ID#: 600

Sound Waves (2024) ; 8:15

by Max Reiner

The Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics, KUG

Sound Waves is a transmedia performance depicting a specific location on the half island Peniche in Portugal. Here, nature has created its own organ: over thousands of years, the sea carved tunnels into the stone coastline. As waves enter these tunnels, they generate filtered white noise sounds, each delayed according to the tunnels’ distances from one another. The composition draws exclusively from recordings of these natural sound chambers. Following the conceptual theme of waves, the performer creates undulating movements with fabric, activating a microphone concealed between two layers of jersey. This microphone acts as a sensor, controlling the composition’s playback. Sound waves travel through the space, beginning behind the fabric and moving through the room at a speed determined by the performer’s movements. Synchronized lighting follows the sound’s path, amplifying the wave-like motion.