Improvisations in Acoustic Chambers
Environmental composer Ros Bandt’s first vinyl LP is now available on CD. She works with the sonorities of man-made chambers — a water tank and a wheat silo — where bamboo flute, recorders, lute and voice reverberate. It may sound electronic, but is entirely natural.
John Griffiths lute, recorder, voice
Many years ago I visited a friend in Gippsland and we joked and talked through apertures in her then near-empty concrete water tank. I was awestruck at the magnificent resonance of this space and how it changed the properties of sound.
A few days later I returned armed with a Nagra tape recorder, a cymbal and some primitive sound-making devices. Once inside the tank, gumboots in water, yabbies and cold dark condensation falling from the roof above me, I felt that I was living inside my ear. Sound was travelling around me, up, down, through. The water and air conducted the invisible sound vibrations differently. As I lowered the struck cymbal into the water, and then in the air, the sound changed. You have to wait for the sound to stop singing as it flies around the cylinder in its own time. You can activate sounds one after the other so they chase each other, until death. Making sound in such a space is like sound painting in action. You learn to swim in a sea of sound.
All tracks are live real-time improvisations made in the acoustic chambers — a water tank and a wheat silo. There is no editing or electronic manipulation.
This common water tank and silo experience changed my life. I realised that sound could be made to fly about and shaped in three-dimensional space through time. I became dedicated to creating architectural and spatial musics, and hearing the sound environment around me as an ongoing changing soundscape. Living inside your ears is never boring. Awareness channels drill from the ear to the eye so you can ‘see’ things differently. Through deep and immersive listening one can sense the physical effect and power of invisible sound vibration.
The original vinyl disc Improvisations in Acoustic Chambers was released in 1981 and is now available again on a remastered CD sounding better than ever.
Many years ago I visited a friend in Gippsland and we joked and talked through apertures in her then near empty concrete water tank. I was awestruck at the magnificent resonance of this space and how it changed the properties of sound.
A few days later I returned armed with a Nagra tape recorder, a cymbal and some primitive sound making devices. Once inside the tank, gumboots in water, yabbies and cold dark condensation falling from the roof above me, I felt that I was living inside my ear. Sound was travelling around me up down, through. The water and air conducted the invisible sound vibrations differently. As I lowered the struck cymbal into the water, and then in the air, the sound changed. You have to wait for the sound to stop singing as it flies around the cylinder in its own time. You can activate sounds one after the other so they chase each other, until death. Making sound in such a space is like sound painting in action. You learn to swim in a sea of sound.
All tracks are live real-time improvisations made in the acoustic chambers — a water tank and a wheat silo. There is no editing or electronic manipulation.
This common water tank and silo experience changed my life. I realised that sound could be made to fly about and shaped in three-dimensional space through time. I became dedicated to creating architectural and spatial musics, and hearing the sound environment around me as an ongoing changing soundscape. Living inside your ears is never boring. Awareness channels drill from the ear to the eye so you can ‘see’ things differently. Through deep and immersive listening one can sense the physical effect and power of invisible sound vibration.
Artist
Ros Bandt
Ros Bandt is an Australian composer, performer and sound artist whose work joins ancient instruments, environmental sound and live electronics in spatial music, installation and sound sculpture.
Audio preview
Tracks
- No. 8, Bamboo flute Ros Bandt 5:07
- No. 7, Fleet, water, conduit hose Ros Bandt 4:14
- No. 1, Vocal improvisation Ros Bandt 3:56
- No. 9, Renaissance soprano recorder Ros Bandt 4:00
- No. 4, Cymbal and water Ros Bandt 4:48
- No. 10, Fragment for bamboo flute and voice Ros Bandt 1:25
- Silo song (Voice and bullroarer) Ros Bandt 2:46
- Distant polyphony (Two recorders) Ros Bandt John Griffiths 3:05
- Mating call (Male and female voices) Ros Bandt John Griffiths 4:12
- Sweet germinal wheat (Lute and recorder) Ros Bandt John Griffiths 4:19
- Dog (Bass recorder, dog nearby) Ros Bandt 4:51
- Fly rampage (Renaissance flute) Ros Bandt 2:23
Performers
- Ros Bandt · bamboo flute, recorder, renaissance flute, voice, cymbal, bullroarer, lute, conduit hose
- John Griffiths · lute, recorder, voice · tracks 8–10
Composer
John Griffiths
John Griffiths is a Melbourne-born vihuelist, lutenist and musicologist whose research and performance have made him a leading authority on the sixteenth-century Spanish vihuela and its music.
Where to listen
Improvisations in Acoustic Chambers is available for streaming through Spotify and Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
Improvisations in Acoustic Chambers is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- MD 3035
- List price
- $20.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 45 minutes 6 seconds
- Release date
- 1981
- Musical work
copyright - © 1981 Ros Bandt
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 1981 Move Records
- Category
- Australian
- Genres
- Experimental, Contemporary Classical
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574303520
Related recordings
Sonic Archaeologies
Ros Bandt’s electro-acoustic pair Mungo and Thrausmata treat land and ancient Greek text as sonic archaeology. Award-winning works made in the studios of West Deutsche Rundfunk, Cologne.
Glass & Clay
Ros Bandt, the internationally acclaimed sound artist, composer, performer and sound sculptor, shapes subtle, shimmering sonorities from glass and clay. The programme includes Soft and Fragile, first issued on LP in 1983.
Footsteps
The sound of feet on the earth’s surface is a reminder of how location shapes our lives. Ros Bandt’s journey of place, from Western Australia and Florida to suburban Melbourne, is unlike anything else on record.
Stargazer
Ros Bandt explores the resonance of a large hollow concrete cylinder five storeys underground in the Collins Place car park, Melbourne. Stargazer gathers improvisations and compositions for recorders, psaltery, bells, cymbals, kalimba, PVC pipe and music boxes, shaped by that vibrating space.