The Haunted Band

2011 | Audio installation | live recording | 4 track tape recorder | Instruments

The experience of a live concert and the playback of recorded music in a single setting.

The setup suggests the musicians could come on stage any minute and when the music starts after the play button of the tape deck is pressed the installation get's a ghostly presence of musicians, hearing the sounds of instruments being picked up and touched carefully at the beginning the crescendo of 24 minutes .

- The musicians bring their equipment to the art space and install themselves for a jam session without an audience.

- The musicians are instructed to play a Crescendo of 24 minutes long, reaching the peak of their volume on the very last second.

- Their performance is recorded on a 4 track tape with the length of 24 minutes, each instrument is recorded on a separate tape track.

- The tape is played back in the presence of an audience without the musicians, the recorded sound of the guitar is played back through the guitar amplifier, The recorded keyboard sounds are played back through the keyboard amplifier etcetera.

This technique of recording and playback results in a sound dynamic that represents a live concert with the spacial placement of individual sound sources, without the interference of mixing techniques commonly used to translate recordings into a stereo mix.

After 24 minutes the concert has grown into a wall of sound and stops abruptly by the end of the tape. In the vacuum directly after the peak of the crescendo a mechanical CLICK of the tape deck (reaching the end of the tape) can be heard, the audience slightly perplexed by the abrupt end starts clapping to the invisible band.

Presented at Arti Amicitiae Amsterdam, during FLAM, an event of 5 nights with live performances.

Musicians: Jan Klug - Theremin, Tenor Saxophone (Meindert Talma.) Bjorn Ottenheim - Drums (ZzZ.) Johann Kauth- Electronics, custom woodwind (Fyoelk) Bart Schotman - Baritone Guitar (Lucid)

Recording Equipment:Tascam 234, Beyer X1 microphones, Amplifier line out (3x).

Thanks to: Jos Volkers (roadie)
Supported by the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK)
Photo's by Thomas Lenden