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It’s a pleasure to bring together, on this album, musicians with whom I feel a very special connection, namely Felicia Atkinson, Büşra Kayıkçı, Carmen Villain, Kuniyuki Takahashi, KMRU, Ana Quiroga and Abul Mogard. All of them have been very generous in their willingness to participate in an artistic experiment that’s been on my mind for a long time: to build bridges between architecture and music.
Each of these artists chose a space and translated it into a piece of music, and the result is a sonic kaleidoscope through which specific territories can be gazed upon from unexplored points of view. The compositions that make up this compilation are synaesthetic windows through which we can observe with our ears. To look through them, all we have to do is listen and we’ll be able to contemplate, in a unique way, spaces located in such different places as Vilches (Chile), Istanbul (Turkey), Oslo (Norway), Sapporo (Japan), Nairobi (Kenya), London (England), Rome (Italy), Berlin (Germany), or even in imaginary universes.
There are certain parallels between all the arts, but since I began researching this subject—a decade ago now—I’ve come to realize that there is a very solid link between music and architecture. This album delves deep into that thought by exploring the idea of transforming an architectural landscape into a musical soundscape, a creative exercise that has many historical precedents.
To give a few examples, I consider it important to highlight the work of figures such as musician and architect Iannis Xenakis, architect Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray, composer John Cage, philosopher, and thinker Eugenio Trías, along with sound artist Christina Kubisch. And without forgetting the work on color and form by Vasili Kandinsky, as well as the pioneering work of electronic music composers such as Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel—who participated in the PRSNT project—Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Brian Eno, among others.
I would like to clarify that at all times I speak from my personal experience, as a user and as an artist, and not from a technical standpoint seeing as I’m neither an architect nor a mathematician. However, following the residencies I carried out at MACBA in Barcelona and Het HEM in Amsterdam, along with hundreds of conversations with artists, musicians and architects, I was able to conclude that there are three fundamental ways in which architecture and music connect: they are Enveloping, Structured and Evolving (ESE) arts.
Both are enveloping because they generate constant dialogue between spaces and their limits, and are known as “Environmental Arts” because they are installed in environments and are capable of generating habitats. In other words: both have the ability to isolate us from certain elements. Architecture protects us from weather phenomena and from sound, and when we’re immersed in the act of listening to music, we block out other sounds as well as the outside world.
Another connection between them is that they are structural arts, seeing as they require an order to be understood and to be carried out. Although they stand out for their abstract and asymmetrical nature, except on rare occasions, both music and architecture require a foundation on which to to be constructed.
And thirdly, they are evolving arts that have their origin in non-human practices. A clear example of architecture in nature are the vast networks of tunnels excavated by ants in the earth, or the hexagonal honeycombs constructed by bees. And to understand that the same thing happens with music, all you have to do is stop and listen to the complex sounds and melodies sung by birds, or submerge into the ocean and allow oneself to be hypnotized by the songs of whales.
After studying the similarities between both practices in depth, it seems they have more in common than can be perceived at first sight, seeing as, for example, an architectural plan can be interpreted as if it were the score of a musical composition, or vice versa: a score can be read as if it were an architectural plan, and in that way compose a space/soundscape.
Pedro Vian, Barcelona - November 21th 2021
credits
released April 14, 2023
Text revised and edited by Alex Rufi
Translated and edited by Simon Williams
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