AYRIE – Chapel 52°47’09.8″N 13°17’20.8“E

Chapel 52°47’09.8″N 13°17’20.8“E

AYRIE is: Ferdinand Kavall, Andy Aquarius, Sebastian Völkers

In August 2018 AYRIE went to compose, perform and record a piece of original music in the ruins of a chapel without a roof at a lake in the brandenburgian forest.

The location scouting took place beforehand so the three musicians already had a vision of what sounds and composition they wanted to realise in that particular space. On location, the process of refining the final composition, sculpting the sounds to respond to the acoustics of the space and rehearsing took three days. Followed by one night of filming and recording the live performance.

The recorded piece is a symbiosis of the acoustic, wooden timbres of the harp and the hammered dulcimer and amplified, thick and textural sounds of two synthesizers, connected by an electric guitar and a bowed lap steel guitar, that both in itself already merge their stringed and wooden timbres with textural effects.

The amplified sounds were projected into the space by a custom made ‚Function One‘ System, that was able to project the rich low end at an overall low volume level, so that the amplified sounds could be balanced with the acoustic instruments and the ambient sounds coming from the natural of the surrounding of the forest. The sound was captured by two pairs of room microphones, close microphones and line signals of the instruments that were then blended for the mixdown.

Both video and audio recording capture a one-take of the live performance. To provide additional  perspectives of the performance, AYRIE decided to use video footage from different takes during the video edit, while the audio used in the video remains the one-take recording.

The recording session was followed by two nights of public concerts. that we’re imbedded in the program of the „Globe Gallery“, an artist residency program for site-specific works.

The whole recording process took place in a remote setting in the ruins in the forest with only the most basic infrastructure. Electricity for recording and filming was provided through electricity generators.

The recording was produced, engineered and mixed by AYRIE. The video was filmed and edited by Anke Lichtmann and Stephan Spieske.

Music mastered by Uwe Janßenharms.

Special thanks to: Bernhard Hanke, Michael Pelz, Philipp Schrader, Alice Morey, Anke Lichtmann, Stephan Spieske, Lorenz Wiedemann, Laure Boer and the Globe Gallery artists.

www.themusicofayrie.com