A source of inspiration

In 2013, shortly after finishing work on my music studio in the basement of my house in Madrid, I sat down in front of my computer and started to hear a low frequency in my right ear. In the beginning I thought the sound was coming from outside, but that seemed strange, since I had installed floating floors and professional-grade sound isolation, which should have prevented any outside sounds from entering. So where was this sound coming from? My partner also started to hear this frequency, but in her left ear. At the time, we had our bedroom in the basement as well, close to my studio. The frequency became so distracting that we began to have problems falling asleep at night. We searched the building and asked the neighbors if they could also hear the sound, but they looked at us like we had lost our minds. We searched online for probable causes, and one night came across a chat where some proposed that the source could be electromagnetic radiation from antennas and other technological devices.

Determined to prove what I was hearing I set up a microphone in my studio, where I heard the frequency the loudest, in order to see if I could detect the frequency graphically in my audio program on my computer. The program showed the frequency area around 50 Hz, which was just as I had expected. We contacted a company in Valencia to come and measure the electromagnetic radiation in our house. Days earlier, our electrician had stopped by to measure it with his equipment and found high levels of electromagnetic radiation, especially high levels in my studio at the wall towards the street. Our electrician also said he felt a strange atmosphere downstairs, something that he didn’t remember was there when he installed the electrical system three years before. We concluded that, during these last three years, something had happened in or around our house to make the radiation rise to these levels. But what? Furthermore, the levels of electromagnetic radiation, even if they were high according to European parameters, they were not above the recommended levels in Spain, and so we had no legal recourse. 

We started to sleep upstairs. But I had to find a way to use my studio. It was my workspace, an investment for the future, but staying there for hours was now leaving me tired and unable to focus. I also worried that exposing myself to this radiation over a long period of time could damage my health. The only way I could avoid hearing the sound while working there was to put on a constant sound. This strategy blocked the 50 Hz in my right ear, but the sound always appeared again when there was silence in the room. 

My response to this dilemma was to deal with this frequency in my music and with my instruments. I got addicted to working with low frequencies, which have become a fundamental part of my work with vibrating speakers on the orchestral bass drum. In doing so, I found a way to manage this kind of tinnitus, and to make it my best friend instead my enemy. 

We ultimately left the house in Madrid, afraid of the health consequences. But today I hear the 50HZ everywhere. I do not know why. It usually creeps towards me when I am tired. I guess that I am now very sensitive to electromagnetic radiation—I have no other explanation.