ohrenhoch der Geräuschladen presents
on Sunday 19. and 26. September 2010, 2 pm - 9 pm:
Timepiece (Berlin, September, 2010)'
Soundinstallation - for ohrenhoch
by Thom Blum
Thom Blum on 'Timepiece':
The piece is written for and inspired by my father, who will turn 101 this year. On a narrative level Timepiece (Berlin, September, 2010) is about the passage of time and, more specifically, lifetimes. Many of the sounds in the piece act to convey time.
The project takes the form of a site-specific and very compact sound installation, consisting of multiple sound playback devices (“players”), each of which responds to a hand-held remote control unit. Each player is associated with a particular physical zone within the small gallery space of ohrenhoch, and each player is programmed with a distinctive collection of sounds that will be most audible within that player's physical zone.
The “remotes” can be used by up to 8 people at a time to start, pause, skip, choose sounds, and control the volume of the individual players.
The physical structure and layout of the sound zones, and their players, and the sounds that are audible in and from each zone will help to direct the walk of the listener through the space. Although a listener's path of motion through the space will influence their experience of the piece, there is no “one way” to proceed. All paths through and around the small space will be equally valid and will permit a unique but hopefully fulfilling and thought-provoking experience.
Thom Blum
Thom Blum has been composing electroacoustic music since 1972.
In 1978 he co-founded The International Computer Music Association, and he is currently a member of the San Francisco Tape Music Collective (sfSound), which is dedicated to the spatial diffusion of fixed-media (tape) music.
His teachers and mentors include James Tenney, Ingram Marshall, and Curtis Roads (California Institute of the Arts, 1972-1974), and Thomas Whitney, Charles Csuri, and Thomas Wells (Ohio State University, 1795-1977).
His works are presented in concerts, festivals and radio broadcasts internationally. Recent performances include The 2009 San Francisco Tape Music Festival, New Adventures in Sound Art's (NAISA, Toronto) “Sonic Portraits,” The Long Haul, a sound installation at Cowell Theater, commissioned by Deborah Slater Dance Theater (San Francisco), music for group A dance company's performance, FIELDS4 (San Francisco), and Medi(t)ations – Australasian Computer Music Conference (Adelaide, Australia).
Thom Blum