Klangkörper
2012 · Site-specific sound composition
Klangkörper is a site-specific sound composition developed from six months of acoustic exploration at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin. The project approaches the building not only as an architectural space, but as a resonant body: a structure whose materials, surfaces, volumes and hidden vibrations can become compositional material.
What does a building sound like when it is treated as an instrument?
Listening to the building
The project began with a sustained process of listening inside and around the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Field recordings, sound studies and on-site interviews were used to explore how the building sounded from different positions, materials and forms of occupation.
Rather than recording the theatre as a neutral container, Klangkörper treats the architecture as an active acoustic presence. Its glass façade, exposed concrete corridors, wooden stage and large metal curtain produce different resonant behaviours, revealing the building as a complex body of surfaces, reflections and vibrations.
Activating the architecture
The composition was developed through different forms of acoustic intervention. The windows of the main façade were used as membranes, activated through transducers and loudspeakers that transmitted vibrations into the building. Impulse response measurements were also carried out on the main stage, allowing the acoustic characteristics of the theatre to become part of the compositional process.
These materials — recordings, interviews, resonances, vibrations and measured acoustic responses — were brought together into a sound piece that presents the Haus der Berliner Festspiele as a single instrument. The work listens to the building from within, making audible its material and spatial conditions.
Presentation
Klangkörper was presented as part of Höre deine Stadt between 31 October and 27 November 2012 at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, allowing the piece to be heard in the same building where it was created. The work was also presented at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.