[unvs]

There's an artist called Øystein Wyller Odden that works with mains hum. I find it pretty fascinating:

Kraftbalanse is a musical translation of the hum from the mains; i. e. the frequency of the alternating current. The piece is based on the fact that this frequency is not stable, it fluctuates subtly around 50 Hz as a direct result of supply and demand in the power market.

The composition consists of a self-resonating piano that is tuned to resonate on 50 hz and overtones of 50 hz (100 Hz, 150 Hz, 200 Hz etc.) The piano is fitted with vibration-elements – transducers – plugged directly into the electrical grid, causing the resonance and timbre of the piano to change with the fluctuations on the power market.

The piano is accompanied by a string octet. The musicians are equipped with voltmeters that measure the frequency of the current in real time, as well as a score of instructions on how to respond to changes in this frequency.

https://vimeo.com/370554138

[Waterluvian]

I was expecting one of those music YouTubes where they take some sample and process it so much that it doesn’t really matter what the sample even was. But I’m pleasantly shocked (ha!)

They really evoke the feeling of electricity. It reminded me of the soundtrack to the Chernobyl miniseries. It’s… powerful and eerie and calmly, effortlessly, sluggishly intimidating.

[huehehue]

This is awesome. I've been kicking around the idea of a notation/composition system that uses external forces (temperature, moon phase, time, etc) as live input but prior research is a bit hard to come by.

Feeding signal into e.g. a guitar pedal is easy enough, but mutating an entire orchestra in real time is a different beast. If anyone knows of similar works I'd be grateful for links.

[AlecSchueler]

The ease of feeding it into something like an orchestra varies depending on the granularity of your input. Moon phase for example can be divided into four weekly states which can be rehearsed prior to the event, whereas ambient humidity for example might change much more.

The only thing that comes to my mind as prior art would be the Tierkreis by Karlheinz Stockhausen, which has a variable order of composite parts depending on the time of year. I'm sure that's the world of music you could look towards to find further inspiration.

Please share any results you come up with here, it sounds very interesting indeed!

[rapjr9]

The Weather Warlock at Epsilon Spires in Brattleboro, Vermont uses weather sensors to drive an analog audio synthesizer:

https://www.epsilonspires.org/permanent-installations

There are a few other Weather Warlock installations around the USA.

[mechanical_bear]

Ugh. Login to watch. Hard no. Too bad, seems interesting.

[sillysaurusx]

Odd, I was able to watch it without logging in. (It is!)

[Scoundreller]

youtube-dl https://vimeo.com/370554138

works for me!

[taejavu]

Umm, I simply ignored the "log in with Google" popup and clicked play. Does that not work for you?

[rzzzt]

You can also hear it around 3:00 and towards the end, while the artist talks about the work: https://youtu.be/I_BanULj8wk

[magicalhippo]

The record is being released in just a few days, for those that enjoyed it: https://www.sofamusic.no/album/kraftbalanse

[thih9]

> Video is not rated. Log in to watch.

Is there a way to watch the video without logging in? I tried multiple browsers and still hit the login wall.

[tiborsaas]

Weird, I'm logged out and lets me play it. On related videos I got that prompt, refreshing the page solved it.

[causality0]

Why is Vimeo always the chosen venue for projects like this? Frankly this might be the most grounded thing I've ever seen on Vimeo.

[toomuchtodo]

More control over your content with the caveat being you have to pay them for the service.