The cycle of sound installations explores the acoustic possibilities of transforming metal cymbals into resonant loudspeakers using sound exciters. Beginning in 2022 with the composition If Kepler... and continued in 2024 with the sound and light installation Titan Studies: planar, I am now setting these sound bodies into dialogue with an expanded concept of spatial sound.

In my imagination, these objects represent superhuman beings, carriers of mysterious natural forces, which are translated into our world through primal human impulses. To strongly interweave the visual and spectral space, I distributed four 20” cymbals on several levels at different points around the visitors in the room – with the intention of eventually creating a dense forest of cymbals.

As a sound source, I recorded a bass recorder, whose spectrum is neither too complex nor too sinusoidal. This allowed me to exert precise control over the intonation of the fundamental tones and to release inharmonic spectra – thanks to the active, oscillating system of sound source, sound exciter, and cymbal.

Since each cymbal possesses a unique spectrum, they react individually and differently to the same sound transmitted onto their bodies by the sound exciters. Through their positioning and software-controlled spatialization, a natural, vivid, three-dimensional spatial sound emerges. As a visitor, one finds oneself within an abstract soundscape in which the origin of the sounds – recorder or cymbals – merges into a meta-instrument.
 

The documentation of the installation was carried out using a 360° room microphone in Ambisonics A-format (Zoom H3-VR) as well as a 360° video camera – with the aim of capturing spatial sound perception, making it tangible, and encouraging reflection.
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Riccardo Castagnola: Concept, sound, spatial, and light design.

Recorded on June 9, 2025 at the Zentrum für Kunst (Bremen).

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