we went to the scrab yard

and there were nice trucks

I hope to use this piano for our work

for photo’s  klick on image

YES I got a myself new bicycle! it was build for me, so now I can ride freely, the rules here are simple, just survive and your fine.
They took us to a opening and there was one young artist that was very interesting his name was Sandip, he made a machine embossing text, and explained some projects he is working on, I want to know more about him and his projects he has character and is talented I can not really explain it.
Later we went to a collaboration project with De Waag from Amsterdam, one of the Kohj was invited and  3 of the artist came “to help” .  A image was send from Amsterdam to a special cellphone, given to us, that we den used to make a new image and returned back to Amsterdam etc. etc., a bit childish but fun, it will be on a web-site, when I have the URL I will ad it.

YOKOMONO-pro development
I just returned from Connaught Place and it is more complicated then I thought.
It seemed Connaught Place has high security (there were several bomb attacks)
and we talked that if we can not do it we take a other square.
My plan we don’t need any permission for it will be just taxi’s driving and using their horn, that all part of the dally routine.
but after visiting
- the place if full of loud traffic and we have to find a time were  Connaught Place ‘is ours’
second: is much bigger then I imaged it and I think you will not hear the different circles,,,,,,,,,,,,,, well
not with 12 cars that is, so there two possibilities
A get lost of more say 100
ore B get a smaller square
needles to say I want a hundred cars,, that will be a money thing I assume
and we should find a time where it is more quite

I have made several sound patterns that are inspired by the patterns they use in the traffic
I have made several shapes (movement choreography) that they can drive
and I have to select starting point of each pattern and starting queues
and I made 3 different formations that they much drive in
I want to make 4 groups and communicate by radio (I have a transmitter that I must test)
I must make very clear visual  instructions of all the elements to give to the drivers

machine orchestra installation
we went to the junk marked electronic, they would like me to make a machine sound orchestra
we checked for a DMX dimmer, they cost about 200 euro
I did not really bring al the things you need for machine orchestra, so now either I work with what I have ore get what is missing.
I have not made my mind up.
At Kohj there is a piano from Cynthia Zaven (she is a sound artist from Lebanon that I met in Cairo) I am thinking of some machines to play the piano.
and there is a nice tree that I can use.

New sound tool?
the street sounds are amazing I must go and record it it would be the best change to make a new loop vinyl record that I will get in a long time.
It will be a record for our vinyl killers (the toy car record players) playing street sounds, plus they tolled me there are two places where you can make vinyl, and there is a screen-printer so interesting possibilities for a special edition.

welcome to my first blog site, that will document the stay at Kohji-new Delhi.
Al the photo’s and images  of this project can be found at our flickr website!
I have never done any blog, nor red blogs of others, this might  be notable in my writings, plus i am not a great writer (to my opinion). Then why make one, you might ask, well for the reasons above and I hope it will help me structuring my plans for India and keep some interested informed on progress & experience.

I have lived up to this visit for a long time, even got the invitation to come one year before but had other obligations.
I was most happy and honoured that the invitation was renew for 2008.
This is my first time to India and I did not know what to expect. The dilemma for a project like this is that I want to make new work tailored for the location and situation but that would imply that I had to wait until arrival with my plans.
The brain can not be shut down that simple when the idea of working in India is so fascinating.
To arrive with some sort of plan serves as a kind of insurance that I can start working and collect impressions and ideas in the process.
So I worked on creating framework ideas that had to be filed with local contend.
I had to start al late as possible so that the ideas would not fill up by themselves.
my plan contain several disciplines (beside the blog), a composition, a music tool a installation and graphic design plus the hope to make something completely new.

first frame/plan;
YOKOMONO-pro
a composition for new Delhi
In the Achitone tradition when possibilities we explore the possibilities to transform a object in to a instrument, I would looked for a object in public space that is part of the infrastructure containing many object sound and movement.
My main interest was a square that functions like central organ pumping traffic in the treat system, where the square could be the instruments body and the traffic the sound sources, the stings so to say.
the most ideal square would be Connaught Place having 3 circles and 7 radial  roads.
now traffic and local sound character have to be found and analysed  sound and musicians selected and a movement choreography and composition have to be made.
one prominent inhabitant has forced himself as a main player, a mobile that they can auto, a small 3 wheel green and yellow taxi looking like a toy car, that inhabit the city by the thousands, and in move like insects in the street.
considering the fact that we do a installation named YOKONO with 10 red toy car record players , if should be no surprise that I prefer to work with 10 of these  green and yellow taxi’s.

for upcomming events klick Here!

for our video’s on youtube klick Here !

for our photo’s on flicker klick Here!

for our music on MySpace klick Here!

Staalplaat soundsystem wil be at the Second Khoj International Artists’ Association International Sonic Art Residency from Nov-10th - Dec 21st 2008. Participants Geert-Jan Hobijn  Andrej Hrvatin (founder of Satoration), Kiran Subbaiah and Navin Thomas will examine sound as a form of experimentation in between artistic and scientific exploration. Taking our past experiences with the genre a step further, this residency will go beyond simple software generated sound to include kinetics, performance and prosthetic devices that transform sound and light.

We would like to exchange our experience it with the future generations .
We have done kids workshops that consist of two main elements,
first developing and building instruments and second playing and presenting them in the context of a concert.
Staalplaat soundsystem  has experience in teaching children building instruments from old house hold machines like kitchen mixers or vacuum cleaners and all sorts of toy-instruments and other noise making things.The workshop results in a performance of the kid’s.
Creating what we will call the “Belgrade Philharmonic Youth Orchestra”.
The orchestra will be conducted on a simply dimmer-based system, the kid’s can use little voltage dimmers (that we will bring)  to  control their instruments while we  will bring illuminating numbers that we can switch one and of to tell them them they can play .

klick here for a video of the part from ACHIM WOLLSCHEID

een reactie van een bezoekster (a email responce of a visitor in Duch)
Hallo,

Toevallig reisde ik gisteren van Den Haag CS terug naar Groningen en mocht ik een half uur lang ‘genieten’ van het concert van stationsgeluiden. Helaas heb ik er net zoals menig ander met wie ik heb gesproken niet erg van genoten. Het is niet prettig om je oren te moeten bedekken omdat het aantal decibellen te hoog is. Evenmin is het leuk om als je trein vertraging heeft nauwelijks te kunnen horen wat de NS-medewerkers je daarover te melden hebben. En dan om 20.30, toen we eindelijk rustig in de trein dachten te zitten, opeens een enorme BOEM. Ik hoop dat jullie er aan gedacht hebben dat sommige mensen daarvoor erg veel angst hebben. Een meisje van een jaar of 10 à 12 bij ons in de coupé werd compleet hysterisch, begon te huilen en te schreeuwen en was lange tijd niet tot bedaren te brengen. Ze dacht dat er een bom ontplofte, tegenwoordig met het oog op terroristische aanslagen geen gek idee. Bovendien had ze al last van haar oren vanwege de harde geluiden op het station. Wij waren erg blij dat het afgelopen was, en dat we daarna rustig met de trein het station konden verlaten met nog een lange reis voor de boeg. Mochten jullie in de toekomst weer zoiets organiseren, dan graag niet op een treinstation. Ik denk niet dat jullie vooraf ook maar enige rekening met de akoestiek hebben gehouden.

Netty Leistra
Groningen

by Achim Wollscheid  Mark Bain Erik Hobijn Staalplaat Soundsystem en Mike Rijnierse for the opening of Todaysart 2008

This opening performance is not just any performance. It uses instruments, but highly unusual ones; the Central Station-building itself, including all the people and other sources of sound, such as machines, are interpreted by the artists as instruments.

station to station is de openings performance voor het todayarts festival
het vind plaats in het centraal station in den haag ,
waarbij de locatie/(akoestische)ruimte en de aanwezige middelen(klankbronnen) door de betrokken kunstenaars worden geîterpreteerd als een instrument, dat er door het ‘nieuwe’ oor geen onderscheid wordt gemaakt tussen ‘muziek’ en ‘geluid’. ”All sounds are equal” (John Cage)
Het CS station heeft verschillenden klanken die we willen gebruiken, zo als de treinen, tram en de bezoekers en zijn omgeving  ( het verkeer/de fietsen - buiten het station)

in het programma staat” This performance is not just any performance. It uses instruments, but highly unusual ones; the instruments are trains and trams, bicycle bells and the Central Station-building itself, including all the people present. As a part of the performance, in cooperation with NS (=the Dutch railroad company), a whole range of trains and trams will enter the station in a strict choreography called The Tsunami, with all the train and tram engineers working together. Sounds from travellers will also be amplified through microphones as part of the performance. Achim wollscheid will use computer-driven magnets that play the bicycles in front of the Central Station like a toposonic typewriter.

Intro 19.00 tot 19.30
De avond begint buiten voor het station met de fietsen, een concert van Achim Wollscheid  op alle fiets bellen
Achim wollscheid zal doormiddel van een groot aantal computergestuurde magneten een compositie spelen met alle fiets bellen die een zee vormen op het plein voor het CS.s

interlude 19.30 tot 20.00
met 10  personen met 10 richtmicrofonen word live karakteristieke geluiden “gevonden” en naar het centrale mengpaneel gestuurd
waar ze naar een tien kanalen speaker systeem worden gestuurd, (ook wel het”Het Mengpaneel” ) om vervolgens te worden opgenomen in het aanwezige geluids tapijt. gebruik van electro- motoren publiek, koffers, deuren, etc.
“Het Mengpaneel”
den haag centraal is een kopstation waardoor de treinen een soort schuiven zijn als op een mengpaneel
dat bestaat uit 10 licht en 10 geluids kanalen (perons) waarbij  het volume en licht gestuurd worden door laser sensoren
die de positie van de treinen meten.

De  Tsunami 20.00 tot 20.30
-Tsunami compositie:
buiten maken we een trein tsunami een aanzwellende golf geluid  het geluid bestaat uit de twee tonen van de trein hoorn (tyfoon) die afbreekt als de trein het station binnen rolt
de binnenkomende treinen spelen een  vast patroon en de vertrekken een ander, deze patronen  vormen samen een verschuiven raster. -Als de reinen het CS binnen komen neemt  “Het Mengpaneel” het over
voor het geluid werken we met een vaste geluidsdatabank/compositie met 10 kanalen en 10 live kanalen van contact microphonen en een team met richt microphonen

de finale (laatste 5-10 minuten)
tijdens de opnamen op de Brinkhorst hebben ze aan het einde de luchtdruk/ ventielen laten “klikken”
dat duurde  14 minuten en was een heel mooi geluid
Of de alle treinen die van  20.25 tot 20.30  op de 12 perrons stil staan
dit geluid kunnen maken.  zo ja dan wil ik dat alle treinen dit doen beginnend met de buitenste (12 & 1)
en dan elke halve minuut twee er bij
dus eerst 12 & 1 dan 11 & 2 er bij dan 10 en 3 erbij 9 & 4 erbij dan 8 7 6 & 5
opbouw duurt dan 2,5 minuten, totale lengte 5 minuten

Op  website , flyer op de treinen, kaartjes en uitnodiging vragen we het publiek om hun mobile telefoon alarm in te stellen op de 20.30 uur
dan moeten om  20.30 uur twee Trams tegelijk maar in tegengestelde richting door het station rijden met hun bel permanent aan.
dan neemt het systeem het over op het moment dat treinen de stoot blokken ‘raken’ zal mark bain een spectaculaire “bang” produceren doormiddel van  airbags getrigert worden

photo © bonie

We played a very nice concert at “La Terraza Suena” at the the roof top of the culture center La Casa Encendida
A photo documentation of the sold out show can be found here.

photos of how it looked after a long time

the Riffelschiene project

the flypaper project

Composed City is dealing with city sounds; using the public space as an instrument and initiating permanent changes to the existing soundscape. The „instrument“ to be played is the Wriezener Freiraum labor, part of the former train station Wriezener Bahnhof in Berlin Friedrichshain.

A lecture series on June 4th on sound art in public space introduced the subject; the lecturing artists were Mark Bain, Achim Wollscheid, and Per Hedfors. The workshop took place between June 5th-8th 2008. The results was presented at the Berlin Festival Tuned City and the Langen Tags der Stadtnatur on July 4th-5th.

Organisation: Staalplaat Soundsystem (Amsterdam, NL), Lola landscape architects (Rotterdam, NL), in cooperation with: UDK Berlin (departement of soundstudies) TU Berlin ( Architektur), TX-Architekten (Berlin) and the  tuned city festival.
More info: www.composedcity.org

the Kikkit project

the riffelschiene concert

For the 2008 edition of the SPOR festival in Aarhus we were invited to play a 24 hour yokomono set (may 9 - 10, 2008).

Music takes place in time. This fact has been investigated and challenged over the years where composers have worked with repetition and ‘endless’ processes, with very long sequences or extremely short ones. But music does not only unfold itself in time. Music also creates time. When musical sounds follow one another they provoke a particular sensation of time. Our experience of musical time depends both on that which sounds, the nature of the sounds and their connection with one another, while at the same time the experience is subjective and influenced by the circumstances in which it is experienced.

SPOR 2008 will explore and place emphasis on precisely these experiences with and over time - both musical time and the time that elapses during the course of a day. The framework for SPOR 2008 is at the same time a social action. The festival concerns itself not only with the relationship between work and listener but also between the listeners themselves. Instead of announced concert-times it will be personal choices as well as the public’s exchanges with one another that generate their flow through the festival. The public is challenged to lay out their own festival route, to go on an expedition of exploration in Musikhuset Aarhus (The Music House) and challenge the natural rhythm of the day - don’t forget your sleeping bag!

SPOR 2008 presents a wealth of orchestral music, performance, sound-installations, video-art and electronic music. Experience, amongst others,  Vienna Vegetable Orchestra (Au),Staalplaat Soundsystem (NL), asamisimasa (N), Rebecca Saunders (UK), Hanna Hartmann (S), Curious Chambers Players (S), Brandon Labelle (US/DK), Carl Emil Carlsen (DK), DYGONG (DK), SCENATET (DK) and Aarhus Symfoniorkester (DK).