This is the KLANGBAUM!

Rendered on 2022-10-16, Prickle-Prickle, the 70th day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3188

Elettromagnetica

ALBUMMUSICEMF

Released December 21, 2019, IncisioniRupestri

Abstract

Our everyday life is characterized by ever present sounds. Some of them are so deeply embedded in our common experience that our mind almost no longer perceives them as unique sounds.On the contrary, there is a range of sounds that we cannot physically perceive, such as ultra- and infra-sounds. However, their physical nature is always the same: pressure waves that propagate through the air.

Moreover, there is another physical phenomenon that lives in the same range of audible frequencies, but is inaudible to us. Electromagnetic (EM) waves in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) band share the same frequency spectrum of the audible sounds, but we are not physically able to perceive them.
Despite this, electromagnetic waves populate our lives as well as the sound pressure waves. Every day we deal with devices that emit information in the VLF range.

Hence the concept behind Elettromagnetica: hearing the inaudible sound that surrounds our everyday lives.
The purpose is not only to document this presence, but to make it emerge as a real, tangible piece of reality that cannot be perceived by our five senses without the help of external technology.

What

Since the focus of this work is to give a rendition of the EM fields that surround our lives, all of the recordings are made by capturing common household appliances such as computers, smartphones, hair dryers and washing machines.

How

You cannot simply record electromagnetic waves with a typical audio microphone. In order to do that, you need a custom, EM-sensitive device. For Elettromagnetica I opted for a minimalistic approach, striving for devices that are simple to build (DIY) and easy to use. I used two kinds of stereo EM microphones, a passive one (like a common guitar pickup) and an active one (a DIY Elektrosluch by LOM instruments) that uses small inductor coils as sensitive devices.

Credits:

Support on bandcamp.