Marcin Pietruszewski – Sound Performance

Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
24 February 2024, Sonic Acts Biennial

As part of Sonic Acts’ Expanded Experience at Muziekgebouw, sound artist and researcher Marcin Pietruszewski presented 'Distortion Product Lattice (Fokker QDTS Wavepackets)'. This sound piece was showcased on the Muziekgebouw’s renowned microtonal Fokker organ, incorporating it into a generative installation that fused the computer-controlled organ with digital sound synthesis, pluriphonic sound, and dynamic light choreography.

Designed and built around 1950 by Adrian Fokker and Bernard J. A. Pels, the expansive Fokker organ has a 31-tone per octave and can be controlled via a MIDI protocol. The Quadratic Difference Tone Spectra algorithm utilised by Pietruszewski produces particular kinds of auditory distortion product, creating a new experimental approach to generating complex spectra. In the work, the distortion of sound forms a dynamic counterpart to an extensive setup of the organ, intensifying, amplifying, and modulating the auditory, epistemic, and spatial contexts of this unique instrument. The piece was commissioned by Sonic Acts for the Biennial 2024, and is part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. It was produced with the kind cooperation of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation.

→ Explore the Sonic Acts Biennial 2024 programme at https://2024.sonicacts.com

CREDITS
Camera: Arianna Cavalensi, Roman Ermolaev
Sound: Danny van der Lugt
Video editing: Hrvoslava Brkušić
Sound mastering: Hrvoje Nikšić
Intro sound: Jessica Ekomane
Intro design: Knoth & Renner with Anja Kaiser

This video is published by Paradiso & Sonic Acts as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.