er_cd_038
2010 by Margrit Rieben
Recorded and mixed by Margrit Rieben
Mastered by Benoît Piccand
Cover Design by Tectonics
Photos by Margrit Rieben

The grand motorway bridge Ponte 25 de Abril in Lissabon can be heard from afar; it emits a soft and pleasing sound, almost like the song of sirens. I first expected to find a giant sound art installation. The bridge has inspired this conceptual piece to which the M+M Chor, consisting of 36 people, has lent ist voices.

These 36 voices were recorded separately without a guide track, which resulted in a gradual detuning of the voices that a choir could never produce as a whole. It’s astonishing how, by this process, the analogue sound of voices attains a more and more synthetic character. The resulting layers of overtones sometimes makes one think of an angel’s choir appearing in the background, and out of the monochrome emerges a thing of high complexity.