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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

Tag: space

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 September 14, 2017April 7, 2019

Vestiges of Discomposition and other works by Simon Whetham

Before Simon Whetham begins his performance, he asks you to close your eyes. However, I could not help but open my eyes briefly a few times. I saw Simon walking around slowly, holding a cymbal in his hands. A tactile … read more

Posted on June 9, 2017July 5, 2017

Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen

In Sound in a Jar (2016) by Ronald Boersen three performers— Ronald Boersen himself, Dganit Elyakim and Hadas Pe’ery—move three different microphones back and forwards to a very small loudspeaker placed in a jar. As Ronald explained me, this piece … 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 March 10, 2017March 3, 2019

An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

Through his intensive occupation with recording and reproducing music, the conductor Hermann Scherchen (1891-1966)  became aware of the enormous amount of people listening to music through loudspeakers. He was concerned with the difference between the complex sound diffusion during a … read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 138 Audible EcoSystemics by Agostino Di Scipio

Audible EcoSystemics n. 3a (Background Noise Study) (2003) by Agostina Di Scipio:

… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017September 25, 2018

p. 135 Der tönende See by Kirsten Reese

Der tönende See (2000) by Kirsten Reese

Kirsten Reese has also made an online documentation of Der tönende See, which allow you to hear the sound of several bowls by moving your computer mouse on them.… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 134 Eliane Radigue

A documentation on Eliane Radigue. She mentions how she places loudspeakers in the concert hall at 9’55”:

… 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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