Fredrik Wretman: Gaz

Sounddesign for the installation Gaz by Fredrik Wretman

The installation is located in the basement of the building. People walk down the stairs into a very dark space, with most of the floor converted into a large pool of black water, from which the wooden support structure of the building emerges. A video is projected onto the water surface and reflects back to the very end of the room, a video that shows a white figure that slowly is slowly transformed from the outlines of the baltic sea to a scull and back to the outline over the course of 50 minutes.

The installation creates a quite complex emotional atmosphere. It is calm and radiates a meditative quietness but it is also disturbing. In public statements, Fredrik leaves it open to the visitor to make sense of potential meanings of the installation, however in talks with me prior to the realization of the sound design he clearly stated that he is a bit worried about the political implications of a GAZPROM operated pipeline thru the baltic sea. I wanted the auditive side to reflect this.

Unlike for his earlier work TapTim (2008) I decided that the sound design for this installation should be less comforting. My initial idea was to work with transformations of recordings I made from a 50l gas bottle rolling over a concrete floor, but it turned out that the sound did not evoke any interesting emotions nor did it have the right textural quality I was looking for.

In a very initial stage of the planing I was considering using the sounds of air valves but for some reason this idea never seemed to be very appealing. However, when I tried these kind of sounds at the basement it immediately became obvious that they create the atmosphere I was looking for. I created various transformations of a single recording of a jet of gas and arranged these variations as a composition for six hidden speakers placed in several locations of the basement. A lot of time went into the exact positioning of the speakers and in the perfect adjustment of the sounds. As a result, there is no notion anymore of a playback from loudspeakers, but a very convincing scenario of gas leaking from several locations inside the basement, turned on and off by hidden valves.

Additionally I made recordings of the existing heating system. I knocked against the pipes several times, and a series of these sounds were pitched down to expose an almost drum like characteristic and groove. Boden, where the installation is currently shown, has a long history of one of the primary military bases of Sweden, and the regular low drums seem to recall these connections.

Listen to a stereo recording of the first 60 minutes of the installation

The sound-file presented here is a stereo mixdown of the six channel installation version. The volume of the sound at the exhibition is intentionally quite low, more quiet than a normal speaking voice. The loudspeakers are placed far away from the audience. To get the best idea of the original sound listen to the recording whilst not sitting in front of the speakers.

GAZ by Fredrik Wretman. Exhibited as part of "The Russians Are Coming", 6.6.2010 - 30.10.2010, HAVREMAGASINET, Boden, Sweden.