It was a busy week in Berlin but one of the nice surprises was a visit to Teufelsberg, a former NSA ‘listening station’ that has been abandoned since the wall came down. This small complex of buildings sits on top of an artificial mountain of rubble left over from the second world war. A group of us went to listen to something else, the space itself. Actually there were multiple spaces that included some old concrete military buildings and a series of geodesic domes, which I imagine, must have housed the surveillance equipment. The highest dome, sits at least 7 stories up, has a fiberglass shell that offers many sonic possibilities with its unique acoustic properties. The video below is composed of a few clips I filmed (in very windy conditions) while the sound is excerpted from a straight recording of a 40 minute improvisation of 5 people. Special thanks to Natalia for suggesting this and for Dusan to drive us out there in the snow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From January 23rd to 29th I gave a workshop for Art Pedagogy students in Kiel. The theme was based around ‘sound installation’ yet we went through many of the basics of the behavior and properties of sound as well as perception and social aspects of sound. I want to thank Pipe Lange for organizing this and Hannah, Annika, Nadine, Yasmin, Charlotte and Ramona for their participation. (photos by Lange and Grzinich)

here are a few field recordings made during the week

highway bridge in Kiel near the university

Highway bridge knocks from traffic: bridge sound kiel mp3

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Kiel harbor sounds, ice, waves, ferry, planes, birds: Kiel harbor sounds mp3