#5171, Sound Sculptures
There are composers who create wondrous pieces with traditional music instruments. Then, there are sound sculptors who bridge the divide between visual art and musical art with their inventions. Take Italian-American artist Harry Bertoia, for example. What started as a furniture design mission eventually transformed into sound sculpting explorations, when one day, he attempted to bend a metal rod and accidentally produced a resonant sound that inspired him to build sculptures with multiple wires. His “Sounds Beyond” gives us a snippet of the sonic worlds he builds with his invention, when played not only by humans, but also the wind.
Zemi17, which is the electronic music project of composer Aaron Taylor Kuffner, takes the concept of sound sculpting one step further by introducing robotics to his gamelan-influenced composition, “Serra Tone”. Then, glass rods come into play in French composer Loup Barrow’s “De Profundis”, featuring his cristal baschet backed with a dense string arrangement. Andy Akiho, who certainly knows his way around metal percussion, presents “Kintsugi” with Omaha Symphony, featuring the instrumental sculpture of Jun Kanikho.
Later, Turkish experimentalist Görkem Şen brings his cultural roots to his adventurous spring instrument called Yaybahar. Continuously updating the configuration, Şen strikes the drums and springs, and bows the strings of his microtonally-fretted Yaybahar, which leads to solo improvisations that sound multi-instrumental and otherworldly. His approach may remind you of the works of the late German musician Ferdinand Forsch, if you’re familiar with them – and if not, the rare recording of “Rondo”, which involves an instrument Forsch called “stringbox”, played in a dulcimer-style manner, will give you a taste.
We close this chapter with a sound bath from Ragnhild May and Stefan Maier called “The Walls Are Moving”, which takes an architectural approach to sound sculpting by involving the acoustic feedback and resonance buildup inside a church. And finally, Canadian music designer Gayle Young gives us “According to the Moon”, featuring her guitar-inspired hybrid 24-string instrument called Amaranth. Sırma Munyar
(Photo of Görkem Şen, courtesy of the artist's website)
Program #5171, Sound Sculptures (First aired 8/13/26)
ARTIST: Harry Bertoia
WORK: Sounds Beyond [1:47]
RECORDING: Unfolding b/w Sounds Beyond
SOURCE: Harry Bertoia's Sonambient Archive
INFO: https://sonambient.bandcamp.com/album/unfolding-b-w-sounds-beyond-2
ARTIST: Zemi17
WORK: Serra Tone [3:29]
RECORDING: Gamelatron Bidadari
SOURCE: The Bunker New York (Catalog: 044)
INFO: https://zemi17.bandcamp.com/album/gamelatron-bidadari-the-bunker-new-york-044
ARTIST: Loup Barrow
WORK: De Profundis [5:48]
RECORDING: Immineo
SOURCE: Eternal Music Group
INFO: https://loupbarrow.bandcamp.com/album/immineo-2
ARTIST: Andy Akiho, Omaha Symphony, Ankush Kumar Bahl
WORK: Kintsugi [4:06]
RECORDING: Sculptures
SOURCE: Aki Rhythm Productions
INFO: https://andyakiho.bandcamp.com/album/sculptures
ARTIST: Görkem Şen
WORK: Yaybahar Improvisation [5:51]
RECORDING: Improvisation
SOURCE: gorkemsen.com
INFO: https://www.youtube.com/@yaybahar
ARTIST: Ferdinand Forsch
WORK: Rondo [9:40]
RECORDING: Music for Stringbox
SOURCE: This performance is not commercially available.
INFO: https://www.discogs.com/artist/560854-Ferdinand-F%C3%B6rsch
ARTIST: Ragnhild May, Stefan Maier
WORK: The Walls Are Moving [7:26]
RECORDING: The Walls Are Moving
SOURCE: https://ragnhildmay.com/
INFO: https://stefanmaier.studio/the-walls-are-moving-2017/
ARTIST: Gayle Young
WORK: According to the Moon [4:01]
RECORDING: According to the Moon
SOURCE: Farpoint Recordings
INFO: https://gayleyoung.bandcamp.com/album/according-to-the-moon
