Lydriket Radio

Electronic work for radio.
Broadcast in 2003.

After the opening of the installation Lydriket in the autumn of 2002 the composing of the radio version began. The starting point was the sound from the installation composed by Trond Lossius, Risto Holopainen and myself. This meant the sixteen audio feeds, the sixteen musical gestalts and the layer of so-called critical sound from the listening room.

The big challenge lay in the transition from the installations nonlinear time to the narrative structure of the composition for radio. In the radio version there was a time structure with a natural beginning and ending, something which required different listening strategies than those in the installation. Otherwise the thematics was the same; sounds timbral intrinsic value combined with the structures of sound that formed meaning, acousmatic listening and processing of acoustic information, identity and memories.

The radio version of Lydriket was NRK’s (the Norwegian public service broadcaster) contribution to Ars Acustica1 in 2003 and was aired in 25 countries. It was also broadcasted on NRK radio September 5 2004. For detailed information about the installation Lydriket read here.

The sixteen audio streams listed along the coast from north to south, were: the coast at Berlevåg, the Sami Parliament (Karasjok), beer bottling plant at the Mack brewery in Tromsø, low tides on the Helgeland coast, football match with Rosenborg at Lerkendal stadium in Trondheim, the Ålesund pier, barn at Hornnes in Førde, casting at Outokompo Norzink in Odda, Fiskepiren in Stavanger, marina in Kristiansand, sheet workshop at Hydro Porsgrunn, Sandefjord Torp airport, railway transition in Drammen, the National Theatre subway station in Oslo, the river Mesna in Lillehammer, the glass cabin in the old town in Fredrikstad.

1 Ars Acustica is a group within the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that promotes, initiates and coordinates activities regarding radio art and sonic art. It is also the name of an annual competition that among other things includes sound art for radio.