This recognition forms the basis for the Sound Spa concept, which constitutes the background to the "Noises for Ritual Architecture" show in Meiré and Meiré's Cologne factory. The cleansing effect described above may be increased further if combined with an appropriate spatial layout. Mike Meiré: “The ritual architectures are focused on the transformation of everyday behaviour patterns into rituals. The sound compositions reflect spatial and sensuous qualities through the acoustic medium, thereby reinforcing this element of transformation.” In a room that is charged with energy in this way, it is possible to feel your own presence more strongly. The patterns of behaviour carried out gain in subjective meaning and people involuntarily become more conscious of them.
“From sensory activity to motor functions” is how Carlo Peters interprets this principle for his own work, for which the sensory quality of the spatial architectures was first translated into a specific singular sound image and then arranged into a temporal sequence in the composing process. “This is where a conceptual difference exists between “Noises for Ritual Architecture” and the idea of ambient music as developed by Brian Eno and exemplified in "Music For Airports". The latter piece imagines an ideal space, whilst Carlo Peters' music is focused on very specific bathroom architectures and material worlds", adds Mike Meiré. This difference is clarified by such works as “Noise 3 Elemental”: the titles of the three pieces themselves are different ways of referring to the chemical element copper, which dominates the surfaces in ELEMENTAL SPA. “Cyprium 10834” contains the Latin name and the boiling point of the material, “Ybergangsmetalle” is the old German name for the cupreous metals in the period system, whereas the last title "Copper Acetate" refers to verdigris and consequently plays on the potentially changeable nature of the substance, which forms part of the material concept.
The tripartite nature of the composition can also be understood as an analogy for passing through the various stages of cleansing. The piece begins with entry to the spectacular world of Elemental Spa, as the harsh impressions of everyday life give way to a deep and powerful sonic movement. The theme of the middle section is the encounter with the water. Through the music, the listening ear becomes the part of the body touched by the water. Yet the surrounding materials become audible, with the steel and copper beginning to vibrate and seeming to twist around the ear. When linked with the third, ethereal section, a transformative transition can be ascertained: whilst the struggle with mysterious and dark elements is at first closed in as an integrated part of the cleansing process, the perspective then opens up; at the end, the spatial and audio impression is surrounded by the vastness of a cosmos. There are two further soundscapes which take different approaches to the aspect of developing awareness through synaesthestic reflection of the bathroom architecture.
In the MEM architecture, the physical materiality of the fittings ebbs away, leaving the room as the focus of attention. Carlo Peters’ composition picks up on the spiritual energies contained in this room, creating a swaying carpet of sound from one single slow vibration and, over this ground, setting up an interplay of numerous natural sounds with digital clicks, noises and streams. “Noises 1 MEM” pays homage to the muses, with music portrayed more as a possibility than as a form. What remains is memory, expansiveness and ease. The sound composition for the TARA LOGIC architecture focuses on the parameters of activity/exertion, strength and movement. Here the music is perhaps best understood as a “soundtrack” in a very literal sense, with the audio spectrum becoming a treadmill – after a warm-up phase, an introduction that corresponds to the light in the room (“Amber Glass”), the noises slowly start up. Modelled on a workout in a closed room or on an accelerated heartbeat, “Logic” is based on repetitive samples within which pulsing tone colours generate constant freshness. “Basically it is always just about to take off”, says Mike Meiré.
The physical edition of the CDs, on which the "Noises" appear, is closely connected with its trigger, the ritual architectures. However, the autonomy of the sound sphere is acknowledged as the paper posters enclosed with each CD are tailored to the ritual architecture, with the poster for MEM displaying a digital collage of a section of the atrium where the paradise garden is located. For Elemental, the poster shows a pictorial composition consisting of coloured surface impressions from the “Elemental Spa”. The covers each depict views of the various components of the bathroom architecture. If we transfer these clues to the soundscapes, we can establish that the realm of sound remains simultaneously abstract and diffuse, a concept that can be sensed yet not fully grasped.
NOISES FOR RITUAL ARCHITECTURE was instigated by Mike Meiré. The sound collages of composer Carlo Peters from Cologne represent the relationship between space, materiality and movement in ritual architecture and were produced by NEO NOTO, Cologne.
Tobias Ruderer
Moins