ROBERT CURGENVEN : Climata

'Coproduced by Dragon’s Eye Recordings (DER012) with Recorded Fields Editions (RFE_03).
“We don’t normally look at light, we look at something light reveals. For me it was important that people come to value light… It took a while for me to learn to work with light so you felt it’s physical presence and came to value it.” – James Turrell: “Second Meeting”, Art21
What then of sound?
Light is the principal actor that permeates, informs and activates the physical experience of the Skyspaces of James Turrell. The Skyspace acts as a filter of the ‘outside’ world, a frame that blurs the distinction between interiority and exteriority.
What else does a Skyspace let in? Skyspaces act as a frame and filter of light and as an architectural space they offer a meditational, aesthetic and physical shelter, a refuge and portal to the sky. The Skyspace allows “the World” into the space whilst simultaneously filtering and framing “the World”.
In addition, Skyspaces are a specialized acoustic space – their interior architecture shape how the quiet sounds from the World move within it in an unusual way. Similarly to the sensorial action of light in the Skyspace, sound renders several dimensions of the physicality of the Skyspace subtly audible. A prime quality of sound is the movement of air and with the permeation of the Skyspace by the World occuring at this audible level, as sounds from the World / outside – weather, air, subtle clues to the location – mix within and move in the space they are also coloured by the Skyspace. Through 2015 a series of recordings were undertaken across 15 Skyspaces in Europe, the UK & Australia that capture this relation between Skyspaces’ interior space and the ‘outside’ world. Each of these 200 recordings is very different, but can be characterised by three elements – the sound in the surrounding area outside the Skyspace including the sound’s terrestrial incarnation as weather; two quiet tones tuned the skyspace that bring the air inside into movement against the air outside, drawing the sounds outside in; and the soft swishing and fluttering of the air as it is brought into motion through the phasing between outside and inside the Skyspace. The Skyspaces colour the tones played into them, shaping the air and its exchange with the outside world. Each recording builds a sound atlas of the Skyspaces and their surrounding areas, the movement of air between them and the unique combination of tones. These quietly complex and delicate recordings have then been used to build a series of microtonal fields framed by each Skyspaces’ architecture. These rich shimmering fields are presented as the six tracks across the upcoming 2 CD version of Climata, where the listener can literally hear the air move. The two CDs comprise three 19minute tracks, each of which are composed from up to 40 individual recordings from the 15 skyspaces, presenting the microtonal intervention and accompanying phasing sound as not just sound-in-space interacting with the individual Skyspaces but also the constellation of surrounding sounds from each location. Locations range from a rural idyll in Sweden to a metropolitan hill amidst the cathedrals and sirens of Salzburg and a sculpture park in Yorkshire replete with its own quiet population of sheep, from gusty echoes playing out on a tree-lined lake after a Belgian storm, to the quiet edge of the snowline in the Swiss Alps and the world’s only light art museum. Climata covers the breadth of Skyspaces, circular, square, elliptical and domed – each with their own sphere of air, a piece of sky. These pieces combine a rich archive of sound in space that adds new dimensions to an artwork that does more than provide a window to the world of light.
Each CD comprising three 19minute tracks where any track from CD1 can be played simultaneously with any track from CD2.'



Tracklist
Morphologies
1.1 Under Foreign Topologies 19:20
1.2 Framed By The Edge Of The Earth 19:20
1.3 En El Turbulento Infinito, La Duración Del Tiempo Y Más Allá. 19:20
Gravity Fundamentals
2.1 En Plein Air 19:20
2.2 Doors Open And, With The Breath Of The Wind, We Are Subsumed 19:20
2.3 Eclipse 19:20

Credits
Cover [Cover Image] – Talitha Kennedy

Notes
Edition of 500. Gatefold double CD wallet in matte varnish.
All audio recorded in 15 of American artist James Turrell's Skyspaces, in 9 countries. All recording done in-situ in the Skyspaces. No studio overdubs or recordings made outside Skyspaces. Recorded using only 2 custom-made oscillators via portable speaker with 2 x Rode NT2 microphones direct to hard-disk. Some recordings on Disc B made with oscillators via Genelec 7050 subwoofer, these tones may be inaudible without a subwoofer. A2 re-recorded in NGA Skyspace. A3 re-recorded in Järna Skyspace. B2 re-recorded in Ekebergparken Skyspace. Mixed and mastered in Cork (Ireland) and at Falmouth University, Cornwall (UK) via RME D/A, SSL 24 track console + Elysian Parametric EQs. No further effects or processing used.
The two discs that make up 'Climata' were created to be played back to back or simultaneously, in any order and ideally on two sound systems. Together the two 58 minute CDs give rise to hours of unique combinations.
Cover image: 'Fleshing out my cave', 2014. Ink on paper. 130 x 150 cm.
Skyspaces involved in the CD project (in the order recorded):
Kernow Tewlwolow, 2015, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Cornwall, UK
6m Skyspace, 1998, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium
Third Breath, 2005, Zentrum für internationale Lichtkunst, Unna, Germany
Piz Uter, 2005 Hotel Castell, Zuoz, Switzerland
Other Horizon, 2004, MAK - Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst/Gegenwartskunst, Vienna, Austria
Blue Pearl, 2006, Wurth Gruppe / Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
Above – Between – Below, 2011, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Boullee’s Eye, 2003, Lhoist Group Collection, Brussels, Belgium
Deer Shelter, 2006, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK
Cat Cairn, 2000, Kielder Water & Forest Park, Northumberland, UK
Seldom Seen, 2004, Houghton Hall, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, UK
Air Mass, 1994, Kilfane Gardens, County Kilkenny, Ireland
Within Without, 2010, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Outside, Insight, 2011, Kulturforum, Järna, Sweden
The Color Beneath, 2013, Ekebergparken Skulpturpark, Oslo, Norway