A second advantage of ultrasonic music was that its frequencies were so high they left no resonating residues in solid structures, and consequently there was no need to call in the sound-sweep.
– J.G. Ballard, The Sound Sweep (1960)
Welcome to terratones.fm, assembled out of a joint artist project by Dominique Koch and Tobias Koch during their residency at La Becque, Switzerland in summer 2022.
The broadcast, sound library, recorded conversations and visual documentation are ongoing clusters of research and insight into a work in progress by the two artists who were exploring the acoustic ecologies of the area. Data collected, recorded, and reimagined is used to understand the peripheries of auditory perception (ultrasound and infrasound) as well as other vibratory effects that are inaudible to the human ear.
terratones.fm allows us to listen in on this site in Vevey, Switzerland and its environmental, micro or macro, and atmospheric activities through a series of microphones that were installed over a period of two months, including hydrophones, soil microphones, geophones, infra- and ultrasound microphones. The collected (bio-)acoustic and electromagnetic waves were incorporated in real-time into sound arrangements for a 30 days long live broadcast.
Data sensors were also installed on-site to capture plant, tree, and climate fluctuations, influencing the live broadcast in real-time. The artists used this data to inform specific musical aspects and manipulations of the sounds heard: a sonic back-and-forth with the ecosystem or, in other words, an interspecies jam session.
The audio material collected for the live broadcast was further used for a generative sculptural process: the production of glass objects as physical remnants of this sonic environment. This process is a mutation of the sonic, or what is heard, creating fossilized vestiges.
To expand our research on sonic ecologies, we spoke to Eduardo Kohn, Jeremy Narby and Salomé Voegelin on ideas around sound, vibration and listening. Extracts of these recorded conversations fed into the live broadcast as well.
This website is coded by Julien Félix Web. Special thanks to La Becque Artist Residency, Rocket Science AG, Jazmina Figueroa, Marcus Maeder, Jacques Kiefer. The project has been generously supported by Fachausschuss Film und Medienkunst BS/BL, Pro Helvetia, Fondation Philanthropique Famille Sandoz, Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim-Stiftung, Ecomatik GmbH.
A second advantage of ultrasonic music was that its frequencies were so high they left no resonating residues in solid structures, and consequently there was no need to call in the sound-sweep.
– J.G. Ballard, The Sound Sweep (1960)