Aubaine

”Aubaine” is a composition by the electronic music ensemble NooK (Dirk Specht & Gerriet K. Sharma) . It started as a joined postgraduate project while studying at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne in 2005.

“Aubaine” focuses on the self-localisation of the individual in (sonic) environments. The audio material used for this composition does not consist of original recordings from spaces and events. The complex acoustic tableau is entirely composed of abstract sounds, electronically developed and processed by NooK. The composition is a constant play with the perception of movement, distance and perspective.

It examines issues like pattern recognition, “off-synced or off-phased” durations, blurring of spatial definition. Working in the fields of sound-composition and sound-design lead NooK to a deeper interest in developing a dynamic spatialization-concept for their sonic material.

The functions and principles of the Wave-Field-Synthesis seemed to provide the necessary means for an electro acoustical sound-composition that emphasizes on precise and detailed spatial perspective.

NooK composed ”Aubaine” at Wave-Field-Synthesis-Studios Ilmenau (Germany) in April 2005.
These facilities have been developed and built by the Fraunhofer Institute of Digital Media, IDMT.

A binaural recording of the piece was made by using a dummy-head (Kunstkopf) to give the listener the opportunity to experience the recording as if he was sitting right there in the Wave-Field himself. One can thus listen to the composition without the actual need of the specialised technical Wave-Field-Synthesis-equipment by simply wearing headphones.

It is probably the first time that this combination of Wave-Field-Synthesis and dummy-head-recording was used to make a Wave-Field-Synthesis sound-composition available on common CD-format.

Besides, the composition was recorded with a variety of microphones and then mixed and mastered to become a stereo version that can be listened to with an ordinary set of stereo speakers. Both versions (binaural + stereo) were published on a double CD at the beginning of 2006.

This composition was presented at “Spark Festival for Electronic Music 2005” in Minneapolis and ISCM “New World Music Festival 2006” in Stuttgart by DEGEM at ZKM Radio. Honorable Mentioning from Eastman Computer Music Centre - Electroacoustic Music?Competition 2006, Rochester New York. At altitude 06 it was presented within an audio-visual installation context. At the exhibition “Whale Baltic” (Nida, Lithonia) it was shown with a 3 channel-video and audio projections. In September Aubaine was presented as a multi-channel audio-visual live-performance at Frischzelle-Festival Düsseldorf. It was part of the exhibition „Geração Transterritorial“ at „Paço das Artes“, Sao Paulo, Brasil (listening-stations & live-performance). DeutschlandradioKultur Berlin broadcasted Aubaine #3 29.06.07. Aubaine was part auf the Audience Festival April 2008, Delhi, India.

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