A blog on gigs, music, art and London.

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Florian Hecker sound installation, The Chisenhale Gallery

After leaving The Whitechapel Art Gallery I headed to The Chisenhale Gallery in Mile End to catch the current Florian Hecker sound installation. The installation features a number of small speakers hanging from the ceiling which play four electroacoustic pieces that focus on the relationship between sound, perception and locality.

I caught the end of the first piece which featured disembodied, distorted voices. The second piece started with crisp and slightly jarring beats. Single notes and amalgamated sounds soon took over and began to rotate around the three centrally positioned speakers, ricocheting around the large, minimalist gallery space. Mildly disoreinting, individual blocks of noise appeared to swell and escalate until they suddenly broke off from the main body of reverberating sound. In the third piece fragmented splinters of sound are fired against ceramic tiles on one of the gallery walls. The fourth piece was centred around a series of quickening sounds that were played from five small hanging speakers. Your location in the gallery determined the exact auditory experience received (this was applicable to all four pieces but especially so here). Ambitious, challenging sound art. Very good indeed.  



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