Calebasses Labs

French version / Versión en español

Calebasses Labs is a 32-channel low-tech sound installation that explores low-intensity yet highly articulated sound fields through a multi-scale approach, creating a sound space as voluminous as it is hushed which can be discovered through close listening sessions.

Calebasses Labs: A low-tech sound installation

Calebasses Labs is a 32-channel low-tech sound installation mainly made of South American calabash bowls and piezoelectric transducers. Sensitive to the issue of noise pollution, the installation explores low-intensity sound fields yet highly articulated through a multi-scale approach, both in space and in time, resulting in a sound environment that is as dense as it is quiet.

Voluminous sound space and low-intensity

Volume and Intensity

There is a common linguistic habit in the field of sound to treat intensity and volume as synonyms. This confusion is likely due to the fact that the volume of air mass displaced by a sound is proportional to the amplitude of its wave. Simply put, a high amplitude would occupy more space than the same wave at a lower amplitude. However, from the perspective of perception, sound intensity and spatial volume go far beyond just signal amplitude. Many other factors come into play (frequency, phase, duration, etc.). Therefore, it is possible to consider them separately.
From this perspective, one can perceive a large or voluminous sound space yet low in intensity. Take, for example, a quiet forest. If one listens closely, this silence is actually filled with a multitude of small sounds coming from all directions: the wind, leaves, insects, birds, creaking branches, water, etc. This “natural silence,” as Jérôme Sueur calls it, is “full,” yet it is neither overwhelming nor aggressive. Quite the opposite, it can be beneficial to us.

Multiplicity of Sound Grains

With Calebasses Labs, Mario Lorenzo explores this phenomenon without aiming to reproduce it. Indeed, the work does not consist of playing back field recordings of nature or other sources, but is instead a true act of composition of polyphonic writing or, more precisely, multi-scale composition. Through techniques of sound synthesis and transformation, a myriad of sound grains at multiple scales -a granular density- is diffused, with micro-temporal shifts, through the calabashes, creating a
spacious, low-intensity sound environment that elicits both aesthetic wonder and a feeling of calm.

Near-field listening

Given that the sound diffusion level operates at the lower threshold of the decibel scale, the installation necessitates near-field listening.

Composition

The music is created using an object-oriented programming language (Supercollider), with which a large number of figures of varying sizes are composed. These figures are defined as finite sequences of events through the formalization of diverse patterns [3]. Through a reference model, the installation reveals a network of interconnected and autonomous figures unfolding across multiple spatio-temporal scales.

Sound excerpts from the composition

Please note: these are stereo reductions played back through your own sound system. In that sense, the excerpts are only partially representative of the installation.

Dimensions

The size of the unfolded installation varies according to the available space. It has been designed to be ideally deployed on 255 x 98 inches. The installation is con-nected to a portable sound system with a maximum 393 inches multipair cable. The calabashes are placed directly on the floor on black paper, but they can also be ar-ranged on a low platform approximately 4 inches high (not provided).

Bi-frontal arrangement

The audience is seated in a bi-frontal or quadrifrontal arrangement facing the installation, across two rows.

Concerts with the installation

Exploration beyond reproduction and “hi-fidelity”

From Bell Labs to Calebasses Labs

From the early inventions aimed at amplifying electrical signals at Bell Labs in the United States to the present day, the music industry —and more generally, of sound recording and reproduction— has been guided by the pursuit of hi-fi: capturing and reproducing the sonic world as faithfully as possible to reality, even if that required inventing from scratch the narrative of ‘technological transparency’.

The installation also seeks to surpass the conventional paradigms of ‘mediation’, ‘transparency’ or ‘sound quality’ dictated by the recording and audio diffusion industries enabling an empirical and artistic investigation of the acoustic output generated by each calabash. Accordingly, as the composition’s sound writing and diffusion are intrinsically linked processes, the installation operates neither as a traditional instrument nor as a reproduction device. It is what it is: a singularity.

The “Low” as a means of expression

In the installation, the calabash serves as a sound box. However, it is not paired with strings or wooden keys as it typically is in instruments from the Southern Hemisphere. Instead, it amplifies the vibrations of low-power piezoelectric transducers. These small, low-tech speakers, shaped like golden metal discs, are mechanically vibrated by an electrical signal coming from low-energy mini amplifiers via a thin copper wire. The musical composition is written in alphanumeric code on a computer, which sends the signal to a sound card and then to the piezos.
Having said that, this “laboratory” is not in pursuit of a model or prototype intended for industrial production. It does not align with the logic of endless progress, a myth that has dominated European and North American civilizations for over a century. (1) Through an aesthetic research process, and in light of the current state of emergency, the notion of “low” here points instead to a less conquering, more attentive attitude toward the needs of human expression.

Initial tests

Calebasses Labs was created thanks to French government aid program: “Aide à l’écriture d’une œuvre musicale originale du Ministère de la Culture/Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France, 2024”

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