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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: percussion

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 May 19, 2018December 8, 2021

Kropka na Ogonie and Soroka Fruwa by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

extreme amplification microphone
Kropka Na Ogonie (2016) by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman, performed by Marianna Soroka © 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), … 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

Posted on June 1, 2017March 3, 2019

Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

In Transducer (2013), you may easily recognise all kinds of “classical” playing techniques for microphones and loudspeakers, twisted in surprising and clever ways. This results in a performance which reinvents and expands known pieces such as Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music… read more

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, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 155 desafinado by Wolfgang Heiniger

A short fragment of desafinado (2005) for soprano saxophone, snare drum and a loudspeaker inside the snare drum, composed by Wolfgang Heiniger, performed by Marcus Weiss:… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 116 Stircrazer IV by Sabrina Schroeder

Stircrazer IV (2015) by Sabrina Schroeder, using tactile transducers on bass drums:

… read more

Posted on January 31, 2017October 5, 2018

p. 94 Mikrophonie I by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Mikrophonie I (1964) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, performed in 1966

And performed in 2007:

 … 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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