Fenomeni sonori came about as a result of an invitation from Zeno Gabaglio. Valentina Pini and I, Micha Seidenberg, were asked to make two 25-minute contributions for the programme ‘Mixtape’ on Radio Svizzera Italiana. The result was a radiophonic work that playfully approaches four sound phenomena. For this, we travelled to specific locations and recorded our experiences and playful explorations with field recordings. We used most of the resulting material without major intervention. Here and there, however, the field recordings suddenly drift off into a magical, compositionally developed sound world, whose material still recalls its recording locations, but leaves its physical boundaries behind and enters the magical world of electroacoustics.

Singing Glasses

Our sound explorations first took us to the Siril junk shop in Zurich. There we found many glasses. We took them to the Zurich University of the Arts, whose stairwells have an extremely long echo. Here we gave ourselves over entirely to the beautiful sound of the glass playing. Various ‘Concerti’ for glass harp were created.

L’Heure Bleu

Our next trip took us to the Uetliberg. We were looking for the ‘Heure Bleue’ (english translation: blue hour). On the one hand, the blue hour refers to a light phenomenon at dusk: the darkness of night is already over, but the sun has not yet risen. This gives the sky a wonderful blue colour. On the other hand, it is also associated with sound. As with Eric Romer's ‘Quatre aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle’, Valentina and I got up early one morning to climb the Üetliberg, where we wanted to capture the transition from night to morning in sound, and in particular to experience the sound of the Heure Bleu, the short moment just before dawn when all living things fall silent.

Echo

Echoes are among the most well-known sound phenomena. In the Swiss Alps, there are many wonderful places with multiple echoes. One particularly beautiful place is Lake Talalpsee in the canton of Glarus. When we arrived in the afternoon, the whole valley was immersed in an orchestra of cowbells mingling in a thousand echoes. But this intoxicating ocean of sound was so loud that we had to wait for the night to listen to the echo of our voices. Instead, we found another cave with its own unique sound. It was worth the wait. Although we can't yodel, we gave ourselves over to the whooping with childlike joy. The echo was gracious: our sound garlands were always gently returned.

Black ice

Finally, we recorded the strange singing sounds of black ice on Lake Sils. These occur when the very compact black ice reacts to temperature differences.