Anthology for Listening Vol. I. EVERYTHING REMAINS

EVERYTHING REMAINS

By JESPER NORDA

Four excerpts from Everything Remains, collected texts 1997-2019, Rördrom förlag, 2021.

Four text versions/translation of preexisting works of art by Jesper Norda.

 

 

50 Years In A Space of 9 Days – 2001 (text version)

 

We experience sound with extremely low frequency as a rhythm, not as a tone. The human ear begins to hear tones at 20 cycles/second.

 

It is easy to imagine the sound of a clock. It ́s ticking. I can imagine the ticking as a sound that follows you all the time. Not as a ticking sound per se, but as a long, long expanding sound with a frequency of 1 cycle / second. (In my case, the length of this sound is about 30 years by now.)

 

A sound with a frequency of 1 cycle/second that lasts between 10 December 1944 and 12 January 2000, gets a frequency of 2375,75 hz if it is squeezed into a space of 9 days.

 

Connect a tone-generator to a loudspeaker. Place the loudspeaker in a room that you can spare for 9 days. Seal the room. Set the tone-generator to 2375,75 hz/sec and turn it on. After 9 days, turn it off.

 

If other spaces of time will be used, use this formula: (60 x 60 x 24 x 365,25 x year) / (60 x 60 x 24 x days) = hz

 

 

Stripped / Piano Clock- 2005 (text version)

 

Create a sound that consists of a loud, distinct impulse with a duration of 0.01 seconds followed by total silence with a duration of 0.99 seconds. Create a loop with a duration of at least 1 minute.

Remove the front of a piano, connect a small speaker to an amplifier and attach the speaker to the soundboard of the piano. Place something heavy on the sustain pedal, keeping the strings in permanent release. Play the sound, the sound will be reinforced in the body of the piano, the strings will vibrate constantly.

 

 

The Pumps- 2005 (text version)

Create a sound that consists of a sine wave with a frequency of 0,3 hz / second. Make the sound very long. Connect two large speakers to an amplifier. Play the sound through the amplifier, very loud.

 

A sine wave with a frequency of 0,3 hz / sec is just barely a sound, it is an electric current. This will cause the membrane of the speakers to move up and down, like a lung, or a heart. The speakers are dead silent, no sound is heard.

 

ATTENTION: if starting or ending the piece in the middle of the sound, make sure the volume of the amplifier is set to zero, otherwise your speakers may be damaged.

 

 

Horizon Release- 2009 (text version)

Place a piano in the middle of a room. Turn over or lay the piano on its back.

Mount two hooks in the wall facing the piano pedals, about 3 meters away from each other. The hooks should be mounted in perfect horizontal alignment. Attach a wire to the sustain pedal and pull it hard against the wall so that the piano’s strings are exposed. Lead the wire through one hook and attach it to the other. Direct one flashlight against the wall, about 1 meter above the line created by the wire. Turn on the lamp, let it shine until the battery runs out.