Peter Gahn: Hidden+Lost—Tracing Sound

Hidden + Lost—Tracing Sound is an exchange project between Korean and German artists that involves the composition and performance of modern music and sound installation. The project includes a solo exhibition by composer Peter Gahn and 5 musical performances with works by Korean and German composers performed by Korean musicians. Peter Gahn’s De-escalating Skies I and Of Opening the Space I are installed as 8-channel sound works. Collaborating with lighting designer Gareth Green and photographer Jan Lemitz, Gahn expands the audience’s experience in appreciating pure electronic sound work. The sound installation starts with sounds field-recorded by composer Peter Gahn at the empty lot of the temporary Nuremberg synagogue, the oil pipelines at the Lower Rhine Region and an emergency landing strip close by the disused North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) missile base at the Museum Insel Hombroich.

De-escalating Skies I was born from research on the military facility constructed at the Lower Rhine Region in western West Germany during the Cold War. The work begins with the sound of walking along the Central Europe Pipeline System (CEPS), constructed by NATO to supply military fuel to Central Europe. The volume increases as the sound of oil pipelines being welded and the noise of flying jets are added. This is then converted to the tranquil sound of a vast field adjacent to the airport near Düsseldorf, which was used as a Royal Air Force base until 1999. After linking to the sound of people descending the staircase and the soundscape surrounding metal vents of a nuclear bunker, we return to ground level through the metal ladder by the emergency exit.

Of Opening the Space I is based on sound walks that start by the four city wall gates of Nuremberg, toward the empty lot at the heart of the city that once housed a synagogue destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. The path segments of each route are shortened to 1/100 the original length and expressed by string instruments with exactly that length of strings. The longer the path segment, the deeper the sound. Reformations-Gedächtnis-Kirche is a building completed right before November Pogrom Night, the night of the massacre and destruction of synagogues by the Nazis in November 1938. The sound of church benches and wooden gallery railings cracking, the wind machine, the dim sound of the organ, the sound of turning pages of books written by Jewish writers such as Walter Benjamin, Stefan Zweig, Kurt Tucholsky, and Franz Werfel, and individual chords taken from music composed by Jewish origin composers Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy are rung together. The sound of footsteps and the soundscape of the walking city ends at the empty plaza.

De-escalating Skies I and Of Opening the Space I are performed in versions for electroacoustic and instruments as part of lecture concerts featuring musicians at the exhibition space during the exhibition period. In addition, Korean composers and sound artists will conduct live events that consist of five concerts, talks, and lectures. The live events are Ensemble Wiro’s lecture concert Instrumental and Electro-Acoustic, cellist Arita Kwon’s lecture concert Sounds and Structures, saxophonist Sin Kyu Lee’s lecture concert Compositions for Saxophone and Electronics - Germany and Korea, a concert featuring modern music composers Byung-moo Lee, Youngjoo Jennifer Ryu and Hyunsuk Jun titled “Anatomy of sound”—Electronic music from K-Arts, and sound artist Daniel Schine Lee’s Teddy and Taiji.

Written by Ji Yoon Yang, Director, Alternative Space LOOP.
Organized/presented by Alternative Space LOOP, Goethe-Institut Korea.
Sponsored by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange.

Credits
Artistic Director: Peter Gahn; Technical Director & Lighting: Gareth Green; Artistic research & Photography: Jan Lemitz; Artistic research: Jürgen Bisch; PA system: C2 Artechnolozy; Support for PA installation: Daniel Schine Lee

Events
Concert, “Instrumental & Electro-acoustic”: August 25, 6–7pm
Artists: Peter Gahn, Wiro Ensemble(Shin-hye Park, JeongIn Byun, Seokwoo Yun, Seungsu Kim, Seongyun Jung)

Concert and artist talk, “Sounds & Structures”: September 2, 3–5pm
Artists: Peter Gahn(electronics), Arita Kwon(violoncello)

Lecture concert, “Compositions for Saxophone and Electronics”: September 9, 4–5pm
Artists: Peter Gahn, Sin Kyu Lee(saxophone)

Concert, “Anatomy of sound”: September 23, 1–2pm
Artists: Byung-moo Lee, Youngjoo Jennifer Ryu, Hyunsuk Jun

Lecture concert with performance “Teddy and Taiji”: September 23, 4–6pm
Artists: Peter Gahn, Daniel Schine Lee(electronics)