Productive working relationships often arise from the strangest of coincidences. That was certainly the case when Hanno Leichtmann, presented an exhibition titled “Low Noise Chronicle”. Christina Kubisch, one of the most respected installation artists in the field of sound art since the 1970s, had made her way from Köpenick to Mitte—and made a surprise appearance at the opening.
What she heard and saw, a sound installation based on vintage cassette recordings, must have made an impression. In any case, Hanno Leichtmann was quite astonished when, shortly thereafter, he received a large package containing valuable items: an entire collection of recorded compact cassettes from Christina Kubisch’s archive. The recordings document her “Milan phase”—a period spanning from the early 1970s to the late 1980s—during which she studied electronics at the Politecnico di Milano, and began creating large-scale, multi-channel sound installations in both indoor and outdoor spaces.
On display in the exhibition space are drawings and sketches by Christina Kubisch arranged in a circle. They surround the physical forms of several objects that Hanno Leichtmann used to create the soundscape heard in the exhibition—the archive of historical Compact cassettes, an oscillator, and two vintage tape recorders.
The “Milan Phase” documented on the cassettes consists mainly of material for Kubisch’s site-specific installations: recordings of natural sounds and field recordings, birdsong, sounds from instruments she played herself, and simple electronic devices. Using granular loopers and samplers, Hanno Leichtmann generated new sound material from these original tapes. In addition to the relevant tools from the world of musique concrète, digital techniques, spectral analysis, and further processing steps using analog and digital audio effects were employed.
The result is a loop approximately 90 minutes long—naturally set to repeat—which is presented as part of a four-channel audio installation. Depending on where visitors are located in the room, one sound source becomes more or less dominant and overlaps in different ways with the soundscapes of the other three channels. The soundscape is created as visitors walk through the space—through the very act of their individual movements within it. A Christina Kubisch Megamix.
