Werner Dafeldecker: Periodical Phenomena

The processes of invasive sun particles in the earth’s magnetic field, the manner in which they increase in the North and South polar circle and generally known by the designations “Aurora Borealis” or Polar Light, the periodicity of underwater currents and the pulsed operation in the particle accelerator “Bessy 2” of the Berlin Helmholtz Institute; all these occurrences flow into one another in the acoustic triptych “periodical phenomena” by Werner Dafeldecker. Alongside this the acoustic events are complemented by instrumental interventions. The rhythmic and harmonic patterns of delocalized sound worlds are analyzed in real-time by way of computer technology, before being rendered into texts and made available to the instrumentalists Michael Moser (violoncello), Valerio Tricoli (audio tape) and Morten Olsen (base drum) as a musical score.

To this end, not only will a broad palette of diverse recording technologies be used; the concert will also be made possible by way of the collaboration of several public radio stations: the staff at Norwegian Radio (NRK) take up positions in the Lofoten in order to receive the natural radio waves of the Aurora Borealis by means of VLF receivers. Deutschlandradio will record by microphone the particle accelerator Bessy II at the Berlin Helmholtz Center, and ORF will be on the spot on the banks of the Upper Austrian Attersee with two hydrophones, to make the underwater currents audible – and right at Gustave Mahler’s former composer’s house.
At the ZKM_Cube these signals will encounter instrumentalists and may be experienced live on-site as well as at SWR2 ars acustica and ORF OE1 on Tuesday, 5 March, 2013 from 11 p.m., on March 23, at 12 midnight.

"periodical phenomena" is a coproduction between the SWR and the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics, ORF and the NRK 2013.