Sound Cave Project
The Sound Cave Project immerses participants in the phenomena of thousands of musical strings sympathetically resonating every sound they make while inside. The wonder & joy induced by this experience invites participants to play with their own sounds by singing, laughing, crying, or howling.
The Sound Cave Project is a series of musical art installations that began in 2007. Innovative musical elements integrated within them often include tunings based on the Schumann Resonance (Earth’s fundamental tone), just-intonation, natural overtone series, fibonacci series, astronomical periods of time, ancient Greek/medieval modes, a 33-note per octave scale, piano mics, sub-floor speakers, binaural beats, sympathetic resonance and a foot percussion dance floor that resonates thousands of strings. These art installations are often accompanied by performances, long form workshops and super quick TED-style talks/performances highlighting innovative aural elements involved in these projects. The experiences created by them are often both profound and awe-inspiring.The largest Sound Cave Project to date was titled "Shrine of Sympathetic Resonance." A 37' tall, 50' across musical sculpture with over 10,000 strings for people to go inside, play and have every action sympathetically resonated and echoed back by the strings. More info and images at www.soundcave.org.
Photograph by Paul Moeller
Video by Rob Schoenborn
In 2007 I was creating an orchestra of musical instruments built out of junk and natural materials such as sea kelp, as a part of a large scale art installation called The Living Pulse Project. Since we had almost no money for the project I turned towards using salvaged, gleaned and upcycled materials such as broken pianos for the parts of my musical instruments.
While doing so I started noticing that any time a sound was made in my studio, whether it be an object falling on the ground or someone's laughter, the exposed piano harps would echo these sounds back into room. I also noticed that no one else was noticing this happen. Being fascinated by this aural phenomenon and wanting to share it with others I was inspired to create a space that would frame and focalizing this effect.
After breaking down the Living Pulse Project I lifted my bed up and shoved four pianos underneath it to create a little room with 1000 strings surrounding it. And with that the first Sound Cave Project was born!
Ever since I've continued evolving this project with new forms, tunings and techniques while deepening my understanding of and ability to play with the natural phenomenon called sympathetic resonance.
Among many highlights, the summer 2019 was a special one when I gathered an amazing crew and created the largest one Sound Cave Project to date. The Shrine of Sympathetic Resonance was 37' tall, 50' wide musical sculpture with over 10,000 strings for people to go inside, play and have their every action resonated back.
We look forward to creating more!
While doing so I started noticing that any time a sound was made in my studio, whether it be an object falling on the ground or someone's laughter, the exposed piano harps would echo these sounds back into room. I also noticed that no one else was noticing this happen. Being fascinated by this aural phenomenon and wanting to share it with others I was inspired to create a space that would frame and focalizing this effect.
After breaking down the Living Pulse Project I lifted my bed up and shoved four pianos underneath it to create a little room with 1000 strings surrounding it. And with that the first Sound Cave Project was born!
Ever since I've continued evolving this project with new forms, tunings and techniques while deepening my understanding of and ability to play with the natural phenomenon called sympathetic resonance.
Among many highlights, the summer 2019 was a special one when I gathered an amazing crew and created the largest one Sound Cave Project to date. The Shrine of Sympathetic Resonance was 37' tall, 50' wide musical sculpture with over 10,000 strings for people to go inside, play and have their every action resonated back.
We look forward to creating more!
