Peter Ablinger:
29 short pieces
Landscape pieces 2006/2007
1
Carrying Sounds
objects without sound, but those that evoke sounds (radio, horn, cooking pot with wooden spoon, drill, paper with tear, plastic bag(s), whistle, megaphone, small gong with mallet, hammer and 100 mm nail, etc.)
"Rondo"
2
Visual, Ephemeral Music
smoke signals / smoking cigarette, blowing rings / drawing smoke in the air with cigarette
3
Ground Piece
on a piece of road where people pass by all the time
change the ground
scatter leaves
sweep away
lay out shells
sweep away
lay out carpet
roll up
scatter sand
sweep away
lay out "bubble wrap" film
clear away
etc.
4
The Color Of Nearness
loudspeakers at different distances
or transportable loudspeakers
the same sound from different distances
but (for the listener) in balanced sound level
5
Electric Cow Wire
the rhythmic ticking
a labyrinth
more
6
"Vorstellung" [untranslatable]
as a title for thought pieces
things that should only be imagined ["vorgestellt"]
7
Knackfrösche (crackers? click-frogs?)
for the audience
a walk, procession
all have a Knackfrosch or other signal sound
in any case a high frequency, directional "orientation" sound
so that even in a widely dispersed procession, even the distant participants can be heard.
choreographies: (e.g.) cracking 2x to the left, 2x to the right
variation:
a procession of constant order, i.e. a snake; crackers (or whistles, or timbrels, etc.) tuned; the ones in front get a lower sound, then microtonally rising to the ones behind, so that the pitch tells something about the position within the snake
8
Dog Whistles
the inaudible
9
"Overpainting"
a swarm of motocross riders
a pack of motorbikers
across the forest
10
1 circle of "circular"-saws
11
Car With Loud Car Radio
bum-bum-bum
variation:
4 cars (radios) on a big square
all 4 radios play completely synchronously the same bum-bum piece (possibly with a transmitter of low range) eg. beat in 500ms = 166m
12
"Funny"
farm with loud farmyard loudspeakers
"funny" folk music, regional radio
audible from afar
13
Landscape Piece: Airplane Glissando
enormous loudspeaker power
slowly descending sinus(?) glissando
14
Garbage Sorted
1 pile of paper cups
1 pile of plastic cans
1 pile of cola cans
etc.
stations to wade through
title of "contamination":
"shooting stars"
(big plastic mineral bottles, empty, sealed: nice bass)
15
"Landscape Piece"
(studies after nature 2)
cell phones ringing
different signals
possibly activated by motion sensor when a person passes by
16
The Scream
choir piece
50 singers, one line, across the landscape
one single long, passed on scream
variation:
distant screams
of invisible origin
from different directions
17
Body Sound Piece
foot massage, structure-borne sound, infrasound
a floor plate to stand on it, walk over it
18
Infrasound and Ultrasound
while standing or sitting on the floor plate and being moved (massaged) by infrasound, one "hears" an "organ piece" in the ultrasonic range (keyboard with sampled 1-foot register)
19
Animals, Herds
drifting through the middle of the audience
20
Many Marching Bands
21
"Surround"
for many distant chainsaws
according to schedule
2 variations for 7 saws:
circle 1, varying as much as possible, discontinuous sawing, short sfz: 1 starts, after 10" add 2, after 10" add 3, until all 7 saw, then 1 stops, then 2 until 7 saws alone and stops after 10"
circle 2, even, static, or slow. cresc/decresc.: 0" 1 starts, 10" 2 starts, 20" 1 stops, 30" 3 starts, 40" 2 stops, 50" 4 starts etc.
22
Exercises
Military exercises of the national air defense
deafening low-level flights
23
Acoustic Map
cartography of what can be thought at any time
(thinkable music)
disturbances: shooters, hunters, blasts, combines, chainsaws, motocross bikes, jets, ...
cartography as book/brochure with plans, inscriptions, times
or boards, set up, illuminated at night
24
Disturbance Clock ("Idylls")
regular, always the same sequence of disturbances
blasting, diesel compressor, moto-cross swarm, "funny" folk music
at regular intervals, e.g. every 15 minutes, like a clock: blasting, short, at minute 15, diesel compressor, longer, at minute 30, moto-cross swarm, even longer, at minute 45, "funny" folk music (from loud blaring loudspeakers), longest, on the hour
25
Loudspeaker Line
over several kilometers
26
Terror Room
night play
"ghost train"
loud machines, gunshots, chainsaws, screams
variant:
Terror "Black"
loud loudspeakers with folk music, as loud as rock concert, airplanes, tree saws, motor bikers, cell phone ring tones, littered paths, shooters, machine guns, car radios with techno music - all at the same time, for a quarter of an hour, without repetition
27
Night Play
night hike
again and again cross lying scrap cars block the way
lightly illuminated inside
visitors have to climb through them
the horn should possibly still work
28
100 Quartz Clocks
distribute them on the given area and the given time
different patterns
29
Miked Audience
radio microphones
the recorded sounds are played back overloud at unpredictable times at unpredictable places (the audience experiences itself as a disturbance)
- "29 pieces" were created as reflections for an 8-hour night hike in Läufelfingen, Switzerland, 2007. The path led around a partly wooded hill. However, another piece was actually realized: "Gehörgang (Auditory Passage)". "29 pieces" is thus not a cycle, but a pool of options, the numbering is purely random. In fact, some of the sketches might work better at night, others could be thought of for other times of day.
