Hybrid soundscapes – the expansion of the instrument in the digital age

At Lokal Harmonie, a feminist, artistic, socio-cultural and conceptual centre in Duisburg, three musicians explore the interfaces between body, instrument and technology. Their works question classical instrumentality and show how physical sound production, digital manipulation and performative practice intertwine. Using experimental techniques, they expand the concept of the instrument – be it through the transformation of natural sounds, the virtualization of classical playing styles or the radical redefinition of the voice as a sound-creating medium. In doing so, they move in the field of tension between embodiment and post-instrumentality, in which sound can be experienced not only as an acoustic phenomenon, but also as a performative gesture.

In her live performance Ashes, Berlin sound artist Jana Irmert explores the acoustic materiality of natural processes: Volcanic field recordings of lava, rubble and desert sand are overlaid with processed vocal fragments and digital and analogue synthesis processes. Her work can be located in the context of acousmatic music, in which sound sources are detached from their visible origin and develop their own narrative quality. With the virtual trombone Cologne-based Moritz Wesp extends the instrumental concept of the trombone into digital space – his playing movements are captured by sensors and transformed into sound, so that the physical body of sound exists only as a gesture. The collective Playtronica allows us to experience their newly created instrument, Orbita, questioning the linear representation of reality with minimalist aesthetics in the search for new soundscapes.