Turbulent Currents

The project deals with the ambivalent, sonically fascinating but sometimes distressing experience of architectures and landscapes of energy production – topologies that are all to some extent non-places in the sense of being uninhabitable, often gated and even dangerous zones. But at the same time these territories are of great importance for society and thus classified as critical infrastructures.
The project seeks out to explore the sounds of these places and especially their sonic polarities that unfold in relation to their particular logic of how time and space are organized. Thus «Turbulent Currents» tries to gain a wider knowledge of and a deeper sensibility for these infrastructural topologies and networks through listening and composing, which brings up the question of how the vibrating machines, the flowing energies and the architectural structure itself can be captured and contextualized musically.
During fieldwork in different power plants multiperspective recordings are gathered. Condenser microphones and an array of different additional microphone and sensor technologies such as geophones, hydrophones or coils are used to capture and extend a human perception of energy conversion. Excerpts of these recordings are combined with electronic sounds of an analog modular synthesizer to create experimental music compositions that echo the multisensory experience of infrastructures of electricity production.
By creating, shaping and sculpting sound with pure electricity of an analog modular synthesizer, the compositions also include and reflect the transformation of electricity into a sensory graspable, sonic existence. Through sound performances and installations the project faces these flowing more-than-human forces such as water, heat, air, and electricity and uses the power of sound to capture and express our energy-dependent existence.

.

.

Experiments with analog modular synthesizer systems

.

.

Compositions with field recordings and sounds of an analog modular synthesizer

.

.

Excerpts of the multichannel composition for the commissioned sound installation «Turbulent Currents» as part of the group exhibition «Disquietude. Architecture and Energy in Portugal» at Galeria Avenida da Índia, Lisbon

Sound installation specs:
Year: 2022
Duration: 34min 45s
Format: 6.1

.

.

Hydropower plant Bemposta, Portugal: Sonic and visual impressions (2022)

.

.

Hydropower plant Tua, Portugal: Sonic and visual impressions (2022)

.

.

Construction ruin of hydropower plant Côa, Portugal: Sonic and visual impressions (2022)

.

.

Wind farm A Capelada, Spain: Sonic and visual impressions (2022)

.

.

Hydropower plant Hoengg, Switzerland: Sonic and visual impressions (2022)

.

.

Geothermal power plant Hellisheiði, Iceland: Sonic and visual impressions (2021)

.

.

Hydropower plant Vicosoprano, Switzerland: Sonic and visual impressions (2021)

.

.

Landscape of power generation and nuclear waste storage in Borssele, Netherlands: Visual impressions (2021)

.

.

Thermal power station Zurich, Switzerland: Sonic and visual impressions (2020)

.

.

Public presentations

Acousmatic concert with ambisonic diffusion of the piece «Albigna» (2022) at the festival «Espacios Resonantes: Festival de Arquitectura y Escucha», November 19, 2022, Santiago de Chile (photos by Felipe Mardones)

.

.

Commissioned sound installation at the exhibition «Disquietude. Architecture and Energy in Portugal» at Galeria Avenida da Índia (Galerias Municipais de Lisboa), November 17, 2022 - February 12, 2023, Lisbon (photos by João Paulo Serafim)

.

.

Concert at Galeria Avenida da Índia (Galerias Municipais de Lisboa), November 17, 2022, Lisbon, Portugal

For the exhibition Disquietude. Architecture and Energy in Portugal Christoph Brünggel was invited to create a sound installation that echoes the multifaceted experiences with hydroelectric power plants in the Douro Valley. To activate his installation Turbulent Currents on the opening night of the exhibition, he plays a live set of sounds from different energy landscapes. During the performance he combines hydroelectric sounds from Portugal and the Swiss Alps with those of a geothermal power plant in Iceland, a waste-to-energy-plant in the city of Zurich, and wind turbines in Galicia.

This sound performance is part of his ongoing work dealing with architectures, technologies, and landscapes of energy production – as topologies that are in a sense non-places because they are uninhabitable, often fenced and even dangerous zones. At the same time, however, these geographies are of great importance for society and therefore classified as critical infrastructures. For this work, Brünggel sonically explored the emissions of the machines, the conversion of energies and the architectural structure of the facilities through field recordings. By combining these recordings live with electrically generated and designed sounds from an analogue modular synthesizer, he creates a composition intended to reflect the human exploitation of flowing more-than-human forces such as water, heat, air, and electricity.