TRIMPIN - HEAR WE ARE JANUARY 20 - MARCH 9, 2016
I was honored to be able to join my Listening and Analysis class on a fantastic journey this week. We went to visit an amazing sound sculpture, sound artist, instrument creator and composer, Gerhard Trimpin, better known solely by his last name alone Trimpin. The exhibit is being hosted by the wonderful folks at WINSTON WÄCHTERFINE ART.
Trimpin's work integrates sculpture and sound across a variety of media including fixed installation and live music, theater, and dance performance. His works are known to be electromechanically actuated by embedded microcontrollers that communicate digitally through MIDI.
A little Wiki history on this sound genius; Trimpin grew up in Istein, now part of Efringen-Kirchen, near the French and Swiss borders. He is a native speaker of Alemannisch and the son of a brass and woodwind player. As a child he had access to old brass instruments to experiment with. He played brass instruments himself, but developed an allergy to metal that affected his lips and made him give up playing. Trimpin's father treated him to spatial musical experiences, playing at some distance in the German woods, and young Trimpin experimented with old radios and with cutting apart and recombining elements of musical instruments. He studied at the University of Berlin.
One of his early installations was a six-story-high microtonal xylophone (that is, one with smaller intervals between achievable tones than in conventional Western musical scales) running through a spiral staircase in an Amsterdam theater, with computer-driven melodies ripping up and down it. Another piece was a water fountain installation in which drops of water, timed in complex rhythmic fugues, dripped into glass receptacles. Several of his pieces since that time have made similar use of falling water. A dance piece used the dancers' bodies to make music, with small bellows in the dancers' shoes that played duck calls, air blowers triggered by sacs under their armpits, etc.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.
I had a fantastic time viewing and listening to Trimpin's work. The exhibit was a little smaller than I had expected but for what it was worth, I loved it all the same. I was a little lost with some of the work and compositions at first, but after going home and finding several vidoes on the good ole Youtube, it tied it all in. This article is going to be picture heavy because I was able to snap off alot of great shots. I spent alot of time deconstructing the work framed on the walls because it involved MIDI and a massive installation in the grand lobby at the Bena Roya Hall. I recently went on a full tour of the facility and will post a blog about that experience on here soon as well. That visit sparked alot of interest with the acoustics and then walking through the Trimpin Gallery and recognizing images directly relating to the Grand Hall was incredibly intrigiuing. Here are a few images from the gallery, I love how he uses so much color to his sketches.
What a great time viewing all of these pieces. I really had a kick when I came across a video of Trimpin explaining and going through his thought process for the Bena Roya Hall performace, you can watch that here.
Trimpin describes his new composition for the Seattle Symphony.
The gallery had a few really incredible pieces and just looking at them at first you have this idea and thought of what you were looking at, but getting closer and upon furthur inspection, it's completely mind blowing. For example, the interactive experience display with twenty or more different hanging triangular boxes stacked upon one another. I'm not sure what this piece was called, but did notice that we could take it home for a small amount of something like $12k. In anycase, at first I thought it was just MIDI controlled tones being played through these tubes. Theres a pad that you stand on, centered directly in the middle of the vector of all the tubes and the are playing this whimsical song from an analog device turning on the wall. There is a light that is playing a MIDI tone for every open chad that is punched through the "record" or wheel. Here is a better visual explanation and representation. I cant describe the piece as well as these images can. Have a look for yourself.
Well upon furthur investigation, my professor Paul Kukuchi and I walked up and spoke with one of the gallerists and asked them about the tones being played and how amazing they sounded, because we both questioned whether or not they were actual sounds being performed and not just played, and indeed they were! There are small pump devices installed in each triangular tube with a reed playing the actual tone and not a MIDI note. My mind was blown away, but impressed that we had bothed questioned the same thing. Here's a couple images of the reed tubes in action.
What a phenominal experience. This man is truly a genius! When you first walk into the gallery the first display is resting upon a table. There are couple of vinyl records with one of his compositions attached inside of it "Above, Below And Inbetween". Quite like everything in the gallery, they were for sale and the vinyl enthusiast in my needed them, until I saw the $950.00 price tag. Not that it wasnt worth every penny, but I am an art school student struggling to even purchase a lot of records off of Craigslist! Here are a few shots of those as well. The inside artwork is Trimpins mad scientist compositions included. Have a look here.
There were a few more interesting pieces in the gallery, they all invloved listening to the "Above Below and Inbetween" composition. I really like his genius and approach to his craft, it was truly an inspiration and I can see where you can take elements of music, instrument and mechanics and incorporate it into a MIDI verese of amazing art! I will include these photo's as well. Have a look at the rest of the pictures taken that day.
All in all, I had a wonderful time and am incredibly grateful for the experience and introduction to Trimpin from my kick ass professor. What a treat to get to field trip to the gallery. I really thought alot about how sound is more than just sound. It's whatever you percieve it to be. In any raw element it can be considred art. If you recognize a sound for it being just that, a simple soiund, or whether or not it is something far dynamic than that. It can be anything that you desire it to be, with no boundaries or boarders. Over the quarter in our clas we have spent some time focusing on some truly amazing aspects of listening. I will never take this for granted. I am in love with audio and it is an obsession to me. If you don't undertsand this then maybe your not listening, and honestly man, that Hertz. Cheers to PK for an amazing trip to the Winston Wachter!! If you find yourself wanting to know more about this mad scientist, you are in luck! Here is a link to his movie!! Go have a listen, and maybe it will change you as well.
Link to film ---> http://www.trimpinmovie.com
