Infrasonic - Musical motives
Quite a few people have asked why we all become so interested in infrasound (sub bass). My own interest in infrasound arose quite by chance. As a sonic artist, I'm looking for new ideas that I can play with in performances, without alienating the audience. In 2002, I was looking for a way to make a contemporary concert of electroacoustic music that people would actually want to turn up to. I’d been to rather too many electroacoustic events where the uptake was rather low. I felt it would be a good idea to inject something into a live concert that would make it an unmissable event.
At the time, I was collaborating with the pianist Evgenia Chudinovich (aka Genia). We both thought it would be interesting to devise a genuine, scientific experiment, one that could be woven into a concert of music for electronics and piano. I also fancied writing some original music that could be used as part of the experiment (and ended up creating the piece She Goes Back Underwater).
I originally thought about experimenting with ultrasound. That’s extremely high-pitched sound (above 20kHz in frequency). I’d read about people experimenting with ultrasonic tweeters and thought it might be fun to debunk some ideas about high-pitched noise. I had also been curious about infrasound for some time because it was a favourite topic of conspiracy theorists - many of them enjoy peddling scientifically dubious stories of infrasonic beam weapons. But when I stumbled on some of Vic Tandy’s claims about infrasound, I realised this was a really juicy topic. As an Early Music performer, I was aware of strange, infrasonic organ pipes - so Tandy's work was an even more interesting read.
It was tempting to ask if there was any connection between infrasound in cathedrals and in spooky places. In particular: is infrasound in a sacred music recital moving you, just like infrasound seems to do at Tandy’s reputedly haunted sites? I knew this was the sort of question that would compell people to turn up to a live event - especially if there was an opportunity to experience infrasoud first-hand and help to answer the question.