Komplementäres Rauschen (Complementary Noise)

ORF musikprotokoll presents weiss/weisslich 27d: komplementäres Rauschen, Peter Ablinger’s puzzle game with twelve-tone scales, during which visitors move in a circle of loudspeakers that lure them into an Escherian auditory spiral. Depending on the direction in which one travels, the scales seem to rise or fall endlessly.

Ablinger’s piece is dedicated to his partner in crime, Winfried Ritsch. The reverse is also true: juxtaposed with weiss/weisslich 27d is a piece that Ritsch wrote for Ablinger, Gesang der Orgel 2b. In both pieces, nearly imperceptible changes in vibrations challenge the audience’s hearing.

In another work, Movement for Brass (Infringement), Ablinger develops low-frequency vibration patterns on sheet brass—on the border between seeing and hearing, where sound becomes artifact.