Listening Ahead
(music for marimba and town hall)
Listening takes time ...
In the summer of 2005 the first explorations started.
In the fall of the following year Kjell Samkopf and Floris van Manen began the recordings of their next project Listening Ahead. With the focus on event of the listening itself.
For a whole week every night, they got free access to the famous Town Hall of the Norwegian capital Oslo. The very same place where the Nobel Peace Price is handed out every year.
Kjell played the unique five octave quarter-tone marimba. The instrument was explored bottom-up. Working upwards, starting at the lowest key. Fifteen minutes per octave. Floris recorded the event using four independent stereo perspectives. Similar to using four cameras. Again, the focus is on the listening itself. The properties of the marimba are just as important as the sounds and properties of the town hall.
Beyond listening tonmeister & producer Don Hünerberg wrote down his experience:
Where am I? The fire is nice and warm.. civilization is not far..
transportation.. but which way.. someone or something approaches..
children play, not far away and a pole is getting... pounded in the
ground or... Where am I? My sense of place and placement is distorted
as well as reality.. This is a new place.. reminds me of somewhere..
but.. it's close.. yet far.. the world is rotating around me.
The silence, is not so silent as my frame of reference now
adjusts again.. in a new space.. dimension.. the factory is busy.. or
is that just my olfactory.. although no other senses involved other
then the hairs in my ears moving radically.. testing their range..
this "pounding" and striking wobbles in my head.. I seem to miss
it when it goes away.. Where am I? Is this natural? or un-naturally
natural... There is a tension.. waves.. vibrations.. the rhythm
factory is relentless in it's determination to merge this note.. this
frequency, this beat within my cerebral cortex. The relief is now
deafening.. I can not escape the presence of the sound as it
reverberates from far to.. too near.. the proximity is disturbing..
too aggressive and random.. Why is it invading my own private space..
This wood.. this resonant tree limb.. this tuned twig..
The mallet is disembodied, yet guided by nerves and muscle.. from
the darkness which is the fluid space it exists in.. The great hall is
sensitive to it's environment and inhabitants.. and to these nerves
and muscles.. and bone.. that explore the wood and metals that call to
each other. A language of sort.. but none that I can become
familiar with.. A matrix of codes.. Am I in danger? The periods
of quiet concern me.. Perhaps I can rest.. Perhaps I can escape..
Perhaps I will be released.. A familiar rhythm returns.. One
great loop of time... a cycle.. within cycles.. This time returning in
and out of phase with each other.. the erratic dissonant harmonics ebb
and flow.. retreat and reveal a new dimension.. space... reality..
restful yet disturbing.. now note intervals and glissandi herald the
new void. The new level of the silent world that absorbs the presence.
A child.. or a metal-worker, perhaps a machine takes up residence..
There are no clues in this state of darkness where sound becomes
vision. It plays between my ears and I can only accept it for what it
is. Making sense of it has no point although random clues of musical
structure begin to vaguely form. A door.... opens.. and...
closes..... I myself was silenced from calling out.. within this
concert.. I don't recall entering... now imagining I woke up
within an intermission of some kind.. or a "sound check" of tests,
calculations and references. The music of engineers.... conducting
Pink and White noise... like a mad symphony of water revealing the
bells of heaven. Silenced... Where am I? Ears still ringing from the
deluge. Now huge drops of water dripping into the new cavern..
creating sonic stalagmites.. Is this the cycle?... or merely a
continuum.. as human hands seem to join in this evolution of events on
a time-line now merging with the distance... and true silence.. Where
was I?
Availability
Listening Ahead is a sound & listening experience by Kjell Samkopf (marimba) & Floris van Manen (sonography) Available on both Compact Disk (EAN 9789056060060) as well as mp3 download.
To order a copy of the CD, do send an e-mail to info @ klankschap.nl for further instructions.
Get Information
Front cover layout
Back cover layout
K-20 reference on Hidden Track
For an optimal listening experience a correct playback level is essential. This CD has been mastered against a K-20 reference, which allows for a headroom of 20dB. For your convenience the CD has a hidden track situated before track one. If you start playback, the CD will start at track one. But while in playback you can rewind the time, passing zero and entering the hidden area. Then releasing the rewind button, the playback will produce a pink noise signal. With your noise meter set to slow C weighting, adjust your playback level such that will show 86 dB Spl. Mark the setting on your amplifier. It is the K-20 reference which has been used while mixing & mastering.
Extra Wrapping
Enclosed you find two apparently identical copies of Listening Ahead. They sound the same. However, one of the cd's lacks the intended K-20 reference signal on the - hidden - first track. This signal can be useful for calibrating playback
levels. Feel free to give away whichever version you choose not to keep.
In case you need (extra) wrapping (for self burned copies),
just download a free PDF and print the it using auto rotate and no scaling.
Folding the Original Wrapper
So you managed to unfold the wrapper into a plain sheet. And now you find yourself a little confused as how the original folding was done. There is a short clip which shows how to fold the original wrapper into its default, original shape.
An Act of Listening
The trilogy An Act of Listening is released on three CDs
1/3. Music for Large Mountain and Vibraphone
To order a copy of the CDs, do send an e-mail to info@klankschap.nl for further instructions. Get Information