This is the second iteration of string quartet and skyscraper, composed for the NYC based string quartet âThe Rhythm Methodâ. The recordings of the previous version, with the sound installation, have been the source material for version 2.0. With the frequency analysis software âSpareâ I extracted main resonant frequencies of certain sections and transformed them back onto the instruments. Now in a traditional performance situation, the quartet is accompanied by four separate tracks of electronics which are too created with the original recordings and envelope (volume) controlled by the dynamics of the four players.
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confusion of the tongues
http://www.sparkandecho.org/confusion-of-tongues_bernd-klug/
internet-piece for Spark and Echo
This piece is based on the story of the Tower of Babel, from Genesis 11:1â9, in which the confusion of tongues frustrated the construction of this spectacularly high edifice, scattering its people over the world. I aimed to decode this text (and the passages leading up to it, describing Noahâs settling and ancestry) through different internet-Âbased, real time translation programs in order to investigate the seemingly open and direct worldwide information exchange of modern communication. I also wanted to juxtapose the ongoing conflict among various interpretations of Bible texts with the cultural ignorance which has long plagued religious movements (as in the Middle East, home to Babel and most of the Old Testament).
TRACES OF [DIS]LOCATIONâ¨
the Austrian Cultural Forum as social instrument
Solo Exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York as centerpiece of Liquid Architecture / Frozen Music – Moving Sounds 2015
August 14 – September 16, 2015
![traces of {dis]location - downstairs 1](/wp-content/uploads//2015/10/acf_ny-29.jpg)
press release:
âWith this installation, Brooklyn-based, Austrian sound artist, composer, and improviser Bernd Klug transforms Raimund Abraham’s iconic Austrian Cultural Forum NY in Midtown Manhattan into a social musical instrument. The publicly accessible, interactive environment extends over three floors and uses the architectural and institutional structures of the building to create different zones and layers of engagement.
The visitors play an integral role: subtle feedback traces their movements as they walk through the installation, thus altering the soundscape; strings play with the question of the public’s conscious interaction; and electro-magnetic amplification sonifies the unheard noises of their cellphones and electronic devices. Continue reading
string quartet and skyscraper
a composition by Bernd Klug featuring the Rhythm Method string quartet and his sound installation traces of [dis]location at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York
September 11, 2015
commissioned by New Music USA
For the world premiere of this composition, commissioned in 2015 by New Music USA, string quartet The Rhythm Method played in, on, and with Bernd Klugâs sound installation Traces of [Dis]location – the Austrian Cultural Forum as social instrument at the Austrian Cultural Forum NYC. Based on the unique architectural and acoustic properties of Raimund Abraham´s iconic âmini-skyscraper,â the piece further expanded on the installationâs relational processes by featuring snippets from the quartetâs recent repertoire and practice routines. As the four players wandered through the building, they urged audience members to construct their own sonic experience of the work, thus engaging on yet another level with the terms âcultural forumâ and âsocial instrumentâ.
When I walked into the room
Sound Installation for the Bard MFA Thesis Exhibition 2015
@ UBS Red Hook, NY
July 18-25, 2015
Video by Taryn Haydostian
In this sound installation, I was working with a new framework. While I had framed my previous, larger-scale work through architecture, social environment, institutions and the acoustics of specific art spaces, complicating the aesthetic outcome with the help of interactive feedback elements, I treated myself as the frame for this piece. This shift was the result of three accidents/injuries that occurred during my final summer at Bard. These traumatic incidents made it very clear to me that I must root my work in myself (and myself in my work) in order to further pursue a career in the arts, developing modes of interactivity and site-specificity which are both non-didactic and critical.
Transmissions and Frequency Spectra of a Radio Station at Wave Farm
Artist in Residence @ Wave Farm
“Transmissions and Frequency Spectra of a Radio Station” is a site-specific sound work and installation centered around the electromagnetic residue that occurs when making radio. Conceived for the Wave Farm grounds, a large-scale network of musical strings, field recordings, and radio feedback will merge the acoustic and electromagnetic environment of the property to create a live generative broadcast environment in which âthe radioâ plays itself.
Here is a version I did for a live radio broadcast, which, du to the weather ended up consisting of pre-recorded material:
https://wavefarm.org/archive/5feakc
The will be a release with this material some time in 2016/17. Stay tuned.
BEARING, with Johanna Tiedtke
Collaboration with Johanna Tiedtke
Exhibition at Galerie Freihausgasse, Villach Austria
March 26 – April 29 2015
This collaboration with the german, Brooklyn based painter Johanna Tiedtke focuses on the unheard and unseen and creates a room within a room, functioning as an instrument as well as a drawing in space.
The center piece of this installation is a metal frame hung on strings aligned to the geographic and geometric relationship of the Galerie Freihausgasse to the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. With vibrating metal plates the artists aim to catch traces from the visitors, which after the exhibition will be scanned and transferred into painting
on translucent paper by Johanna Tiedtke for Bernd Klugâs exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum in August/September 2015. With piano-wire, piezo discs, transducers, microphones and speakers Bernd Klug traces once more the real time acoustic properties of the gallery space and itâs visitors.