Works » By Title » W » Wattenmeer-Suite (1996)

In daily life we are permanently sorrounded by multiple sounds. To experience the acoustic environment as music, to recognize the inharent melodies, sound motions and rhythms is mainly a matter of perception. Composer Thomas Gerwin entered the unique environment of Niedersachsen’s “Waddensea National Park” where he used several special microphones to pick up a trail of daily life environmental music: Beachlife at Cuxhaven, a “Labskaus” meal on the ship “Weser” ib Wilhelmshaven, various and multiple sounds from the island’s railway on Langeoog, kite flying on the shore of Butjadingen, a ride on the boat through ice floes on the sea nearby Wilhelmshaven, a flock of sheep on the dike at Fedderwardersiel, crying seal babies at “Sealraising and Research Station” in Norddeich, the birds on a “salt meadow” at Horumersiel and wind energy weels at nearby Hooksiel. All this and more is represented, shaped and processed in TG.’s computer studio >inter art project<.The entire composition follows on the one hand the formal structure of a baroque “suite” where even each dance rhythm can be heard inside the environmental sound configurations. On the other hand it follows the circle of a day as well as the seasonal changes of a year. “Cinéma pour l’oreille” and at the same time electroacoustic “integral art” — forming reality by reflecting it.

”With this project I want to make the listener sensitive to the beauty and richness and also the vulnerability of our acoustic environment.”