Soundwalk Collective ‘Mirage’, Film by Stephan Crasneanscki, Editing by Jim Helton

MIRAGE

2019

MULTI-CHANNEL AUDIO INSTALLATION AND PERFORMANCE
Louvre Abu Dhabi

Between 2010 – 2018 Soundwalk Collective travelled across the Rub’ al Khali desert in UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen several times. Known as the Empty Quarter, the Rub’ al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, virtually uninhabited and mostly unexplored. Here, with the backdrop of a deafening silence, the Collective recorded an acoustic phenomenon known as the ‘Singing Sand’ or ‘Whistling Sand’: sand that produces sound, caused by wind passing over the dunes. Its friction creates a vibration of sound waves between the layers of dry and humid sand, creating a resonance – an entrancing melody.

As a sonic mirage, the Collective composed evanescent musical phrases in a style known as Orientalism: a constructed Western depiction of Middle Eastern music, a metaphor, an imaginary geography. Full of close little ornaments and melisma’s, chromatic accompanying lines and drone bass, the same sonic characteristics were also used by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Satie, Ravel, Prokofiev and Strauss. These scores inspire the myth of the desert, envisioned as a mystical and transcendental place, and draw a musical bridge between the West and the East.

Ephermal, volatile melodies, appear and disappear as a sonic illusion; leaving behind a questionable memory of an imaginary identity.

Soundwalk Collective’s Mirage is presented as a site-specific multichannel sound installation for 24 speakers and video, and is performed with the Cristal Baschet ‘Venise’ and Verbos synthesizer.

Screenshot-2024-01-09-at-00.04.49

Mirage, Multi-channel sound installation, Louvre Abu Dhabi

Mirage is supported by the Bernard Baschet Estate, the Association Structures Sonores Baschet, and the Analogue Foundation.

All recordings by Soundwalk Collective.
Music consulting and Buchla: Hans Tammen
Sound technology by L-Acoustics

YEAR
TITLE
PROJECT
2023 - 2024
CORRESPONDENCES with Patti Smith
Exhibition, CNA Bogotà, TPMM Tbilisi, FIM Guadalajara, MAMM Medellin
2023 - 2024
CORRESPONDENCES - Live
Live Performance
2023
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED - Live
Live Performance
2023
MAISON GAINSBOURG with Charlotte Gainsbourg
Soundtrack, Maison Gainsbourg Paris
2022
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED by Laura Poitras
Film Score
2022 - 2024
EVIDENCE with Patti Smith
Museum Exhibition, Centre Pompidou Paris, CCB Lisbon
2022
IGUANA TOKYO by Kaan Mujdeci
Film Score
2021
LOVOTIC with Charlotte Gainsbourgfeat. AtomTM, Lyra Pramuk, Paul B. Preciado, Willem Dafoe
Audiovisual Installation, FOROF Rome
2021
MEMORY LOST by Nan Goldin
Film Score
2021
A ROOF FOR SILENCE by Hala Warde
Sound Installation, Venice Architecture Biennale
2020
PERADAM with Patti Smithfeat. Anoushka Shankar, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tenzin Choegyal
Album LP
2020
WE ARE NOT ALONE with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hussain Al Jassmi, Nina Kraviz, Willem Dafoe, Wim Wenders, Zhou Dongyu, Jean Nouvel
Sound Installation, Louvre Abu Dhabi
2019
THE TIME OF THE NIGHT with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Patti Smith
Sound Installation, Fondation Carmignac
2019
MUMMER LOVE with Patti Smithfeat. Philip Glass, Mulatu Astatke and the Sufi Group of Sheikh Ibrahim
Album LP
2019
THE PEYOTE DANCE with Patti Smith
feat. Gael García Bernal and the Rarámuri Indians of the Sierra Tarahumara
Album LP
2019
THE WOMEN’S MARCH, 1789 by Nan Goldin
Sound Installation, Palace of Versailles
2019
OSCILLATION
Sound Installation, Philharmonie de Paris
2019
AYAHUASQUEROS
Audiovisual Installation, Times Square 'Midnight Moment', NYC
2019
MIRAGE
Sound Installation, Louvre Abu Dhabi
2019
SIBERIA by Abel Ferrara
Film Score
2018
DEATH MUST DIE
Album LP
2018
ULYSSES SYNDROME
Sound Installation, Manifesta12 Palermo
2018
EΞΟΔΟΣ I Exodos by Sasha Waltz
Score for Dance Choreography
2018
WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
Audiovisual Installation, Kraftwerk Berlin
2018
KREATUR by Sasha Waltz
Score for Dance Choreography
2017
TRANSMISSIONS
Album LP
2017
RESONANCE
Sound Installation, Palazzo Reale, Milan
2017
BEFORE MUSIC THERE IS BLOOD
Album LP
2017
PRINCES AMONG MEN by Stephan Crasneanscki
Film Score
2016
KHANDROMA
Audiovisual Installation, Rubin Museum, NYC
2016
KILLER ROAD with Jesse Paris Smith and Patti Smith
Album LP
2015
A MEMOIR OF DISINTEGRATION with Nan Goldin, Samuel Rohrer and Tina Frank
Audiovisual Performance, CTM Festival, Berlin
2014
SONS OF THE WIND
Film Score and Album LP
2009
KILL THE EGO by Ro Starr
Film Score
2008
CHANEL MOBILE ART by Zaha Hadid
Sound Installation, Hong Kong, Tokyo, NYC

SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE

Credits
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