fifth session: june 3 and 4

Finally I have resumed the work in the ossuary of Perschen after the long winter. It was a great pleasure to return to this sacred space, to contemplate again the magnificent frescoes and to experience the sonorities of the Illuminations. This was the first of four sessions that I will be conducting during the months of June and July. During these sessions I plan to review the 12 illuminations that were composed during the previous sessions. Listening to them now, after so many months, allows me to judge them with fresh ears, and to evaluate in a realistic way their musical qualities. In addition to reviewing the previous work, it is also necessary to prepare the sound installation for an eventual public performance.

During these two days I have been listening to the illuminations one by one, and I was happy to see that I liked most of them. But even more important has been to realize the important role played by the acoustic space of the ossuary. The diffuse sound fields that appear due to the high levels of reverberation are rich, enigmatic and very dynamic. I suppose that the sound fragmentation and spatialization techniques I use also contribute in this sense. It is clear to me that the achievement of this kind of diffuse and dynamic sound fields may be the main characteristic of the project Walls of Sound as a whole.

During these two days I have spent a long time improving one of the illuminations. I must confess that I do the search for interesting sonorities and textures with no precocieved ideas. The starting point is limited to using especific types of waves or using more impulses or continuous sounds so each illumination is differented from the others. I react to what I hear, and composing consists in a succession of intuitive impulses. The reason of this is that the influence of the acoustic space is so important, that it is impossible to predict the sound resulting of each change I make in terms of frequency, duration of each fragment, or distance between them. Even more so considering that each illumination includes six layers of independent sounds that interact and mix with each other.

It is important to mention that the acoustic processes that are triggered when interacting with spaces such as the ossuary, with a reverberation of about five seconds, are of such complexity that no virtual or artificial simulation can match them today. It is for this reason that being able to listen to them becomes an incomparable, unique and non-transferable experience. Through this project, it is possible to vindicate the richness of the natural phenomena, which involve millions of variations, versus the virtual ones created by a more limited number of algorithms. In my opinion, our senses are so refined that they can appreciate the immeasurable versus the measurable, the unlimited versus the limited.

Certainly, there are so many variables that come into play in the diffuse sound spaces that each illumination, even if it remains constant, seems to be always changing and dynamic. Only from this perspective is it possible to understand that with such a simple and archaic material as the one I use, I manage to create sonorities that amaze and captivate me.

to sixth session: june 18 and 19

back to charnel house in Perschen