«Swimming In Empty Pool» is a collection of electronic and electroacoustic studio and live recordings made by Danish sound artist and electronics player Christian Rønn between 2016 and 2020. Rønn likes to work with abstract sounds that tend to gravitate towards a sound that has a tangible physicality. «I am interested in the grey zone where sound breaks up and transforms into something else. The stretched feedback just before it kicks in or the battle between two frequencies fighting to dominate aural space. The moment before the vibrating string distorts and the seconds following the release of the huge cluster-chord, where energy still hangs in the air», he says.
The seven pieces of «Swimming In Empty Pool» imagine making a footprint in the listener’s mind, like a sculpture in the shape and form of the listener’s imagination. Rønn employs noise as a conscious choice, as noise is as much a part of our sounding world as other sounds. The loose and simple melodic veins are just as much a part of our sounding world. Acoustic string sounds are taken from Yuri Landman’s string instruments, prepared and treated with an electronic extravaganza of the vintage ARP 2600 and the odd effect module. The recordings are from EMS in Stockholm, various other studio recordings, a residency in 2016 at Worm Sound Studio in Rotterdam and processed live takes.
These abstract and free-associative dreamscapes and soundscapes often morphed instantly into disturbing and noisy sonic nightmares, especially when Rønn adds his processed vocals, and all offer untimely sonic adventures. Each piece explores its distinct inner logic and its own cinematic and suggestive sounds that trigger a demanding yet quite arresting sense of listening. Rønn says that he aimed to «ut light in the cracks, open up a new space, give an experience of transcendence. A journey beyond language and thinking…». I think that he proved his point.
Eyal Hareuveni
Christian Rønn (Serge synth, Buchla synth, ARP 2600, D.S. Evolver, MFB Dominion, The Caterpillar – a string instrument by Yuri Landman, contact microphones, samplers, miscellaneous eff., sound obj., v, forgotten tools)
