Monochord
electroacoustic composition for Oscar Wiggli
studio : Harvard University / 2008 / duration: 12:14 min
This piece is a musical present for the swiss composer/sculptor Oscar Wiggli.
Oscar practices many forms of artistic expression, among them is the composition of electronic music in his own studio. Another one is forging heavy metal plates into beautiful, almost organic forms. It was always this multitude of expressive modes which fascinated me since I first met him.
For more information on Oscar Wiggli's work : http://www.iroise.ch/fondation-wiggli/Oscars electronic studio:
In January 2008 I spend some time in the gallery space of the Oscar Wiggli foundation, where many of his sculptures are exposed:
Already during a previous visit in 2006, I had recorded some sounds on an instrument, Oscar calls the "monochord". It has actually 13 double strings. This time, Oscar braught even a second model with 13 single strings. Placing all kinds of objects onto the strings and playing them, created a rich repertory of sound possibilities. I spent almost 2 days playing and recording them.
Later on I was even placing one monochord on the strings of the other and creating thus a coupled resonating body. From there one, the installations became more and more "crazy" and the resulting sounds more and more complex.
The composition uses exclusively the sounds I recorded in January 2008. There are almost no sound treatments, except for some transpositions. Everything else is only layering of played sequences on the monochords.
While working on the piece I was inspired by his sculptures and imagined, how these sounds would "talk" to his fluent, organic, proud and solid forms.
