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i want to slow down
time
the inner time of objects
put into motion, into vibration
still
yet dynamic
in music, deeper consciousness
of time
pace
pulse
infinite meaning
the chains vibrate on my drum
a chaotic, incomprehensible white noise
don’t get me wrong, i like white noise
time goes too fast
i want to enter the sound
in the slowed down recordings, i hear an inner life
the chains on the drum disclosing their movements
many layers
reflections across rooms
timbral shadings
i want to linger
i could listen into eternity
let me make a piece
Videos filmed with an iPhone 11 by Ingar Zach in 240 fps. Slowed down to 30 fps.
Audio recorded by Anders Tveit. Slowed down to 1⁄4 speed.
Video editing by Lasse Marhaug.
Audio mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi
My decision to create slowed-down videos of vibrating material in addition to my final performance started by accident in my studio at the Academy of Music in Oslo. I wanted to document tiny bells vibrating on the drum when my iPhone camera was set in slow-motion, and I was immediately fascinated by the visual distortions revealing a micro- and macrocosm of moving objects. I found the slowed-down audio to be even more impactful in its ability to manifest an inner sound world filled with vitality. This material is rich in content and opens up new artistic terrain. The videos introduce slowing down as a method, revealing material that corresponds to how I shape musical material with slowly morphing sonic layers, working with stretched out temporal performances and building artistic collectives over longer period of time. The sound of these videos suggests a world far beyond my percussion studio: the sound of tiny bells reverberates like church bells, and the sound of slowed-down brushes vibrating on the membrane could very well be that of a steam train.
I introduced some of the slowed-down sound material from the videos in The Vibrating Drum IV concert [IZ1], but at that time I found the result a bit disappointing. The transducer’s limited ability to transmit complex sound through vibration became especially evident— the membrane was functioning as more of an impediment or muffler, and the sounding result dull, distorted, and obfuscated. I decided to discard the slowed down material completely in my haptic set-up, and instead decided to work towards a video installation using the slowed-down audio-visual material, recording more and different scenes with the slowed-down vibrating material. Anders Tveit assisted with the audio, recording in the highest resolution to avoid any deterioration of the sound quality when set at quarter speed.
The material in the videos is vibrating on the skin of the Gran Cassa in frequencies between 40 to 49 Hz. Most of the material consists of various alloys of metal—bells, singing bowls, and chains—that have a specific pitch.
I made two versions of this material for presentation. The video installation in the recording studio at NMH at the opening day of the 2023 Ultima Festival includes four 48-inch screens. On each of the screens, six slowed-down videos are played in a sequence with approximately 15 seconds of black image in between each video. The four video sequences are looped, and, as they are of different lengths, the four sequences will create a continuous flow of new image and sound combinations. The sound of the four video-loops is played through four speakers positioned in the four corners of the room and a subwoofer. The sound is in omni, which means that the sound from the four video loops is present in the all the speakers.
In this exposition, I have made an interactive version of the video installation. The 24 videos are available on this page for anyone who would like to make their own composition with the slowed-down videos. It is possible to play with combinations of videos, or to listen and watch one video at a time and discover an inner world of sound and image.