Among the Circle of the Drums

As a circular arrangement in the room there are snare drums mounted on 40-50 original stands. All drums are of the same type and are equipped with one speaker per shell. The spatial distances between the objects are chosen in a way that a comfortable passage is possible.

When entering the drum field, a basic frequency that varies in volume and activity time is distributed to all drums. The acoustic allocation is carried out by a computer-aided program, which works with combination-exclusions using a random procedure and activates at least one object and a maximum of 3-4 objects at the same time. This happens permanently changing and spatially unpredictable within the overall arrangement. Tonality jumps are generated by the tunability of each individual drumhead, whereby the basic frequency, which varies in time length, serves purely physically to make the natural resonance of each drum audible for a short moment, which then reacts in the snare drums' typical sound.

• Sonambiente, Festival für Hören und Sehen, Berlin 1996

• Musik ohne Musiker, De Ijsbreker, Amsterdam 1997

• Tentoonstelling, Concertzaal, Tilburg 1998

• subRaum, ZKM, Karlsruhe 1999

42 identical snare drums on stands, 42 speakers, 16-channel composition, cables, electronical equipment.