Radiokunst von Andreas Bick

Excerpt from a recent sound composition featuring the sounds of phonems. Singer Almut Kühne interprets those language atoms, the scientific names are introduced by the narrator Gunter Schoß. Premiere was on 13th March 2009 at German radio broadcaster WDR3.

Phonemenon (excerpt)

Sound Art piece for Studio Akustische Kunst of WDR, editor: Klaus Schöning, first broadcast: 18th November 2000. Awarded the Prix Ars Acustica 2000. 
This is a shorter Mix of the original composition. 
"dripping introduces the listener to imaginary rooms, whose physical structures are made tangible by the composition of droplets generating sound. The droplets can be thought of as being the echoes of a location system, which gives the listener access to a whole microcosm of almost unperceivable sounds from the perspective of an insect. The initially irregular dripping sounds describe a path through a "virtual" soundscape of various different material consistencies. They then begin adopting rhythmic patterns that create a hypnotic atmosphere as a result of their combined repetition and nuanced fluctuation."

Dripping Short Version

Radioart composition for Deutschlandradio Kultur, first broadcast: 7th December 2001. Awarded the Karl-Sczuka-Förderpreis 2002. 
This is an excerpt of the original composition.
"The desert, a landscape reduced to the most fundamental and primordial components, a place for introspection, is the starting point of windscapes. In all its breathtaking beauty and simplicity, the desert represents the epitome of a landscape sculpted by the wind. The sea of dunes and the aeolian modulation of the sand remind us of the empty vastness of the ocean, whose silent waves of sand are continually being shaped by the wind to create sheer infinite diversity. The flowing shapes and patterns of sand seem to go on endlessly like time – which itself has been measured using sand since time immemorial."

Windscapes Excerpt

Excerpt of a radioart composition, produced by Studio Akustische Kunst, WDR 3, In collaboration with Claudia de Serpa Soares and Nicola Mascia of the Schaubühne Berlin Dance Ensemble and with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg.
First broadcast: 30th November 2002 on WDR3

"Our skin is the sounding resonating vessel of our soul, the membrane that separates us from the outside world, both a protective layer and a sensory organ. Without skin contact, human beings must die – it is only another’s touch that gives us identity and makes us human. At the same time, skin in its ambivalent double role stands for the possible merging of two individuals and for the physical impossibility of true union. Now that humankind has been robbed of its spirituality, the sexual act as the ultimate form of touch is the last remaining experience of transcendence. In Der Klang der Haut, two people join together in search of this ultimate experience in mutual dissolution. The tentative sound of their touch is the language of the bodies whose borders they cannot cross. The topography of these bodies is mapped using a many-layered range of bowed sounds that invoke and celebrate the rituals of love and the pain of separation."

Klang Der Haut Ausschnitt

Fire Pattern is the second of the twin pieces "Fire and Frost Pattern", produced by Deutschlandradio Kultur in 2007. 
Awarded the Phonurgia-Nova-Prize 2008 and a mention at the 35th International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art in Bourges 2008.
CD and download available at the label Gruenrekorder.

"The sound compositions fire pattern (2007) and frost pattern (2006) describe the extremes of hot and cold. Almost identical in terms of their formal structure, the twin pieces reflect the acoustic impact of the energies unleashed by fire and ice, from the loudest sound event in each case – the eruption of a volcano and the collision of an iceberg – through to cooling or melting in a more moderate temperature range."

Fire Pattern



Frost Pattern is the first of the twin pieces "Fire and Frost Pattern", produced by Deutschlandradio Kultur in 2006.
Awarded the Phonurgia-Nova-Prize 2008 and a mention at the 35th International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art in Bourges 2008.
CD and download available at the label Gruenrekorder.

"The sound compositions fire pattern (2007) and frost pattern (2006) describe the extremes of hot and cold. Almost identical in terms of their formal structure, the twin pieces reflect the acoustic impact of the energies unleashed by fire and ice, from the loudest sound event in each case – the eruption of a volcano and the collision of an iceberg – through to cooling or melting in a more moderate temperature range."


Frost Pattern

Vocal composition for a singer and a speaker. First radio broadcast at Studio Akustische Kunst 13th March 2009 on WDR 3.

Singer: Almut Kühne
Speaker: Gunter Schoß

"Phonemes are the building bricks of human language, the smallest units of spoken sound used to generate meaning. Every language has a fixed inventory of phonemes which are transcribed with the help of phonetic symbols and systematically indexed in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This notational system forms the basis for the sound composition phonemenon, which features many of the (100+) phonemes in the IPA."

Phonemenon

An excerpt of the piece "Chronostasis" produced by Studio Akustische Kunst of WDR.
First broadcast: 13 March 2009, on WDR 3.

Awarded a Silver World Medal in the category „Best Sound“ and a finalist certificate in the category „Best Editing“ at New York Festivals Awards for Radio Programming & Promotion 2009

All tracks are available at Bandcamp.

"The clock is one of the most important technical developments of humankind. Few other inventions have had such a shaping influence on our everyday life. The clock’s proverbial ticking is deeply ingrained in our consciousness. It marked time for industrialisation and scientific progress, as well as being the first mechanical musical instrument, preparing our rhythmic understanding for the machinelike precision of modern music. In chronostasis, the sound of time becomes audible via the many-voiced ticking of a whole array of antique clocks. The simplest rhythmic information, the pendular motion of a clock mechanism, gives rise to a complex tangle of overlapping patterns and pulses. For a moment, in the ritual of constant repetition, time seems to stand still. (The term ”chronostasis“ refers to a perceptual illusion that causes the second hand of a clock to appear to stand still for a moment. Apparently, when the gaze moves quickly to a clock face, the mind prolongs its perception of that initial moment beyond what is actually seen.)"


Buy at Bandcamp

Chronostasis Excerpt

a mix of a 1999 production, sound sources are exclusively crickets and frogs, was broadcasted at several radio stations. The subject of crickets, cicadas and frogs keep me going: in the meantime, I collected loads of new material around the world and there will be a new version of the piece later this year (much less based on steady beats than floating drifting rhythms as found in nature...)

sono taxis reloaded

this track is based on recordings of my backyard, that I made during a period of 4 or 5 month in spring 1998. the idea is very simple: every morning after getting up recording the atmosphere of the backyard for about 2 min, than later I improvised those super simple chords on the white keys of the piano with each chord being the starting point for a new day. what you hear is something like winter passing by and spring slowly evolving compressed over a time of roughly 15 min.

tagesringe

Draft version of a part of my composition "A Pot Calling the Kettle Black", that I produced for the relaunch of the Silence Radio webpage. You can hear the final piece here: http://bit.ly/aLGICM

Une meme eau

Constantin Popp made this beautiful "remix" of my piece "Tagesringe", basically he played around with some granular features and boosted the noisy parts of the piano track without the field recordings of the original composition. For more information and free download of the original version check: http://www.andreas-bick.de/en/music/radiokunst/tagesringe.php Also visit Constantin Popp at http://www.constantinpopp.de

Tagesringe remixed

Soundtrack for the radio play "Flughunde" written by Marcel Beyer. More info:
http://www.andreas-bick.de/flughunde/

"The Karnau Tapes" is a novel by German writer Marcel Beyer. It tells the story of a fanatical sound engineer of the Nazi era who strives to record a map of all possible human utterances and, in his efforts, even doesn't hesitate to experiment with prisoners of concentration camps. His endeavors finally lead him into the Führerbunker where he records the last words of the daughters of Joseph Goebbels. This track is a compilation of sounds I created for the radio play based on Beyer's novel. The "un-musical" score for this radio play consists of the atmospheres of old worn-out tapes and phonograph records, bat sounds, distorted voices and the imagined primal sound of the skull's bone seam.

The Karnau Tapes

Composer, sound artist, field recordist. Soundtracks, radio play and podcast music, radioart.