Alpine Diskomiks, 2019
Mixed media installation, comprising 50 white record players, 50 vinyl records and covers, raspberry Pi synch systems, stereo sound, 19 minute loop
Alpine Diskomiks consists of a 20-meter-long installation comprising 50 turntables and a frieze of album covers depicting mountain landscapes.
The records are set spinning one after the other, like a self-playing pianola, according to the length of their content. At first, we hear an atmospheric mix of electronic sounds and drums. This track, with a running time of 19 minutes, defines both the beginning and end of the sound installation. Gradually, the other turntables join in, their music superimposed on the tracks already playing, mixing together genres from classical, 1970s pop and rock, experimental electronica, folk music and punk to death metal. The audio work culminates in a deafening cacophony, an intense and overwhelming soundscape, like an avalanche of sonic events, that has the effect of melding the individual pieces of music together and disorientating the listener. Then, having reached the acoustic peak, the individual records come to their natural end. The sound gradually subsides again until only the original music is heard and a sense of orientation gradually returns.
What these diverse records have in common is the mountain motifs that adorn their covers, which are arranged to form a continuous mountain skyline. Alpine Diskomiks subverts the motif of the idyllic, romantic mountain landscape, suggesting, through the violent dissonance of the sounds, the tremendous natural forces that have shaped the Alps over millions of years. Through its accumulation and decay the work aims to question the cultural history of mountains, the contentious notion of the sublime and how particular landscapes might be co-opted as containers for human experiences.