Sounds Cool

Viileaa  (Sounds cool)

Viileaa (Sounds cool) is a  8 channel sound installation that combines recorded ice and underwater sounds with live sounds of wind and weather elements.

Viileaa (Sounds cool) started as research project in underwater recording.  Later it combined with my experiments with with alternate loudspeaker arrays.

I have collected underwater sounds since 2000. In 2002 I went on a recording expedition to the White Sea in Karelia, Russia to record beluga whales at the Solovetski island. Later I got interested in recording ice in its various formations: Ice forming, ice melting, ice recorded underwater, sounds made by structural tensions within ice, sounds of birds and nature recorded through ice etc.

In postproduction I realized that some of the beluga vocalizations resemble very much the creaking sounds that the expanding ice produces at certain temperatures.

The sounds of the installation are projected through sail like loudspeaker net that is suspended in the air. The triangular net consists of 78 speaker elements that are connected to each other with springs.

78 loudspeakers form 8 groups. 6 groups are fed with three cd-players that play the recorded sounds in random order and 2 groups are fed with “live” sounds. Sources for the live sounds are wind, water (fountains) rain etc. They vary depending on the installation site.

The dramaturgy of Viileaa (Sounds cool) is based on the dialectics of recorded and “live” sounds  and on apparent and real movement of sounds on the loudspeaker net. The recorded material comes from my library of undewater / ice recordings. Some of the recordings have been slightly processed to bring out the inner sound structures of water and ice.

Technical Requirements:

Viileaa (Sounds cool) consists of triangular loudspeaker  net that is suspended between ceiling and  floor.

78 loudspeakers are connected (2 sets of 5 loudspeakers  in series and these 2 sets  in parallel) to form  8 groups (6 x 10 speakers and 2 x 9 speakers) 6 groups are connected to 3 cd players and 2 groups are connected to live sound sources.

All the 8 channels are amplified by car stereo amplifiers which are fed with computer power sources (110V-230V to 12 V). The wind and water sound sources have contact microphones/hydrophones that are amplified with pre amps and power amps.

The footprint of the installation is 6m x 1,50m and the height 3,50 m – 4,50 m