In a Semicircle

In the entrance area to the Great Garden in Herrenhausen there is an imposing semi-circular wall, the so-called Ehrenhof. The shape opening up towards the interior of the park is exactly on the axial alignment of the entire baroque garden. Thirty wall niches are repeated in the course of the building. Fifteen on each side, every second one decorated with identical planting. The remaining cavities in the wall form a mirrored arrangement of installed white sound sources that emit their sound impulses into the interior. The serial pictorial impression of the building is quoted by my composition but not translated. It is about the events recorded by vibrating stones on strings, cluster-like, arhythmic and determined only by the individual vibratory capacity of the stone. This identical sound impulse, audible as a fourteen-channel addition in the wall niches, permanently forms a randomly pulsating overall sound, rich in overtones with continuous variations in its density and volume. The resulting sound space has an involving effect. When entering the semicircle, its floating character disintegrates into an unpredictable dialogue of the same sound from ever-changing directions.

• Sound Art, Herrenhäuser Gärten/Ehrenhof, Hannover 1995

14 identical speakers; white foil; white cable; 14-channel composition; electronical equipment.