English No. 21 HEAR THE WORLD

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ISSUE TWENTY-ONE

Hearing is as important as seeing. Test your hearing now: www.hear-the-world.com

THE MAGAZINE FOR THE CULTURE OF HEARING

ISSUE TWENTY-ONE

KT TUNSTALL PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRYAN ADAMS

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Painting with music – Martin Klimas’ Sonic Sculptures Sounds of peace Feist – the power of stillness Flattering fluttering photography! Irving Penn and Issey Miyake The voice of João Gilberto

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Nothing to see.

Everything to hear.

40 %*''&3&/5 */ "11&"3"/$& 40 "-*,& */ 163104& It is more than just a virtually invisible hearing aid.

Phonak nano is the perfect combination of maximum hearing performance and minimum size.

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Contact your hearing care professional today to discover Phonak nano. www.phonak.com

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HEAR THE WORLD ISSUE TWENTY-ONE

Editorial

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Hear the World Initiative Hear the World Sound Academy CHANCES* exhibition in Hamburg

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SAFE AND SOUND Quiet please, we are shopping! Design, sound and shopping at Tokyo Midtown

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Sounds of peace

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What’s that sound?

Skates cutting into ice

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EASY LISTENING We are not to play with our food?

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Products

16 HEARING IS LIVING A study by Hear the World

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KT Tunstall – the ego-archeologist

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Feist – the power of stillness

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Feep follows function – how wake-up sounds became a musical tribute to German designer Dieter Rams 26

Flattering fluttering photography! Irving Penn and Issey Miyake

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The House of Hearing in São Paulo – it’s amazing what you can hear in an oasis of quiet

The voice of João Gilberto

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Painting with music – Martin Klimas’ Sonic Sculptures

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PUBLISHER’S INFORMATION

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COME AGAIN News Silence is golden

HEAR THE WORLD “Listen up everyone!” – how Dynamic SoundField makes even problem students sit up and pay attention

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EDITORIAL

Dear reader, “Unfortunately, it’s only when we experience a problem that we realize just how precious our hearing is”, says musician KT Tunstall, our new Hear the World ambassador, and she says it from experience. The world-famous artist has slight hearing loss in one ear – another reason for her commitment to our initiative. She has a message particularly for young fellow musicians: Pay attention to your most important sense, don’t take chances when it comes to excessive sound volume and to overstraining your ears! And do something about it right away, if you notice any change in your hearing.

There are brilliant ways to compensate for it nowadays.

Welcome, KT, to Hear the World!

Staying with music, the world’s oldest musical instrument is probably a percussion instrument – perhaps a hollowedout pumpkin or another dried fruit that could be used to produce rhythmic drum or rattle sounds. Now, The Vegetable Orchestra has rediscovered the musical potential of fruit and vegetables – and turns eggplants, cucumbers and even carrots into instruments. Who said “Don’t play with your food”? The fanciful musicians have now released their third successful CD entitled Onionoise. Bon appétit!

Are there sounds and tones that promote a peaceful mood?

Are acoustic symbols also suited to reminding us of the overarching notion of peace and to helping us actively maintain and shape it? It seems so. For we can hear peace in certain sounds, such as wind whispering through the grass, or a dove cooing. Max Ackermann takes us on a journey in search of the sounds of peace.

The universe of hearing is inexhaustible – experiencing the world of sounds, language(s) and music and being able to get as much out of it as possible, is the central focus of this magazine. As such, we are always happy to present a little piece of musical history to you. Which is invariably also a tale of lifestyles and hearing cultures. In this issue, Ulrich Rüdenauer presents a very special kind of nouvelle vague, namely the new trend of music that bossa nova and its inventor João Gilberto were in their time. This gifted Brazilian singer has always strived to achieve the ideal of “perfect music” – and created a version of cool jazz that combines a feeling of longing with musical ingenuity and originality.

Last but not least, I would like to draw your attention to the detailed report on our study “Hearing is Living”. What significance does hearing have in the different areas of our lives? How important is hearing in partnerships, friendships, family and work relationships? What influence does hearing have on how we spend our free time, our health and our well-being? We addressed questions like these in our in-depth study.

I hope that once again, this issue of HEAR THE WORLD inspires you to go in search of many intense and exciting acoustic experiences! Enjoy …

Best wishes,

Alexander Zschokke

ABOUT THE COVER KT Tunstall was photographed by Bryan Adams.

Both artists support the Hear the World Initiative.

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HEAR THE WORLD INITIATIVE

Hear the World Sound Academy The soundscape of the Grand Canyon Can you imagine what it is like to wake up in the morning and not be able to hear anything? What might seem like peace on earth for some city dwellers, driven half-crazy by car engines, horns and bicycle bells, is sad when you are surrounded by nature. Many participants in the Hear the World Sound Academy experience this deficit every day.

The chirping of the birds in the early hours, the babbling of a brook, the chirring of the crickets – this range of all kinds of different sounds completes our perception of a place. All these sounds, loud ones and quiet ones and in all kinds of pitches, form in us a picture of our environment; the sounds around us together with all their associations complete the impression we get of where we are.

The natural wonder that is the Grand Canyon is actually one of the most beautiful places on the planet to experience precisely this soundscape and its significance. For this reason, a team of 17 young people with either normal hearing or hearing loss chose this destination to spend a week in August 2011 in the context of the Hear the World Sound Academy. They were accompanied by scientists and National Park staff. Working together, they compiled acoustic data for a podcast, which the National Park Service aims to publish.

In the middle of this impressive landscape, surrounded by the monumental, steep, towering cliffs and with just the clear blue sky over their heads, they listened to the quiet, nothing but the rushing of the river and the odd bird screeching – a simple, but impressive picture that visualizes the magnitude and power of nature and reduces man to the scale of bare existence. All the young people who researched these soundscapes were fascinated and impressed.

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Yet the wonderful Grand Canyon is in grave danger of losing its fantastic soundscape, which would change its entire character. On some days the rotors of the helicopters doing their tours drone through the whole valley and beyond and drown out all the sounds of the river and birds.

The rapidly increasing noise pollution resulting from the development of the Canyon as a tourist attraction is completely changing visitors’ acoustic perception of it. Quiet places have become rare.

Nonetheless, alongside the many silent moments, the Sound Academy’s goal, in addition to scientific research, was to promote a sense of community and communication between the young people. Talking with like-minded youngsters about school life and everyday problems brought a great deal of lightness and fun to the magnificent setting. 16-year-old Hanna from Colorado returned from her trip full of enthusiasm: “I have never felt so free and happy in my life, because I always had the feeling that other people can’t understand me properly. For the first time, here I could really be who I am – without being afraid of prejudices.”

Whether in the wide outdoors or during a conversation, listening closely is important in every place in the world!

Read more about the group’s Canyon experiences at: http://www.hear-the-world.com/sound-academy

CHANCES* exhibition in Hamburg 19 faces – 19 chances Visitors to Flo Peters Gallery in Hamburg /Germany in November 2011 were greeted by 19 huge black-and-white portraits – each measuring over one square meter. They found themselves looking into the faces of African boys and girls hanging on the gallery walls.

These children were photographed by German photographer Philipp Rathmer, who, together with Hear the World ambassador Patrick Nuo, went to Nairobi, Kenya in May 2011 to work on a Hear the World Foundation project (on which we reported in issues 19 and 20). CHANCES* is the name of the photo exhibition, which on the opening night alone on November 16, 2011 fascinated over 400 guests.

Be it with an impish grin, a stubbornly furrowed brow or a shy smile, each of the gazes of the 19 large, dark-brown pairs of eyes reveals a unique personality and a moving story. All of these children are affected by hearing loss and urgently need help in order to have even a chance of a broadly normal life. They all attend the Joymereen school for children with hearing loss in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi. Thoughtful, sometimes sad, but often cheeky, alert and full of hope of getting a real chance, their expression says it all as they gaze down at gallery visitors.

Photographer Philipp Rathmer, who has worked with models including Eva Padberg, sporting personalities like Vladimir Klitschko and musicians like Lady Gaga, has succeeded in capturing the personality of these 19 children aged between 3 and 17 years. His approach is simple and clear, and thus all the more impressive. Over the course of the exhibition, the sale of the photographs raised over 28,000 Swiss francs, 100 percent of which will go to helping children with hearing loss in Nairobi.

The Hear the World Foundation has been working in Nairobi since 2008. In close collaboration with Cargo Human Care, the Foundation has established a hearing center in the city. German ENT specialist Dr. Michaela Fuchs regularly offers free consultation sessions there and conducts hearing screenings.

“You can’t imagine it, without us these children generally have zero chance in life. They are often simply locked away by their penniless parents and never go to school,” reports Dr. Fuchs. Which is why the Hear the World Foundation supplies hearing aids to needy kids in the city, donated by Swiss hearing aid manufacturer Phonak.

Replacement batteries for the devices, which are constantly needed, are provided by VARTA Microbattery. This means that the students at Joymereen, among other schools, and children from Mathare Valley, Nairobi’s second-largest slum, receive free hearing aids, which in Kenya are too expensive for most people to buy. And in order to ensure permanent medical and audiological care for the children, the Hear the World Foundation has built up a support group with local and international partners.

The more than 400 guests at the opening on November 16, 2011, including Hear the World ambassador and project patron Nuo and photographer Philipp Rathmer, as well as numerous other well-known personalities such as Tim Mälzer, Mimi Müller-Westernhagen and Jorge Gonzales, were impressed by the exhibition. “When you have been in a slum yourself in a city like this, it is nothing like all the pictures you see on television. It really gets to you,” says Nuo of his visit to Africa. As well as his black-and-white portraits, Rathmer also presented documentary-style color photographs of everyday life in the Kenyan capital, which – despite the misery – show the colorful hustle and bustle of life in all its facets.

Further information: www.hear-the-world.com/chances You can help too and support the Hear the World Foundation: An effective hearing aid can change a child’s life, open up myriad opportunities and have a lasting positive influence on their education and career!

The Hear the World Foundation is tax exempt throughout Switzerland.

Bank details for donations: UBS AG Zürich, Account: Hear the World Foundation, SWIFT: UBSWCHZH80A, IBAN: CH12 0023 0230 4773 8401 U Many thanks for your donation!

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NEWS

Silence is golden The longing for silence, oft spoken and besung, seems stronger than ever in these times when our hectic and noisy daily lives drive us into meditation centers and yoga courses to relax. The well-known British ex-pop musician Bill Drummond, who has garnered attention with his eccentric actions, recognized this at an early stage and launched No Music Day some years ago.

For one day at least, the initiative seeks to bring back the joy of silence to us. And offers us an opportunity to think about music and its effects on us, its significance in our daily lives and in so doing perhaps to come to appreciate it more once again and revise our expectations of it.

Sandra Spannaus www.nomusicday.com

Illustration: Malin Rosenqvist

Originally conceived as “a five-year plan” in 2005 and as such completed in 2009, the busy artist’s idea is continuing to make a splash internationally in numerous public actions. Many companies and private individuals take part in No Music Day and voluntarily forgo music and noises for one day – no iPods hum in their ears, no radios blare, and record stores and the rock band’s rehearsal room stay closed. Some radio stations have even jumped on the bandwagon and for 24 hours broadcast a completely non-musical program.

It is strange that we need an occasion, a given day, to take it down a notch and come out from under the omnipresent cloud of noise above us, but why not? After all, the foodconscious fast for a week now and again or have a veggie day to restore balance. So let’s follow the call for silence and every year pay homage to the patron saint of music – Saint Cecilia – on November 21, the day before her feast day. In complete silence.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why is it that some people have good hearing well into old age and others don’t? I have read that noise can lead to hearing loss. But that doesn’t apply to everyone with hearing loss.

And some people who didn’t protect their ears still hear well.

Is there something we can do to preserve our sense of hearing, or is it a question of fate?

A great many things can cause hearing loss. One cause is what is known as presbycusis, a normal age-related degenerative process. It affects individual people differently. So one person might have good hearing for a very long time, while another might experience increasing hearing loss early on.

Other causes of hearing loss might be noise, infections, head trauma, toxic damage or tumors. Unfortunately nothing can be done about age-related hearing loss. But you should definitely protect your ears from noise to prevent additional damage.

Dr. Michaela Fuchs, ENT and travel medicine specialist

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Is hearing loss hereditary?

Yes, there are genetic forms of hearing loss that can appear in isolation or as a symptom of a syndrome (Usher syndrome, Alport syndrome, Pendred syndrome, Waardenburg syndrome). In total we know of well over 100 syndromes that are associated with hearing disorders.

Dr. Michaela Fuchs, ENT and travel medicine specialist

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WHAT’S THAT SOUND?

Photo: Image Source/F1online

Skates cutting into ice

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PRODUCTS

Aesop: 105 minutes The tried-and-true skin care range of the Australian cosmetics company Aesop consists of high-grade plant-based products that are gentle on the skin. For decades, they have contributed to a healthy and balanced lifestyle – just like music also promotes a sense of well-being and can lift our mood.

In its stores, Aesop spreads this music around the world, and we should do the same. Suitable for any occasion, this musical selection is a welcome companion in all our favorite places. 105 minutes of pure joie de vivre are available from Aesop stores and online. www.aesop.com

On the CD 105 minutes, Aesop has compiled a collection of music that moves us, brings our emotions to the surface, reminds us of the past, seduces us into dancing or pulls on our heart strings. And whisks us away to far off places: From Oriental tunes by Mercan Dede and HĂźsnĂź Senlendirici to melancholy tangos and waltzes by Serbian Boris Kovac to music that makes us want to jump up and dance by the Romanian ensemble Fanfare Ciocarlia, this international compilation comprises uplifting songs that awaken that relaxed holiday feeling in our own four walls.

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PRODUCTS

Nendo – Jingle bells, jingle bells … jingle all the way!

The use of bells is widespread in Japan and moreover is part of a long-standing tradition. In addition to their function as toys, they have been used for centuries both at table and during meditation as signals.

Presumably, the Japanese know as well as we do that wooden products are unobjectionable and natural. With this in mind, renowned Japanese composer, songwriter and environmental activist Ryuichi Sakamoto works to protect trees as absorbers of CO2 with his More Trees initiative and has lent his support to the Bell-orgel collection by Japanese design company Nendo for Isetan department stores.

The bells in the Nendo collection, made of Japanese cypress wood, invite us to touch them and enjoy the feel of the wood. Of course, they can also be rung. The three models in the collection, a standing, hanging and hand bell, were designed by Nendo and decorated in highly diverse ways by 57 different designers or design groups.

This playful, creative approach has produced extraordinary bells – wild and simple, playful and sober, colorful and monochrome or completely transformed into animal or head shapes. The high-grade wooden bells are thus a real eye-catcher and have diverse uses. www.sitesakamoto.com www.more-trees.org

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PRODUCTS

Hot sounds, cool design The minimalist and at first glance somewhat unspectacular Loewe Air Speaker surprises users with its technical finesse and extremely user-friendly design. The wireless Air Speaker can play music from an iPhone, iPod, iPad or from iTunes at the tap of a finger – via wireless LAN, LAN or Powerline. Of course, the speaker can be plugged into the mains too, but that spoils the aesthetics and is absolutely superfluous. Boasting two subwoofers, two tweeters and two mid-range speakers, the AirPlay speaker by Loewe, one of the first of its kind on the market, is highly innovative and practical, suitable for everyday use and decorative to boot.

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There are almost no limits to users’ personal aesthetic preferences – the inset on the top of the speaker is available in many different colors, allowing for individual tailoring of the black or silver aluminum casing. The Air Speaker subtly and elegantly brings music into our living spaces and can be positioned unobtrusively on a sideboard or shelf. This impressive piece of equipment, which has the makings of a true classic, is available from November. www.loewe.de

PRODUCTS

Phonak nano – the hearing aid for the aesthetically-minded How well can you hear people? Can you follow conversations even in noisy environments, for instance at large meetings or parties with loud music in the background?

Situations like these are particularly challenging for people with hearing loss. They often have great difficulty following the conversation and are therefore limited in terms of their own participation. Despite this, many people are still reluctant to wear a hearing aid – often for aesthetic reasons.

In addition to its benefits for the aesthetically-minded, the tiny device also offers outstanding sound quality. Indeed, it features the highest-performance sound processor the hearing technology industry currently has to offer. This Swiss quality product combines maximum performance with minimum size – for perfect sound quality without forgoing cosmetic design.

For further information: www.phonak.com

Phonak nano is the solution. It is the smallest Phonak custom-made in-ear hearing aid and is virtually invisible in the ear. With the help of cutting-edge digital design and production technology, it is individually made for each wearer and so fits as deeply as possible into the ear canal.

And because it is so comfortable to wear, users can simply insert the hearing aid and forget about it.

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KNOWLEDGE

“Listen up everyone!” – how Dynamic SoundField makes even problem students sit up and pay attention Around 5 – 10 % of all schoolchildren are affected by auditory Attention Deficit Disorders (ADDs) today. When hyperactive behavior is involved too, the term used is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This hybrid variety is the most common. The complex of symptoms, which is difficult to identify, presents students with great obstacles during their school life.

In 1844 Frankfurt medical physician Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann wrote and illustrated the book Struwwelpeter (Shockhaired Peter), known today throughout the world. A collection of children’s stories, it was intended to deter children from misbehaving and to help parents raise their children well. Although Hoffmann had not even heard of “hyperactivity” and “central perception and processing disorders”, he hit the nail on the head in terms of describing the symptoms of ADD/ADHD with his story of “ZappelPhilipp” (Fidgety Philip), who did not even hear the rebukes of his parents. Scientists are still unsure where these deficits, originating in the central nervous system (CNS), come from. Yet it has been confirmed that they are not the result of a congenital hearing impairment or hearing loss due to illness. Some scientists believe that about 50 % of all cases are hereditary. Others blame imperfect neurobiological development. One cause of auditory disorders that make it difficult to understand language, for instance, could be the impairment of what is known as Wernicke’s area in the brain, which is involved in understanding language. However, there is no evidence for this.

What is noticeable is that the increase in ADD and ADHD we are observing today goes hand in hand with the likewise increasing sensory overstimulation of children, whose brain is still in the developmental phase. As Bremen-based neuroscientist Gerhard Roth notes: “The brain flounders when it is overloaded. If it is stimulated too little or too much, it takes absurd paths in the natural maturation process.” And child psychiatrist Professor Gerd Lehmkuhl from Cologne University Hospital also said in an interview: “Environmental influences increase the risk of ADHD in children, for instance when a child is subjected to sensory overstimulation and is under great pressure to conform.”

So when searching for the causes of central auditory disorders, we should also assume that overloading children with electronic and digital media and overambitious, achievement-oriented parents pushing their children too far play a considerable role when children react with neuronal problems.

Young brains need quiet before facing the demands of the digital age One man who has spent a great deal of time looking at whether and how digital modes of communication and games affect the brain development and behavior of children is American computer scientist David Gelernter, who, with his research, laid the foundations of the World Wide Web and whose name is strongly associated with the dawn of the digital age. He calls for the following: “Young brains need quiet. Don’t give them a cell phone until they are 14. Make sure children don’t get their hands on ‘itoys’, or they’ll wind up in electronic purgatory.”

On the effects of the Internet, against the use of which in American elementary schools Gelernter spoke out in vain, he says: “I have the impression that by virtue of its structure alone – one click on a hyperlink and you are in another cyberworld – the Internet shortens children’s attention span.

Children no longer learn to spend time getting to grips with a difficult subject. But now text messages and incessant phone calls are even more perfectly suited to transforming the electronic child into the protagonist of a slapstick comedy in which there are constant interruptions.” If we agree with these opinions, it may be a logical consequence that attention and perception disorders, with or without hyperactivity, are causing teachers ever more problems, especially in Western industrialized nations. Our electronic lifestyle could lead to learning disorders such as these being – in the truest sense of the word – “preprogrammed”. ›

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In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has drawn up guidelines stating that children under the age of two should not be in front of a screen, meaning TV, DVDs, computers and computer games should be taboo.

Children aged two and above are conceded a maximum of two hours of child-oriented television a day. There are even workshops for parents on offer entitled: “Do we need an ADHD school?” Yet whether it makes sense to put hyperactive children together in one class is surely open to dispute. That said, students’ auditory attention and processing deficits not only impair their own ability to learn and grades, but children with ADDs also distract other students by interrupting lessons, thus shortening teaching time and putting an unreasonable strain on both the teacher’s voice and nervous constitution. Given that, statistically, it is possible that every class of 25 to 30 students will contain one with ADD/ADHD, we can imagine what this could mean for teachers and other students.

Although not all of these children jump around the classroom, the fact that most cannot control their impulses, speak out of turn and generally are inattentive or always in motion means they are a permanent disruption that also strongly impairs other students’ ability to concentrate.

Dynamic SoundField – a new hearing system comes to light It is understandable that people want to discuss the necessity of ADHD schools, but such institutions would have the major disadvantage that children with any kind of auditory processing disorders would be marginalized and labeled as having a disability. On the basis of teaching centered on a “naturally hearing-oriented approach”, Phonak has developed for all schoolchildren a system of classroom amplification that enables especially children with central hearing impairments to become better integrated in normal school life. The main problem of those affected is that they are unable to follow the lesson when there is disruption in the class and it is noisy, as they find it difficult or even impossible to hear the teacher’s voice over the constantly changing background noise and distinguish it from other voices. The Dynamic SoundField system, with its wireless FM transmission of sound, offers a unique solution to this problem by automatically adjusting the volume of the teacher’s voice to the changing noise level in the classroom. Meaning that all children can always hear the teacher equally well – even when noise rises above normal levels. For Dynamic SoundField is able to amplify the teacher’s voice to up to 20 dB. Moreover, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) – the specialist term meaning the relationship between a speech signal and unwanted background noise – is superior to all other conventional soundfield systems.

Which means: even students with ADD or ADHD have the opportunity to concentrate fully on the teacher’s voice and follow the lesson. Thus the advantages of Dynamic SoundField in schools are that students understand word sequences and sentences much better, are more attentive, can cooperate better with other students and ultimately 24 HEAR THE WORLD

learn the basic skills needed for further school education more quickly, namely reading, writing and sums. Teachers also benefit from Dynamic SoundField, because lessons flow much better when students are focused. There is less strain on their voice, and time off owing to excessive stress and temporary loss of voice can be avoided. Ultimately teachers are able to do their job with much less stress, which in turn benefits their students. In addition, Dynamic SoundField significantly helps the fellow students of children á la Fidgety Philip, who are previously inattentive, frustrated (owing to their difficulties) and constantly restless, to concentrate much better on the lesson and learn more effectively.

Easy installation and use – perfect performance The basic components of the Dynamic SoundField system are the award-winning inspiro transmitter with a mini swan-neck microphone – or a lapel microphone – and a loudspeaker for each classroom. It transmits the teacher’s voice directly and without annoying echoes, reverberation or feedback. The speech signal and its volume are always precisely adjusted to the changing background noise in the classroom. For optimum performance, the long, thin loudspeaker should be positioned either on a wall mount or on a stand at the front of the room. As the inspiro transmitter is compatible with FM receivers on Phonak hearing aids, students with hearing loss can also benefit from Dynamic SoundField. Particularly students with hearing loss in one ear are able to follow the lesson without difficulty.

Anno Bachem www.isense.phonak.com www.dynamicsoundfield.com

SOFA DEEJAYS. The JBL On Air™ Wireless AirPlay speaker dock streams your music anywhere in the house.

The JBL On Air™ Wireless will revolutionise the way you listen to music.

It streams your entire iTunes 10 library from any Mac computer or PC — and from any iPod, iPhone or iPad device running iOS 4.2 — to any room in your house over your Wi-Fi® network. Now you can listen to any song or playlist, see song titles, artists and album artwork on a full-colour LCD display, and enjoy full navigation and playback control via your iOS device with the free Apple Remote app. So don’t get up — unless you feel like dancing.

© 2011 HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated. All rights reserved. JBL is a trademark of HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated, registered in the United States and/or other countries. JBL On Air is a trademark of HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated. Apple, AirPlay, the AirPlay logo, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. iPad, iPhone and iPod not included. Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Features, specifications and appearance are subject to change without notice.

www.jbl.com

Photo: Braun

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THE SOUND OF THINGS

Feep follows function – how wake-up sounds became a musical tribute to German designer Dieter Rams Modern – for most people this word still sounds like sober, unemotional and cold architecture and design. It is hardly conceivable that a documentary on the Bauhaus or Ulm School of Design would be backed by opulent waltzes.

A filmed report on modern design or architecture always has to be accompanied by jerky jazz or annoying twelvetone music, to underline its experimental approach, but always also to highlight the different and strange quality that people once saw in many progressive designs – and often still do today.

Although in the 1950s and 1960s many musical products made design history (we need think only of the famous “Snow White’s Coffin” of 1956, the Braun SK4 record player), the public do not necessarily associate the highly functional and formally reduced designs of the modern era with an upbeat musical gaiety. That said, it is precisely the formal austerity and simplicity of the designs that Rams created as design chief at Braun that appear to repeatedly inspire musicians. For instance, back in 1996 German artist Johannes Wohnseifer released his Braunmusic LP, for which he had DJ friends of his create samples from the wake-up tones of Braun alarm clocks. And recently British musician and composer Jon Brooks developed a series of short pieces of music based on the penetrating beep of a Braun alarm clock, released under the title Music for Dieter Rams.

The compositions, which are intended as tributes to one of the most influential designers of the 20th century and his design approach, reflect a new enthusiasm for the modern.

For a long time, the simple product designs of German functionalism and especially those of Dieter Rams were deemed unemotional, overly sober and overly functional. Yet in the last 20 years they have been rediscovered. A number of successful Apple products are formally based on numerous designs Rams created for Braun in the 1950s and 1960s.

In recent years Rams has been celebrated as one of the most important designers of our time in major exhibitions worldwide. His designs are now considered prime examples of lasting design. Decades after their creation, they have an almost forgotten story to tell: They tell of the search for lasting, simple and better designs, qualities that once gave rise to the discipline itself. They convey something of a belief in the good, which in the age of economy and marketing had almost been dismissed as nonsense. And sometimes they even serve as inspiration for composers.

Jon Brooks, who terms his mini album a “study in limited resources”, initially recorded tones with the help of contact microphones attached to Braun alarm clocks, which he then made over on a synthesizer to produce nine short pieces of music. He selected German phrases as their names, such as “Zukunft als Konzept” (Future as concept) and “Zurück zum Puren, zum Einfachen” (Back to the pure, the simple), which had jumped out at him from books on Rams and Braun design. He called them “Regie” (Direction), “Feldstärke” (Field strength), “Aus – Ein” (Off – On) or “Elektronische Schaltungen” (Electronic circuits), thus deliberately drawing associations with electronic music and German bands like Kraftwerk. Although the entire album is based on alarm-clock sounds, you can’t tell that when listening to the generally meditative, minimal electro pieces. Far more important is the story Brooks tells about the genesis and inspiration of the songs and also the clichés about Germany that emerge together with the titles: the German language is abrupt, German design strict, rational and straightforward, and all Braun designs were of course the work of Dieter Rams!

In actual fact, the AB 30 alarm clock that Brooks used to create his tribute was designed in 1982 by Braun designer Dietrich Lubs, although under Rams’ aegis as design chief.

Yet today this simple clock is a little piece of design history, which despite its sober form is even a suitable projection screen for stereotypes and passions. And whose insistent alarm tone, which many know and few love, is now the basis of a fitting homage – even if the music probably wouldn’t appeal to Dieter Rams himself. Brooks’ Rams music is not a parody or ironic comment on the modern age.

Rather, the nine tracks are miniature musical aperçus, which appeal to design enthusiasts and benefit from the new interest in all things modern. And as per the cliché of functional design, they are particularly abrupt and rational.

Off – On. Feep.

Markus Frenzl http://jonbrooks.bandcamp.com/album/ music-for-dieter-rams

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ARCHITECTURE

The House of Hearing in São Paulo – it’s amazing what you can hear in an oasis of quiet São Paulo, a city that never seems to rest. Over ten million people live and work here. And that’s not even counting commuters and people who live on the outskirts. Here, the modern romance of what is otherwise a big-city background hum quickly morphs into plain simple noise.

So there could hardly be a better location for the Phonak House of Hearing (Espaço Phonak – Tecnologia em Audição).

After all, the goal here is to create a unique space. A place where both professional users and interested members of the public can learn more or less everything about hearing and hearing aids. From theory to practice, from technology to design. In short, the House of Hearing offers a comprehensive acoustic and learning experience and is much more than just a flagship store.

Fittingly, this elegant building is also located on Avenida Rebouças, which is one of the city’s main traffic arteries.

Thousands of vehicles pass by here every day. Although actually, it would be more appropriate to say crawl, for often the flow of traffic creeps slowly through the city, accompanied by an excruciating squeeze and screech.

Directly in front of the entrance to the House of Hearing, visitors can easily see the current noise level, in decibels, on a large, unmissable sound column. Yet looking through the two-story glass façade, they get the impression that they are entering a true oasis of quiet. Just inside the entrance, an appealing pool in the foyer area conveys a sense of calm, clarity and openness, which is found in all the building’s rooms. A stylish lounge with television and fireplace clearly shows that this is no ordinary acoustics store. The intention here is to inform visitors and enable them to experience quality of hearing as quality of life, wholly in line with the Hear the World Initiative, whose famous ambassadors, photographed by Bryan Adams, form a gallery in the foyer.

Professional acousticians are on hand to answer any questions visitors may have, be they users, journalists, students, parents with their children or elderly people. For as well as being a source of information, the House of Hearing is also a platform for the mutual exchange of ideas and experiences.

The auditorium, called the Sound Experience Room, is located on the upper story. Lectures and events on technical as well as general issues revolving around the topic of hearing are held here on a regular basis. Many of these are geared towards a particular target group, enabling speakers and organizers to deal with specific issues at length.

Details on the events and further information on the House of Hearing are available on the website. Moreover, the House of Hearing has conference rooms, rooms for product launches and a fully equipped kitchen. Naturally, all rooms are barrier-free. In a special wing connected to the building, two acousticians advise customers and fit hearing aids.

And to make the experience complete, there is a small bar offering refreshments. With – you’ve guessed it – live piano music. In short, the House of Hearing is a place where everyone is welcome, but noise has to stay outside.

Frank Hatami-Fardi www.espacophonak.com.br

Visitors can use eight iPads at a counter to find out about the latest technologies and products as well as services relating to hearing and hearing aids. And of course, various demonstration points offer visitors a number of personal acoustic experiences, without any distractions from the noise of the big city and facing a calming indoor garden. Another exclusive feature is an insight into Digital Production – a production technique for in-ear models that uses a digitalized 3D image of the customer’s ear impression.

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ART

Painting with music – Martin Klimas’ Sonic Sculptures Since the beginning of the 20th century at the latest, it has been clear to us that the rise of photography as an artistic medium has also lent the representation of motion a new dimension. In this context, the photography of German artist Martin Klimas, the heart of which is the dynamic snapshot, is particularly interesting.

Klimas continually finds new forms of representation and recently wound up at music. Marcel Krenz took a look at Martin Klimas’ work for HEAR THE WORLD and in particular admired the fusion of sound and image in his Sonic Sculptures.

Martin Klimas’ art is art of the moment. Time and again, the photographer captures an irretrievable moment. As in Eadweard Muybridge’s studies of horses in motion, in his photographs dynamism plays a key role. Known for his “shot” vases, exquisite flower arrangements in decorative crystal vases, Klimas is the new master of depicting frozen motion. Here the artist shoots delicate vases at high speed, with the crack of the gun triggering the flash that makes the snapshot of the shattering vase possible. As such, he celebrates precisely this photographic moment as an actionpacked still life.

Marcel Krenz www.martin-klimas.de

Photos: Martin Klimas, www.martin-klimas.de

With technical perfection, Klimas creates in a controlled studio environment an image of a fragmented reality, which simultaneously embodies destruction and creation, beauty, violence and chaos. Klimas repeatedly finds new forms of expression on the basis of this experimental setup: In his series of temporary sculptures he shows falling objects, such as porcelain figurines. Photographing with the aid of strobe lights, Klimas produces a picture of the object, in free fall, between the still-visible original integrity of the miniature sculpture, its past, the moment of its destruction in the present and the shattered reality of its immediate future. In the photographs, the figurines – from Asian kung fu fighters to Rococo cocottes in biscuit porcelain – are suspended in a way, frozen between their possible states of existence.

Yet Martin Klimas does not endlessly perpetuate this seemingly so simple principle; he continually invents new ways to depict the fleeting moment, the split second. His new series Sonic Sculptures features numerous pictures of dancing colors. The Düsseldorf-based artist uses various paints on a speaker diaphragm to capture on film various types of music in constantly new ways. The sound waves of pieces by such diverse musicians and composers as Paul Hindemith, Carl Orff, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mouse on Mars and Kraftwerk bring the paint to life with their vibrations. The resulting blobs of color display an ever-new vivid, active and leaping formal language and lend visual form to the work of important musical artists in the work of the visual artist Klimas. And even my nine-year-old niece immediately recognized that this form of three-dimensional painting with music is exciting: “Look, the music”, she said, and with her natural expression proved that seeing and hearing are not contradictory and that we can still approach contemporary art in this way too.

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Photos: Antonia Henschel

TRAVEL

Quiet please, we are shopping! Design, sound and shopping at Tokyo Midtown Just a hundred years ago, shopping for the essentials was a task people were happy to have their staff do. Yet in the 20th century, spurred by promises of happiness from advertising and marketing, shopping became an increasingly important activity, a socially relevant exercise, indeed, an identity-creating cultural mechanism.

For when we have had a bad day, our partner is getting on our nerves or the boss can’t see our qualities, we console ourselves with a little retail therapy. The act of shopping represents a small or big luxury that we indulge in, it is a consolation and reward, connotes a better life and gives us the feeling that with the right brand we can also buy the life that the rich and beautiful experience. Shopping (American concept artist Barbara Kruger put it in a nutshell with “I shop therefore I am”) has for many people long been their purpose in life and raison d’être. In our culture it has assumed religious functions such as the promise of salvation and the prospect of a better life. Since the mid20th century, the cathedral of this religion has been the shopping mall.

Born of the centuries-old idea of encouraging more extravagant purchasing behavior by making stores accessible in all weather conditions with roofs, arcades, market halls or walkways, these giant shopping centers have become symbols of a consumption-obsessed society. The shopping mall is the “third place” – after the apartment and workplace the third most important place for people today.

It has come to express the artificial and often dishonest worlds of advertising and brands. It represents a fully airconditioned parallel universe, where the sector mix is more cleverly devised, the processes more perfect, the environment cleaner and the façades more attractive than in reality.

It is not the usual laws that apply here, but the presumably better rules of the mall management, which makes use of the house rules if need be. In the 1991 movie Scenes from a Mall, set entirely within a shopping center, the temple of consumption even assumes cathartic functions: A married couple, played by Bette Midler and Woody Allen, are shopping when long-smoldering conflicts finally erupt, confessions of betrayal are made on the escalators, they fight and break up, only to reconcile after a number of margaritas and purchasing an expensive dress. Liberated from their problems, they leave the mall and go back to their daily lives.

Naturally, the artificial, hardship-free world of the shopping mall deserves its own soundscape, which seeks to create a cheerful and carefree atmosphere. Yet in actual fact, it generally consists of a constant carpet of superficial elevator music peppered with pop beats that blare from the stores now and again and advertising slogans from the TV monitors in the tech-stores, or the announcement that little Cindy would like her parents to collect her from the kids’ play area. So it is hardly surprising that contemporary shopping mall concepts blaze new trails not only in architecture, but also acoustics and sound design. At Tokyo Midtown, a building complex opened in 2007 in the Roppongi district of Tokyo, particular importance was attached to a sound system that is visually integrated in the architecture, yet at the same time offers as genuine a sound as possible. It took three years just to draw up the list of requirements for the complex’s soundscape. Indeed, in the expansive main conference hall for instance, the designers wanted to facilitate both concert-hall acoustics and guarantee a natural sound when the huge room is divided up into smaller units.

Experts consider Tokyo Midtown to be one of the most successful major urban mixed-use complexes of recent years.

After the Japanese Defense Agency headquarters moved out at the beginning of the millennium, vacating 69,000 square meters in the middle of the city, a consortium of six companies invested US$ 3 billion in the construction of a new inner-city center. Numerous architecture studios, including SOM, Nikken Sekkei and Tadao Ando, were involved in developing this “urban revitalization project”.

They created a city within the city, with mixed usage and defined spaces for working, living, relaxing and of course above all for shopping. The entire complex consists of six buildings and a park, which for a new inner-city development is incredibly large. The complex’s most striking feature is the 248-meter-high Midtown Tower, housing on its 53 floors not only shops, offices and restaurants, but also one of the city’s most expensive hotels, the Ritz-Carlton. ›

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Art and design play a key role at Tokyo Midtown, indeed, they could be deemed the ensemble’s guiding principle. The Suntory Museum of Art, which collects Japanese art and craftwork, is also located here, meaning that a veritable museum is part of the retail experience. A few floors above, Design Hub offers numerous Japanese design groups a platform and also provides, for instance, the exhibition space for the winners of the annual Good Design Award. Moreover, 21_21 Design Sight, a design museum conceived by Tadao Ando, is located at the edge of the complex’s large park area. Its three directors Issey Miyake, Taku Satoh and Naoto Fukasawa, all big names in various branches of the Japanese design scene, conceive exhibitions that illustrate Japanese design culture and its influence on Western design, but always also take a look forward to the future of the industry.

In a country where, compared to the West, product culture plays a very different role, where even the smallest thing becomes the center of attention and where Hello Kitty junk is often seen next to incredibly expensive craftwork, the proximity between art, design and commerce does not seem to raise any eyebrows. Despite their closeness to shopping, art and design at the Tokyo Midtown complex are never degraded to an amusement park motto. Although of course an artificial, unreal, perfect world has been created here too, the operators and designers have managed to avoid giving the impression that the thematic focus simply thinly veils a shrine to consumption. And the soundscape that envelops visitors on a regular shopping day at Tokyo Midtown also surprises the Western ear, dulled by the incessant media frenzy. If you listen very closely while strolling along from one exclusive store to the next, you will notice that something is different compared to other shopping malls: it is quiet.

Markus Frenzl www.tokyo-midtown.com

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THE WORLD OF THE SENSES

Sounds of peace We all know of the red telephone that linked the United States with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the original hot line. When it rang it was, as we can appreciate today, a sure sign of peace and a no to war.

For indeed, there was none.

When someone gives another person a brotherly kiss, whether it be a smacker or a silent affair, when a pigeon coos and we think of a dove of peace, when a lamb baas next to a cradle in a church, or palms, olive branches and laurels rustle, we could think of these sounds as acoustic signs, either very close to or further away from peace, bound to concrete or symbolic gestures.

But who hears peace when grasses whisper in the wind?

Even though a number of vendettas, often lasting decades, have been ended with the ritual presentation of bundles of grass? Very quiet sounds too, like those of someone weaving wreaths, the rub of ribbons on foliage, are not particularly peaceful for very many people. Especially as it was unclear for centuries whether a wreath was a symbol of peace or victory, perhaps for the simple reason that peace was seen as a brief period of non-war between one victory and the next opportunity to fight.

Sounds of peace from the depths of our culture Yet delving deeper into the catacombs of cultural history, we hear clearer signs … if we open our ears to them. Since Classical Antiquity the voices of Eirene and Pax can be heard whispering there, the embodiments of tranquility and peace. Someone pounds on the ground with the caduceus, a staff of peace entwined by two snakes, the scepter of the Greek god Hermes or Egyptian god Thoth, the staff of the negotiator. And when lions roar, religious scholars who have studied these topics, rabbis and some Jehovah’s Witnesses think of the seer Daniel, who in Babylon was thrown into a lions’ den and of whom it is said his faith alone was enough to satisfy the animals’ hunger.

Lest listening bring peace The idea that there can be peace is older – among other things it was championed by several religions, in whose name, however, men have over time repeatedly called to arms. Yet it wasn’t until the 18th and 19th centuries that the step was taken from the notion to the organization of peace. And with the dawn of the 20th century, first the League of Nations and then the UN promised to ensure a lasting peaceful coexistence.

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The British newspaper The Guardian recently named psychologist Steven Pinker the “optimistic voice of science”, yet could have named him one of the most contested voices.

Why? Because in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature, the Harvard professor argues that we as a people have become less violent. Today we are statistically less likely to experience a violent death. This has been the case above all in Europe since the Enlightenment, and that although the monstrous world wars of the 20th century have been factored into the not quite sound comparisons. In any case, Pinker explains his theory of the victory of peace citing “changes in our cultural and material milieu”.

That said, there can be no doubt that it would be an outrageous exaggeration, a hopeless claim on material and history, to believe that listening could bring peace. We could just as easily say it ensures human rights are implemented and – in the same arrogant vein – lead to a better world.

But before we shake ourselves like a wet dog to cast off this fallacy, let’s pause for thought. For … in actual fact there are political principles, various phenomena and initiatives, all of which go well beyond the reach of a quantum of media work and certain music at a certain time, that make this link at least worthy of consideration.

Sounding the song of war Violence has its cheerleaders and war its brass bands, who call “To arms” and with their horns sound the mort. Warfare has spawned entire music genres, such as the battle music “Battaglia”, which enjoyed popularity from the early modern age until well into the 19th century. At some point it morphed from an aristocratic form of music into a part of popular festival culture, which accelerated when increasingly the lower social strata not only performed military service but also financed the wars.

Operation Desert Storm in 1991 did not have its own music, so the snap decision was made to use pop music from the Vietnam War. It was played to troops from helicopters. Anthony Swofford described this in his book Jarhead. A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles and noted that it had had the desired effect. ›

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Illustration: Daniel Lachenmeier

Wars evolve and in their emergence and course patterns are discernible which are similar to a terrible fashion and condense into history as the decades pass. And worse still, cause all the people who have suffered or are suffering still to be forgotten. We could list a great many things that characterize our current understanding: perhaps that everywhere is on fire, that there are more wars than those that are called or are allowed to call themselves such. That the number of mercenaries is increasing and ever more child soldiers are going off to battle. That on the one hand it has become clearer that wars are fought for economic reasons and for resources, but on the other we increasingly hear of “necessary” and “just” wars, wars fought for humanitarian reasons, for democracy, for the rights and protection of the civil population, indeed, even for peace itself.

War is and always was audible, even the possibility of it.

Thus during the Cold War the sonic boom was considered the “sound of freedom”. And a sense of hearing promoted war, whether “holy” or not, with the sound of drums and shouting, noise as an element of psychological warfare, bagpipes, yodeling, war songs and marching music, even sound design and sonic warfare, the clang of ship hulls, the screams of torture, through to acoustic weapons and communication techniques, tapping systems over land or water, and media such as telephone and radio.

Media can justify and fuel wars, and respond to them quickly with features or propaganda. Modern war is one of visualizations and war reporting also seems to be one of images. Movie theaters show action movies claiming to be war or anti-war films.

And being relatively easy to use and having an enormous reach, the medium of radio also plays a crucial role in conflicts. The major world services do commendable work in this field, as do many small projects. In 2008 the UN drew attention to Radio Okapi in the Congo with the documentary film Shock Waves. And in South Sudan Radio Bakhita seeks to resolve social conflicts. Of course, it also helps to broadcast the right music.

Music for peace Dieter Senghaas, a conflict researcher, once focused his attention on music. And he identified in the works of Bach, Alban Berg, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Olivier Messiaen “notions of peace”, in Mozart, Bruckner and György Ligeti he found “fantasies of peace”, in Guillaume Dufay, Arnold Schönberg and Kurt Weill “peace as a political project”. Be it in the opera Simplicius Simplicissimus, in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem or the song A Voice from Guernica, musical tradition helps to articulate grief over a war and protest against it. One typical method to this end is to use the music of the foe or victim, another to invoke music as something universal. The World Orchestra for Peace was established in 1995 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. It primarily performs in crisis-ridden regions.

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On Wednesday, May 27, 1992, during the siege of Sarajevo, several mortar shells hit a group of people queuing for bread in Vase Miskina street at four in the afternoon. More than 60 were injured, 22 people died. On the following 22 days cellist Vedran Smailović played Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor at this spot in honor of the dead.

In March 2008 tens of thousands of people gathered for a peace concert in Columbia. This fall Chung Myung-whun, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, made a breakthrough agreement with North Korean officials to form an orchestra made up equally of North and South Korean musicians.

Also this fall, the British peace activists of International Alert released a video with music from Massive Attack entitled Peace Talks. It is intended to help spread the message that it is words that resolve conflicts.

Listening for peace The famous Swedish writer of children’s books Astrid Lindgren once wrote: “To speak about peace is to speak about something that doesn’t exist.” According to the annual report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), current global military expenditure is around US$ 1.6 billion. Expenditure on peaceful solutions to conflicts is however far more difficult to quantify.

“Who calls for peace, that the world hears it, is forced to hear it? That it must bring joy to all peoples?” asked Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his sermon on peace at the Youth Conference of the World Alliance on the North Sea island of Fanø in 1934. Just over ten years later, he died in the Flossenbürg concentration camp for being a member of the resistance against Nazism. It is impossible to ignore the power of fact. And of course, listening alone does not bring peace. Yet it can hardly do any harm and sometimes makes a noticeable difference to use our sense of hearing in this way. Indeed, the successes of intercultural communication and global peace work demonstrate that. “Peace comes about through understanding, not agreement”, or so an Arab saying would have it. But understanding is surely impossible if we don’t listen to one another.

Max Ackermann

TH A NK YOU. Your contribution helps children regain their hearing.

Support our project “A bright future for children in Nairobi”, where we are enabling a support network for children with hearing loss – providing diagnostics and hearing aid fittings right through to speech therapy and a self-help group for parents.

Together we give children the chance of a better future.

Donation account: UBS AG Zürich • Account: Hear the World Foundation • Reference: Nairobi IBAN: CH12 0023 0230 4773 8401 U • SWIFT: UBSWCHZH80A • www.hear-the-world.com/foundation

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CLASSICS

We are not to play with our food?

For the members of the Vegetable Orchestra, this admonition would most likely fall on deaf ears, for that is precisely what they do!

Fresh vegetables from the weekly market. That goes for the said orchestra, too. Where normally crunchy carrots, colorful peppers, juicy cucumber, crisp radishes and celery strewn with a little parsley would make a nutritious salad, the Austrian ensemble surprises spectators by doing something entirely different. As the name suggests, the sound artists transform vegetables into instruments and proceed to play them. They cut holes in carrots, peel eggplants, seed pumpkins and hollow out cucumbers to create hundreds of instruments like flutes, drums, horns, rattles, bongos and many more besides.

In combination, they can even imitate marimbas, guitars and various trumpets. Madness, you might think, but incredibly the musicians actually elicit tones from their creations. And they are in no way inferior to some modern music pieces played on conventional instruments. Admittedly, some of the notes that come from rustling lettuce leaves and tapping zucchinis are highly unusual, from gloomy to shrill to almost funky, but on the whole the effect is harmonious.

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The Vegetable Orchestra is causing a stir, is enjoying great success and has already released its third CD with the telling title Onionoise. At festivals the world over too, the veggie-friends are welcome guests. The artistic background of the orchestra members is as colorful as the instruments they play. Indeed, professional musicians, architects, designers and authors, among others, throw their ideas into the mix. So much creativity results in feelgood music in an extraordinarily natural environment – and as nature dictates that the ensemble’s instruments can only be played for a limited time, after the concert the cabbage heads, leeks and parsley that are still usable wind up in the pan and there is soup for the audience! A truly tasteful way to end a very special experience ‌ Sandra Spannaus www.vegetableorchestra.org

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Illustration: CĂŠline Meyrat

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Photo: Bryan Adams

MODERN

KT Tunstall – the ego-archeologist KT Tunstall is a successful musician with Scottish, Irish and Chinese roots.

Her younger brother was born deaf and she herself suffers from tinnitus and slight hearing loss in one ear. In an interview with HEAR THE WORLD she said, self-critically: “Unfortunately, it’s only when you experience a problem that you really realize how precious your hearing is.”

Her own sense of hearing plays a crucial role in everything she does. As an ambassador for the Hear the World Initiative, Tunstall wants to share her experiences from 15 years as a live performer and help raise awareness – with no finger raised, but always ready to give younger musicians some good advice.

“Sound is a very important part of my life and something I would hugely miss if it was ever impaired by my stupid behavior.”

Kate Victoria Tunstall was adopted and grew up in a nonmusical, academic family in the quiet university town of St. Andrews. She started having flute and piano lessons at just six years old, and as a teenager taught herself guitar. She spent her final year of high school in the USA thanks to a scholarship, where she soon came into contact with all kinds of musicians. Back in the UK, Tunstall studied music at the exclusive Royal Holloway College and soon after immersed herself in the lively music scene in her native Fife in Scotland, where she played, for instance, with musicians from the popular Fence Collective and lived with Gordon Anderson of The Beta Band for a time. She was greatly influenced by his eclectic “folktronica” sound. Another important station on her life’s journey was the klezmer band Oi Va Voi. Although she wasn’t part of the official lineup, Tunstall’s presence as singer and co-writer on their celebrated debut album Laughter Through Tears is unmistakable and made a lasting impression. Klezmer meets electronic, and that on one of the hottest British labels (Outcaste).

At this point KT Tunstall was already being compared to Nelly Furtado and Sheryl Crow, people were hearing about her talent and her solo ambitions were taking off. Her debut album, Eye to the Telescope, was released in late 2004. It initially came in at number 73 in the charts, a respectable entry. Yet it didn’t stop there; things continued to get better for KT. She was asked to “substitute” for rapper Nas, who had cancelled at short notice, on the cult BBC show Later … with Jools Holland. With her blues-inspired song Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, the neo-folk diva delivered a performance that was anything but boring. KT played and sang her own accompaniment in the form of choir vocals, tambourine and guitar riffs, all of which she recorded live with a digital sampler and played back in loops. In a TV-compatible 3½ minutes, she put on a show that took the audience by storm and left them hungry for more. Shortly after the broadcast, Eye to the Telescope was re-released and this time climbed to number three in the British charts. The US release was also a resounding

success, not least thanks to the casting show American Idol. Candidate Katherine McPhee (who was to become runner-up) sang Black Horse and the Cherry Tree in the final and in so doing gave the song and its author a mighty push in the Billboard Hot 100: it moved up all of 55 places to number 23. It is well known that an artist’s second album is considered the yardstick for a successful musical career. With the lavish production Drastic Fantastic, KT seemed to be doing everything right. Indeed, number three in the British and nine in the US charts speak a clear language in commercial terms. This was an established folk-pop songwriter proudly showing that she was on an equal footing with the superstars. Yet looking back, KT Tunstall does not appear to be entirely happy with Drastic, describing the creative process of her current and third album as jumping from the “hamster wheel”.

Musically, Tiger Suit represents a clear and deliberate break from the folky singer-songwriter style that brought her great success. That said, the sound, which is definitely moving in the direction of the dance floor and which she calls “nature techno”, is not completely unknown territory to her, she says. Rather, it seems like “an archeological excavation of my self”. Indeed, she spent her formative years with electronic sounds, but the artist also has recent danceable music by bands such as Phoenix and LCD Soundsystem on her radar. That Tiger Suit sounds in every respect more inspired and multilayered than its predecessor may not least also be down to the fact that it was recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin. This was where David Bowie recorded his legendary Berlin trilogy in the late 1970s: the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger. In 1983 Depeche Mode mixed their most intelligent album to date, Construction Time Again, in the venerable rooms, which were however kitted out with state-of-theart technology. And none other than U2 began recording Achtung Baby in October 1990 in the master hall of Hansa Studios. It would become one of the most successful albums in the long discography of the Irish stadium rockers and is rightly considered a musical quantum leap. Just as Bowie, U2 and Depeche Mode redefined themselves in Berlin, after the Tiger Suit sessions at Hansa Studios KT Tunstall is no longer the same either. With songs like (Still a) Weirdo, Push That Knot Away, Uummanaq Song and Glamour Puss, although she hasn’t reinvented the proverbial wheel, it is still great fun listening to her working on her “archeological” and highly innovative sound.

Christian Arndt (Sources: Allmusic.com, Rollingstone.com, BBC.CO.UK) Interview quotes: ArtisanNewsService, July 20, 2010)

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MODERN

Interview with KT Tunstall What was it like shooting with Bryan Adams?

Bryan has been a ubiquitous part of my aural world since I can remember. The whole thing was really exciting, it was fantastic.

If you could go back in time would you be more proactive in your attitude towards hearing care?

I think I would definitely be more aware. If I was on stage and it was painful. I would do something about it.

Why did you decide to become an ambassador for the Hear the World Initiative?

Because it’s a great cause. I’m delighted to be part of a campaign that not only helps people find solutions that can improve their quality of life but also educates the population at large about the importance of preserving their sense of sound. My younger brother was born profoundly deaf so I’ve grown up extremely aware of what it’s like for someone with hearing loss to live in a mostly hearing world. I’ve always imagined what it’s like for my brother to come to my gigs, to help me understand what he experiences. It’s really interesting.

So you are definitely conscious about it now?

For sure!

Have you ever experienced problems with your hearing?

I suffer from tinnitus and have slight hearing loss in one of my ears. Unfortunately, it’s only when you experience a problem that you really realise how precious our hearing is and how much we take it for granted. Sound is a very important part of my life and something I would hugely miss if it was ever encroached upon by my stupid behaviour. It really highlights what I should have done growing up, and what I could be doing now, to protect my hearing.

Do you think your hearing problems have been caused by your career in music?

Of course, especially when you have got an ear to the cymbals most of the time. I don’t use in-ear monitors. I am a staunch wedge user (on-stage monitor) because I need to feel the volume. But you have to be very careful.

Do you think that being a musician has given you a deeper appreciation of sound?

Definitely! There was a point where my tinnitus got so bad, thankfully it is under control now, but you know you can feel helpless with a condition like tinnitus as there is nothing you can really do about it. There was a point where it became very difficult to tune my guitar because it got so bad … it’s also perversely interesting having it as well, because it is in C so I could always tune my guitar to C. (laughs)

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Would you ever intervene if you saw a younger musician on stage playing music at potentially damaging high volumes?

I would certainly be happy to share my experience with someone and give them a bit of advice. It’s just through experience and learning that I have learnt a safe level because no-one is going to set that level for you. The monitor engineer isn’t standing in front of you, you have to ask him for what you want and then he does what you ask. So you have got to have a self-awareness.

What sounds do you love?

British birdsong is my favourite sound ever. There has been a massive influx of parakeets in London, which really piss me off because they are really loud and annoying, it’s like a screeching sound. I am like ‘shut up’! The local birds sound amazing. I love the sound of crows, and blackbirds are just incredible. When my younger brother got a cochlear implant a few years ago it was amazing the things he could hear all of a sudden but, because he was born deaf, he didn’t recognise the new sounds around him. He is hearing more, but he was like “what is that?!” There wasn’t always someone there to tell him – that sound is a lawn mower, that’s the washing machine. He’s a tennis coach and I drove home with him after work once. He parked his car and was like “what the hell is that noise?! Every time I come home and I hear it and I’m like, what is that noise?

I don’t know what it is.” It turns out it was all the crows roosting in the trees above where he parks. Tons of them going rah rah rah rah … it was a completely new sound to him and because he didn’t look up, he never knew so (laughs) he was glad to know.

What sound do you dislike?

I dislike feedback, it’s really bad. The worst. I really dislike when people gather phlegm from deep inside their throat.

Phlegm gathering!

“I LOVE THE SOUND OF CROWS, AND BLACKBIRDS ARE JUST INCREDIBLE.”

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Photo: Mary Rozzi

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MODERN

Feist – the power of stillness One of the greatest compliments we can give music is listening to it straight up. Without multitasking, without also thinking about all the things we still have to do and not even using it as background music in public spaces.

This compliment, this affection surfaces when we listen to the songs on Leslie Feist’s current album Metals (Polydor).

For we can perceive, quietly and in a virtually wondrous way, the stillness in which Feist composed her music. And we realize that we are listening to a true anti-superstar star. In general too, the 35-year-old Canadian doesn’t behave like your regular pop star. Social networking and permanent tweets are not her thing at all. Instead, she has again started writing letters and prefers long, face-to-face conversations. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why her songs feel as though they are directly addressed to each listener. And at the same time precisely why they are generating a continually growing global fan base; people who are searching for a safe haven in our fast-paced day and age and who long to return to the really important, essential things in life. “You have to listen deep inside yourself, on your own, to be able to produce something,” notes Feist.

After a good seven years of spending a great deal of time on airplanes, stages and TV shows, even appearing on Sesame Street with her hit 1234, Feist took time out. Even though previously she had simply accepted that this onthe-road lifestyle was hers to stay. It could have carried on that way forever: the albums Let It Die, Open Season and finally The Reminder (all Polydor) are appealing to ever more listeners to this day. Moreover her live performances with a band of several members and beautiful, generally minimal visuals are unique. Yet she didn’t want to repeat herself endlessly and always play the same songs, even though performance requests kept on coming. So she pulled the plug and went back home to the garage she had set up specially in the garden of her house in Toronto for composing in solitude.

“There’s a lot of output on tour,” says Feist, “and in the downtime afterwards I was a sponge – I was trying to absorb as much as I put out for seven years. I was being still and trying to learn how to be quiet and remember that silence isn’t aggressive. Sometimes after being in a lot of noise and movement, silence and stillness can seem completely terrifying.” The silence and self-imposed loneliness ultimately led to very profound, generally quiet songs.

The lightness in the songs on The Reminder gave way to a monumentality in the recordings for the new album that does not sound suffocated, but more mature. A logical step for Feist, as a talented singer and songwriter, towards a kind of folk music that bears comparison with great works of the 1970s. Such as Carole King’s timeless album Tapestry. Metals was recorded in live sessions with string players, a choir, her long-time companions and very good friends Mocky and Chilly Gonzales, and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has worked with one of Feist’s early fonts

of inspiration, Björk. Beck keyboarder Brian LeBarton was also involved, who as well as playing also spliced the arrangements. She chose to make her recordings at a completely isolated farm in California’s Big Sur National Park. Feist spent four intensive weeks there in February 2011 with the other musicians. She loves this situation where everyone gets up, discusses things and eats together in an isolated environment – a close-knit community, living and working together. And the surroundings had a hand in this too: “Recording can be a weightless free float from your daylife, and I like to pick places with certain fertile qualities that can give me a visual hook that I’m there to do something other than what I would otherwise do. And that clean line between land and sea, the graphic edge of the continent pointing out toward the east, meaning not the ‘Atlantic next stop Europe’ feeling, but ‘next stop somewhere you’ve never been’,” says Feist. “Plus, you are somewhere that looks completely unfound and yet it’s been so perfectly recorded literarily. Steinbeck made 1000 albums there, in a sense! Henry Miller and Anais Nin probably considered that line between land and sea, too. And on top of it, we truly found the perfect room to build a studio in, perched on the cliffs. A giant, empty space.”

Listening to one of the strongest tracks on the album, Caught A Long Wind, we unwittingly see this landscape in our mind’s eye, the horizon, which leaves plenty of room for stillness and nuances. And can spread so much warmth.

Feist’s songs strike a chord and touch us where we otherwise let in only very good friends, namely, our heart and soul. This is a very rare ability, which few people have, and only people who are honest. And these are the ones we listen to, without letting ourselves be distracted. Personal messages, once again with the potential to be received and recognized, perfectly balanced on the fine line between independent and mainstream. Leslie Feist has written her next chapter on the history of relevant pop music. By hand and personally addressed to us.

Michael Rütten Visual and acoustic insights into the recordings and landscape in Big Sur are available here: www.listentofeist.com

HEAR THE WORLD 57

MODERN

Flattering fluttering photography! Irving Penn and Issey Miyake Irving Penn was one of the greatest photographers of our day. He died in 2009 in New York. Issey Miyake is at present one of the most extraordinary and successful fashion designers. Neither Penn’s photographs nor Miyake’s fashion creations are reserved in character. Both reflect, in every last detail, the creativity and individuality of their creator.

So it should come as no surprise that these two artists met many years ago at a fashion shoot and subsequently collaborated on various projects. From 1987 Penn photographed Miyake’s collections for 13 years in the end and with his pictures opened up new perspectives to the master of materials. Miyake gave Penn, who incidentally never attended one of Miyake’s shows, a completely free rein and virtually trusted him blindly. The two artists inspired each other and had a very special professional relationship, seemingly without the need for many words. Over the years they nurtured an intense visual dialogue.

The exhibition Irving Penn and Issey Miyake: Visual Dialogue at the museum 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo presents impressions and snapshots as well as, naturally, examples of the immense talent of both artists. It opened in September and will run until April 2012.

69 highly expressive images, some in virtually screeching colors, some in dark, more subdued tones, offer an insight into Miyake’s world of fashion and Penn’s photographic flair.

The exhibition is set off by a diverse program of installations, films and discussion rounds with well-known contemporary artists and also features workshops for children.

Sandra Spannaus Irving Penn and Issey Miyake: Visual Dialogue September 16, 2011 – April 8, 2012 21_21 Design Sight 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN

ISSEY MIYAKE Collection Poster, 1987.

Photograph by Irving Penn.

Poster design and typography by Ikko Tanaka.

Photograph copyright by The Irving Penn Foundation

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ISSEY MIYAKE Collection Poster, 1989.

Photograph by Irving Penn.

Poster design and typography by Ikko Tanaka.

Photograph copyright by The Irving Penn Foundation

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ISSEY MIYAKE Collection Poster, 1994.

Photograph by Irving Penn.

Poster design and typography by Ikko Tanaka.

Photograph copyright by The Irving Penn Foundation

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ISSEY MIYAKE Collection Poster, 1995.

Photograph by Irving Penn.

Poster design and typography by Ikko Tanaka.

Photograph copyright by The Irving Penn Foundation

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ISSEY MIYAKE Collection Poster, 1998.

Photograph by Irving Penn.

Poster design and typography by Ikko Tanaka.

Photograph copyright by The Irving Penn Foundation

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MODERN

The voice of João Gilberto There are few voices closer to silence. João Gilberto’s voice seems to want to counter all the hubbub of everyday life with its absolute gentleness; there is no hint of virility or power in it. The floating lightness is its strength.

It seems to want extreme closeness: João Gilberto’s voice sounds as though it softly creeps ever closer to the listener until the singer’s mouth is just a few centimeters from the listener’s ear. Whereas other voices swaggeringly seek to make an impression, João Gilberto’s ducks away a little.

Whereas others yearn, his speaks true emotion, magical moments.

In those early days he recorded three legendary albums in quick succession with Antônio Carlos Jobim, he went to New York, was part of the legendary bossa nova night at Carnegie Hall in 1962, was married to Astrud Gilberto, got divorced, turned his back on the popularization of the genre into shallow easy listening goo and made ever quieter albums at ever longer intervals.

This voice was born in 1958 in a bathroom. The then 27year-old Gilberto, following a personal and musical crisis, had sought refuge with relatives in a small city called Diamantina in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. He is said to have shut himself in his hosts’ tiny bathroom for months to work on his singing and guitar playing. It was here that João Gilberto became a musician, an innovator.

He invented bossa nova in this isolation, far away from the hustle and bustle of Rio de Janeiro and yet with it very much in mind. Together with composer Antônio Carlos Jobim he refined his ideas, and bossa nova became a top export, the Brazilian version of cool jazz. It was in this bathroom that he invented “the formula”, as writer Marc Fischer called it in his book Hobalala, a wonderful literary declaration of love for Gilberto. “An equation of singing and guitar, breath and chords, with which Gilberto can turn any song into bossa nova.” Indeed, no less important than his voice was the innovative way of playing percussive samba rhythms on guitar. No other musician fuses vocals and guitar quite so harmoniously.

Thus as the decades passed, the singer became a mysterious, mythical figure. The more he retreated from the ordinary world, the more stories and anecdotes about him circulated. Today, at the grand old age of 80, he lives a nocturnal life in Rio de Janeiro, allegedly without ever leaving his apartment, without giving interviews, without caring about what is happening around him. Only with the record company EMI is he fighting a long battle over the quality of remastered CDs of his first albums. At night he is said to sometimes play guitar for ten or twelve hours, guided by the pursuit of perfection. He has one child with a journalist who wanted to shoot a documentary about him a few years back – to this day the film has still not been made. There are only a few people who get to see him with their own eyes. Even his daughter Bebel, now likewise a well-known singer, is said to have trouble seeing him in the flesh. Gilberto is a phantom.

Ulrich Rüdenauer

Photo: ullstein bild

The voice virtually vibrates with longing. Perhaps longing is the only thing keeping us alive and life bearable. Those who get what they want are presumably closer to Hell than Heaven. Longing means alertness, irritability, a floating existence, motion, passion, sometimes being thrown back into the past. People with longing want to reach something they presumably already know cannot be reached. And sometimes they look for something to ultimately find something entirely different. This longing is the rhythm of bossa nova, and Gilberto its magical performer.

Yet we can trace the footsteps of this phantom listening to his albums, especially one from 1973. The so-called White Album is probably the closest to João Gilberto’s idea of perfect music: there is just the singer and his guitar; he completely surrenders himself. Marc Fischer discovered “longing itself” in João Gilberto’s singing. We can hardly imagine a purer vocalization of this feeling.

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The articles published in HEAR THE WORLD are protected by copyright. Reprints, even in part, are only possible with the publishing company’s prior written permission. Neither the publisher nor the editors assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and photos submitted. We presume the right to print letters sent to the editor, in full or in part. The editor is not responsible for the content of ads and ad supplements.

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Painting with music – Martin Klimas’ Sonic Sculptures Sounds of peace Feist – the power of stillness Flattering fluttering photography! Irving Penn and Issey Miyake The voice of João Gilberto