and/29

Track List:

01. (untitled)
02. (untitled)
03. (untitled)
04. (untitled)

Documented on this CD is a site-specific sound installation / performance by
°Sone (pronounced "osone"), a project of Yannick Dauby, Christophe Havard
& Hughes Germain. The only sounds used were from within the walls of the
building where the event took place, channeled and recorded using large
transducers and then mixed and broadcast back into the main space of the
building. http://o.sone.free.fr/passerelle.html

*Visit the and/OAR blog to read an interview with °Sone regarding Passerelle
(conducted by Corey Fuller).

Below is a loose (English translation from French) description of the process
is provided until a better one can be obtained.

- A resonator creating an intense wall oscillation of up to 34 Hz of vibrations
was placed at the center of the section refered to as the "quasi-quiet zone",
towards which was pointed a parabola diffusing the acute squealings space
was filled of the very serious frequency coming from the wall, except for this
point of very localised listening.

- Space of the walls covered with glass a series of parabolas diffused
sounds overshrill, directing their narrow sound beams towards the walls.
The passage in this space implied the crossing of these lines.

- Metal chimney, setting in resonance by a vibrator, which diffused the
sweeping of a harmonic series these melody textures were conveyed to the
stage by the zinc chimney.

- Two perpendicular walls were put in vibrations by a pair of vibrators each
one during the week, two speakers could at any moment come to diffuse
sound elements of their choice on this device. A third adjacent wall closed
again forming a "U", making for a broad zone of listening from where one
could not see the sound sources.

- The bottom of the center foot bridge, was reserved for the installation of
Larsens effect. A microphone directed towards the perpendicular hall and
walls, like another directed towards the room with the parabolas, constituted
the entry of the device. Its exit consisted of two amplified loudspeakers,
directed in the angle of this space the Larsens were controlled using a table
of mixing and were modified by means of computer.

- The walls of the hall were covered with plates of expanded polystirene,
truffées of transducers piézocéramiques. Two groups of plates created a
kind of stereophony, very remote, with band-busy limited (800-2000 Hz).

- The space of the hall contained suspended balls of polystirene (they also
truffées of piézo). Listening was much more localised than the plates
described above, and the busy one was shifted towards the acute one.

- A low register box was placed against the balcony of the stage, which
entirely put the space of the hall in vibration.

- A metal plate (at the origin a balance) was activated by a resonator.

- A metal curtain of big size, a case of transport out of plywood, and the
picture windows of the entry, was available for a pair of vibrator mobiles all
the devices of the hall describes above, were used according to desiderata's
of the speakers: diffused recordings, installation of automatic or controlled
systems, improvisation.

- On the floor, in a tiny unlit room painted in black, was an opening for frontal
listening: two pairs of plates of polystirene were laid out in the angles of the
walls these plates diffused various sound fragments for the occasion which
was recorded.

Reviews
_________________________________________________________________________________

Touching Extremes (Decmeber 2008)
This disc presents the aural memories of a site-specific sound
installation prepared by French soundscapers Yannick Dauby, Christophe
Havard and Hughes Germain at Passerelle, Brest (France). The artists
obtained what's heard on the CD exclusively from the channeling of the
sounds coming from within the walls of the building that contained the
construction, capturing them via big transducers and diffusing the result
through the main exhibition space. A strange, flowery description of the
mechanical means utilized is available at the label's website; it's not
completely comprehensible, but sufficient to understand how a complex
system of resonators was fundamental in setting the above mentioned walls
as the core of a design where the harmonic qualities of the inherent vibration
are exalted and enhanced. The musical value of this material is on a par with
the best offers in the genre and - unquestionably - with the consistency of
and/OAR's output. Ominous echoes and dull drones are easily the most
engrossing feature of the disc, their emergence even more enigmatic in the
large hall's environment which the masterful recording represents with
excellent fidelity. Purring emissions arise from nowhere, extemporaneous
presences scarred by rare metallic clangors whose staying power is
minimal, soon swallowed by an overall muffled hush that nevertheless
contains germs of vital activity. Towards the conclusion we perceive the
presence of visitors, the album ending nicely with a baby's stuttering voice
amidst the sonic ghosts. One loves to believe that it's an expression of
wonder, and that this kind of experience will be burned in the infant's brain
forever. (Massimo Ricci)

Signal To Noise (Winter 2008)
Osone truck in more site-specific realities (than Mou, Lips! "Untree" reviewed
in the same article). The CD itself anoints Passerelle as “a recorded walk
through a sound installation.” Removed from whatever context that might
have been focuses outsiders on the inherent fundamentals, a series of
abstract, horizontally shifting, sometimes coarse, sometimes raspy drones
folding large swathes of Rothko space. A trio that includes experimentalist
Yannick Dauby in its ranks, Osone bring substantial weight and measure to
a minimalist clutch of sonic sculpture whose occasional bursts of factory
noise imagines Alvin Lucier’s long thin wires grinding away in a city of
industry. Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers. (Darren Bergstein)

The Wire (August 2008)
Yannick Dauby, Christophe Havard and Hughes Germain concluded their
2004 residency at the Centre d'Art Passerelle in Brest, France with a sound
installation / performance which used the resonant frequencies of the
building as the source for their piece. The three controlled the oscillations of
vibrating devices which rattled heavy chimney and steel doors for low
throbbing frequencies. They also manipulated the feedback interplay
between loudspeakers, narrowband parabolic microphones for a glistening
range of mid and high range frequencies. As mathematically precise as the
spatial positioning of these devices must have been in the installation
space, the movement of tones gliding across the audio spectrum enjoys a
rich poetry of angelic shimmering and subharmonic heaviness. The
psychoacoustic properties are a fascinating point of entry, but the results
captured on this disc transcend the process, and are reminscent of similar
successes from Christina Kubisch and Stephen Vitiello. (Jim Haynes)

EARlabs (April 2008)
Under the nom de plume Osone , Yannick Dauby, Christophe Havard and
Hughes Germain, have created in Passerelle a site-specific sound
performance. The sound space they rope into acting as their primary
instrument is adorned with all sorts of garb - walls covered with glass and
plates expanded polystirene, chimneys lined with metal and zinc, all flooded
and tantalized by 34 Hz of vibrations spilling out from a resonator planted in
the centre of the room. What particularly fascinates is how such a
conceptual composition can provoke such a strong emotional and aesthetic
response in the listener. While conceptually the work seems to have a great
deal to do with reduplication, the sounds emanating from within the walls
being captured, doctored, and then channeled back into the womb-like
space from whence they came, the recording operates on an undeniably
immediate level. Throughout, a patiently measured tension is at play. The
lurid bellows from a cluster of metal plates pump through the opener with
ease and fluidity. As the intervals come on quicker, they build a wave
structure that hovers around the ears, as differently articulated sounds and
textures float in all directions. Indeed the heavily layered perspective is
curiously reminiscent of the spatial awareness created by gauging where
clouds sit in the sky. By the albums midpoint, the main compatibilities have
been grounded and consequences have begun to be probed. An astute ear
and proficiency of execution seems behind all of this; and this is perhaps
most plainly evidenced in the fact that these neat and beautifully effective
physical gestures, which glide but never meander, seem to occur more by
chance than calculation. (Max Schaefer)

The Art Of Memory (April 2008)
A site-specific sound installation / performance by Yannick Dauby,
Christophe Havard & Hughes Germain. If I were forced to bring 10 CDs with
me to a deserted island, this would be one. there is the feeling / atmosphere
similar to a photograph by Anselm Kiefer, like listening to one of his factory
floor images, obscured beyond telling. (Matthew Swiezinski)