Music the earth makes
I’ve written before about how the earth makes music: the deep flute-like tones produced by volcanoes, Japanese instruments that use falling water to create music, sound sculptures triggered by geologic phenomenon… Gerhard Trimpin, a German-born sound artist who lives in Seattle, has designed installations over the years that use nature and the earth to produce music. An early piece was a water fountain in which drops of water, timed in complex rhythmic fugues, dripped into glass receptacles. More recently, he was inspired by a Seattle earthquake. Wired reporter Hugh Hart describes how Trimpin tuned in to the sonic chaos that ensued. “I had tympani hanging on a catwalk that started to move back and forth, got out of control, and smashed to the floor,” Trimpin recalled. That was the inspiration to use seismic data as musical material.
Trimpin designed a Seismofone — giant marimbas that translate tremors into ever-shifting compositions. One of these installations is suspended from the atrium of Minnesota’s Science and Art Museum. Sound is triggered by seismic events around the globe, with different regions producing different harmonic patterns. One piece that has been recorded is wittily titled “Magnitude in C Sharp.”
Trimpin’s most prominent work may be “If VI was IX: Roots and Branches,” a 60-foot tower constructed with 500 self-tuning guitars that graces the lobby of Seattle’s Experience Music Project Museum. His sound structures are often eccentric, employing wooden shoes or miniature xylophones. Director Peter Desmonde has filmed a documentary about the artist titled “Trimpin: The Sound of Invention.” The documentary was shown in March in Austin and is expected to be out on DVD in December. Desmonde says,
Many times in the film, the camera just follows Trimpin — then something odd or unusual happens. He’d walk into someone’s kitchen and start banging on pots and pans; he’d drop glass into a dumpster and delight in the sound it made; he’d confuse his assistants and collaborators completely.
After seeing the screening, the Austin Chronicle said of Trimpin, “like a musical Alexander Calder, his work is a testament to the endless possibilities afforded by a free imagination.”
[Photo copyright Anna Kelly, annakelly.com]
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