Katharina Pfennich
Der Berg klingt, singt und rinnt
Soundwalk | Walk with Me
The walk leads from the Seethalerhütte to the mountain station, offering an acoustic journey through the glacier's natural soundscape. Over three years, I have documented the sounds of the glacier, from cracking ice to melting water, highlighting its dynamic changes. The soundwalk provides an immediate encounter with nature, revealing subtle details like water flowing beneath the snow—a sign of glacier retreat and climate change. Participants experience the vulnerability of this unique landscape on an acoustic level.
The walk is available for IOS using the app "Walk with Me."
Image Credit: Signal vom Dachstein | La Strada Graz
Image Credit: La Strada Graz / Nikola Milatovic
Cavescape
field recording composition with interviews in Austrian German
At a time where there are hardly any unexplored areas left to be found, a young group of people have come together to further the exploration of a cave system called the Dachsteinsüdwandhöhle. Following in the footsteps of the "old cave explorers", they are seeking their own paths and developing a passion for this extreme endeavour.
What motivates people to spend time in the dark and away from civilisation?
This piece explores the motivation and inner drive of this group and presents a series of interviews accompanied by the sound of water drops falling from the cave ceiling, the wind passing through the cave, as well as rocks moving inside and continental waves.
All sounds were recorded by me personally inside the cave system.
An English Transcript can be found here.
Sound Design & Mix:
Katharina Pfennich
Mastering:
Samuel Müller
Interviewees:
Julian Zehentleitner
Katharina Pfennich
Mathias Redmer
Signal vom Dachstein
field recording composition with fiddle player Toni Burger
Currently being showcased at Schloss Trautenfels.
This composition consists of field recordings made over the past three years as part of Signal vom Dachstein. It is a personal reflection on the ever changing environment of the glacier. In a collaborative session Toni Burger imitated the strange nature of my field recordings and improvised to them. I then used these two elements and combined them into a dialogue.
This work also works as a teaser for the sound walk and performance which will be taking place on Sept 15th 2024 on the glacier.
Sound Design & Mix:
Katharina Pfennich
Fiddle:
Toni Burger
Click here for more information on the exhibition and opening times.
From the Glacier to the Cave
field recording composition
For La Strada 2022, I composed a quadrophonic piece using new field recordings from the cave. The recordings were made during a 5 day research expedition further inside the system. The composition uses the sound of water, wind, rock movement and continental waves below the Dachstein glacier.
Reliefraum Naturkundemuseum Graz
Video courtesy of La Strada Graz.
Signal am Dachstein
field recording composition
For "Signal am Dachstein" I went inside the Dachsteinloch (a cave system below the glacier) to collect sound recordings. With the help of the local cave explorers, I recorded the sounds of the melting ice below the glacier, the wind passing through the rocks and various waterfalls inside the Ramsauer Dom.
Using these recordings, I made a 6 min composition which was then incorporated into the landscape opera by the artists Rob von Rijswijk & Jeroen Strijbos.
sound Installation inside the Hunerkogel Gondola
My other contribution to this project was the 5.1 sound installation inside the 2 moving gondolas which took the participants up to the landscape opera. In this piece, you can hear a multilayered soundscape of the cave system - an unusual, inaccessible space.
Binaural documentation of the sound installation (headphones recommended).
Black Room by Igor Tavares
sound design: experimental violin
duration: 2"24
An experimental violin piece made for Igor Tavares' choreography called "Black Room". This is the first piece of an ongoing long-distance collaboration between the drummer Jon Hanen (London), the dancer Igor Tavares (Newcastle) and myself (Austria).
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More Time Than Life
self generating sound installation
duration: 336 hours
This sound installation uses field recordings from ecological systems i.e. volcanos, glaciers, the sea, and the human body. Depending on the audio channels and the speaker's positioning, an algorithm actively applies audio processing techniques.
Photo courtesy of Phil Colins
For more information click HERE
interlude n#1
interlude n#2
Interludes
soundscapes
This is a series of 3 interludes, commissioned for a gig at the Cluny in Newcastle upon Tyne. The soundscapes use field recordings from North and Central America.
interlude n#3
The Font
underwater monaural mix
quadrophonic audio mix
This underwater sound installation consists of a sound collage of three individuals speaking of the circumstantial loss of control. Whilst a quadrophonic mix portrays this through a wall of sounds, the only way to access the clear recordings is by submerging the ear or head.
excerpt from sound underwater
quadrophonic mix
Uncanny
interactive sound installation
ultrasonic sensors, MaxMsp, arduino
This audio installation explores notions of disembodiment through the creation of a self-generating soundscape. As the viewer explores a pitch-black space they will trigger motion sensors which will effectively trigger sounds, increase the volume of the speaker according to the pressure/distance of the viewer.
Animo
robotic installation
Animo is a collaborative robotic installation working with the Muse EEG headset. The Muse is reading in accelerometer data, alpha waves, concentration states, and mellow states. The data is being controlled and run through MaxMSP which switches pneumatic pistons on and off, giving the structure a sense of consciousness and self-awareness.