Floating Points in the OMV Klangpark, Linz, Austria. - DARK SYMPHONY

A 250,000-watt acoustic ambience in the Donaupark; the star of this year's show Koan music software. Generative tonal algorithms provide the soundscape in the park on the banks of the Danube, with software assuming the role of the composer.

Curated by Tim Didymus [UK] for the 24^th Ars Electronica Festival 2003: Code - the language of our time.

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Dear Paul,

Firstly, I’d like to thank you all for your excellent contributions to the DARK SYMPHONY.

Judging by the warm comments and interest the work attracted, and that those who were directly involved with the festival, or otherwise, all seemed to have enjoyed it. I feel it’s a fitting testament to Koan and the good compositional work achieved with the system across the last decade.

The Ars team headed by Gerfreid Stocker & Manuela Pffafenberger must also take a lot of credit for their fine organisational work in the realisation of the show.

In attendance were Michael Hagleitner, Steve Grainger, Richard Garrett and myself.  “If only you all could of have experienced the installation” as It really was a rather impressive spectacle, not least to experience the 'live' Koan music engines generating on this scale.

Steve Grainger and myself are currently considering compiling an audio cd, given we get everyone’s approval to do so. I’d also like to endeavour, given appropiate consent of course,  to get some content onto the website for you all to see.

I'm reliably informed by the Klangambiete PA technical staff that the impressive 250.000-watt PA system [which consisted of x5 industrial sized cranes each supporting hanging arrays of  speakers + 2 giant sub-bass stations] projected the DARK SYMPHONY over 4 miles south of the installation site across the city! As far as I know there were no noise complaints from the residents of Linz, which is quiet an achievement as the council in Linz did report calls during the preceding night to the launch of the DARK SYMPHONY when Linz's annual Klangwolke [opening concert of the festival] took place.

The content worked extremely well as it mixed itself together. In the end the content  was organised into four music engines,  1 awe64 featuring sf2 & gm – 2 vector synth – 3  tonality & speech – 4 noises

We used 404 Koan files for the show. The vintage awe32/64 period software, operating systems and audio equipment all performed superbly without problems, we only experienced one computer crash in the 36 hours of performance time I oversaw. As I had to fly back to London on the last day, maybe Michael or Richard could throw some light on their impressions of the last day for us all to share.

Walking along the opposite [north] side of the River Danube [The Danube is approx. 300metres wide next to the Brucknerhaus] I found myself sitting aboard an old industrial barge tied to the riverbank,  to my pleasure I noticed  the whole vessel was being physically vibrated by the music, then it really hit me,  the scale of this work, being in a public space. The sound was not loud for loudness sake but really rounded and wholesome on a grand scale, many people of all ages who walk the pathways parallel to the river would often simply stop and gaze at the spectacle, even the animals seemed well disposed to it.

DARK SYMPHONY play list: from

Paul Cohen - Seeds of Terror [?]

Tim Cole - various works [1995-2000]

Tim Didymus - " Float [1995] Sweet File [1999] Mecha-Voices [1999] Movement Progress a File [1999] Koan Master [1997-2000] Rename Real Name [2000] TM [2000]

Brian Eno - Generative Music 1 [1995]

Andrew Garton - Memory Effect [200?]

Richard Garrett - various works [?]

Steve Grainger - new works [2003]

Mark Harrop - Overheard [?]  new  works [1999 - 2003]

Masashi Genzan Yano - various works [2002/3]

Kelvin L Smith - Solarization [1999]

Emilia Telese - Mecha-Voices [1999] Rename Real Name [2000] TM [2000]

Michael Hagleitner, Unguided Flight + various works

Al Jolley - Future3a [2000] Raag Ambientum [1999] Zirania [1999] Movement Progress a File [1999] Koan Master [1997-2000]

Yoshio Machida - Amorphous #01 [?]

**Note** apologies if any details are wrong for the descriptions in the play list, please feel free to clarify with any corrections to errors or omissions.

greetings,

Tim.