Lara Stanic

In her performance Klangflug (2006 – 2013, several versions) Lara Stanic looks for ways to transmit the airiness and volatility of sound itself to the heavy loudspeakers, needed to produce sounds. By simulating sounds of an airplane taking off on … read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 6, 2017

p. 159 tubes by Paul Craenen

tubes (2007) by Paul Craenen:

 
… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 149 Noting Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever) by Alvin Lucier

Noting Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever) (1990) by Alvin Lucier:

… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 115 Rainforest by David Tudor

Several performances of Rainforest (1968-1973) by David Tudor, all using different objects attached to tactile transducers:

 … read more

Posted on February 6, 2017May 2, 2017

p. 111 Shozyg by Hugh Davies

An interview with Hugh Davies and some music played on the Shozyg (also using some of his egg slicer instruments):

Listen to more Shozyg music:

… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017April 4, 2017

p. 110 Apple Box Double by Pauline Oliveros

Apple Box Double (1965) by Pauline Oliveros. This video documents a performance of Pauline Oliveros and Seth Cluett in 2004:

And here another performance of Pauline and Seth on apple boxes, from September 2016:

 … read more

Posted on February 5, 2017February 20, 2017

p. 105 Coffee making by Valerian Maly

Valerian Maly is making coffee for his new students. The coffee cooker is amplified by a contact microphone. The smell of fresh coffee is of course an important element as well during this performance!

… 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

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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
  • 2020s

Recent Posts

  • Megaphone Music I

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  • 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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