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Robin Minard

The Book of Spaces (2004)
for Fixed Media (12-channel audio)

The Book of Spaces is a collection of multi-track pieces in which the spatial representation of sounds plays a central role. Some parts of the work were composed in 1998 as part of the composition 4 Räume (4 Spaces), a work commissioned for the 50-year celebration of musique concrète. Further elements were composed in 2001 as part of the work Sutra. In 2004 unifying elements including an introduction, several bridge sections and some additions to the original pieces were added. This formed The Book of Spaces.

The work is divided into eleven sections, each of which proposes a different type of sound space:

i) Introduction	3′00″
ii) Sutra I (with recordings made in l’Église de la Trinité, Paris)	5′45″
iii) Bridge I	3′03″
iv) Circles	4′01″
v) Bridge II	1′06″
vi) Hommage to Schaeffer I	2′43″
vii) Bridge III	1′25″
viii) Sutra II (with recordings made in the Great Paris Mosque)	6′00″
ix) Bridge IV	1′11″
x) Hommage to Schaeffer II	2′24″
xi) Conclusion	6′11″

The Book of Spaces was realised at the Electronic Studio of the Berlin Technical University. Thanks to Ludger Kisters for providing and playing the traditional Maori instruments — the purerehua and the porotiti — heard in the introduction and bridge sections. Spatial movements were composed with Sigma I (APB-Tools, Berlin).

The Qikiqtaaluk Deep Map (2013)
for Fixed Media (5.1 surround sound)

Qikiqtaaluk, the native Inuit name for Baffin Island, is situated in the region of Nunavut far up in the Canadian north near the arctic circle. Robin Minard travelled to Qikiqtaaluk in the winter of 2012/13 to record the soundscape of the Canadian arctic as well as to explore traces of the native Inuit culture. Countless recordings were made in and around the city of Iqaluit. Acoustic city soundscapes were a stark contrast to the quiet natural soundscapes found outside of inhabited areas. Recordings of noise and silence are presented alongside traditional Inuit throat singing and interviews with native Inuit who once lived on the land.
Within the concept of a ‘Deep Map’, places are not just points on a map. Rather, they extend beyond their spatial limits and are characterised by their social function, their history and the stories that are told about them. Deep Mapping is a strategy for bringing forth precisely these quasi-archaeological sediments of a place and attempting to chart these: an attempt to catalogue these elements, to put them in relationship with one another, to understand their significance in the forming of a cultural identity.
The Qikiqtaaluk Deep Map tells a complex story about music-making, sound-space and the Inuit culture. The composition was commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur Berlin and the West Deutsche Rundfunk (WDR) Cologne, with the added support of Freunde Guter Musik Berlin and the Electronic Studio of the Berlin Technical University.

Robin Minard was born in Montreal in 1953. He studied composition and electroacoustic music in Canada and Paris. Since the early 1980’s his work has focused in the area of electroacoustic composition and sound installation art. From 1992-1996 he was lecturer on sound installation at the Electronic Studio of the Berlin Technical University. Since 1997 he has been professor for electroacoustic composition and sound design at the FRANZ LISZT University of Music and the Bauhaus University in Weimar, where he is also director of the Studio for Electroacoustic Music (SeaM Weimar) and director of the Institute for New Music and Jazz. His works have been presented in festivals, museums and public spaces worldwide. He has published several articles and books on the subject of sound installation. His books Silent Music — Between Sound Art and Acoustic Design and Four Spaces / Four Installations are published by the Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany. His newest book Robin Minard — Works 1984-2019 is published by the Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Vienna. Notably, the focus of Robin Minard’s work does not lie in the area of classical composition—the design of musical structures for the neutral space of the traditional concert hall—but rather in the acoustic shaping of existing space, the exploration of its characteristics and points of transition. In his search for an “ecological balance of sound” in our everyday world, an extensive oeuvre has arisen over the course of 35 years, in which visual and acoustic perceptions merge, triggering our awareness that the surroundings of our daily lives are also sound spaces.

Composer’s Website: http://www.robinminard.com/

Works and Publications

• Sound Installations
  • Music for Passageaways (1985), 32 tuned pipes, integrated loudspeakers, 4-channel audio.
  • Soundwalls (1988), 3 wooden resonators, acrylic paint, integrated sound transducers, 6-channel audio.
  • Soundcatchers (1991), reflectors, microphones, loudspeakers, real-time FFT analysis, computer-controlled MIDI instruments, multi-channel audio.
  • Stationen (1992), Integrated microphones and loudspeakers, resonators, real-time FFT analysis, computer-controlled MIDI instruments, multi-channel audio.
  • Brunnen (1994), 3 blue acrylic glass resonators, integrated loudspeakers, 3-channel audio.
  • Silent Music (1994), Several hundred piezo loudspeakers, loudspeaker cable, 4-channel audio.
  • Klangweg (1994), 5 greenhouse loudspeaker boxes, 5 motion sensors, computer-controlled MIDI instruments, 5-channel audio.
  • Weather Station (1995), 150 piezo loudspeakers, loudspeaker cable, weather sensors, computer-controlled MIDI instruments, 4-channel audio.
  • Stillleben (1995), 3 small greenhouses, integrated piezo loudspeakers, 3-channel audio.
  • Klangstille (1995), Several hundred piezo loudspeakers, loudspeaker cable, light sensors, computer-controlled MIDI instruments, multi-channel audio.
  • Still/Life (1996), 2000 piezo loudspeakers, 8-channel audio.
  • Landscape (1997), 2000 piezo loudspeakers, 16-channel audio.
  • Art Drains (1996), Blue acrylic glass drain cover, integrated loudspeaker, 1-channel audio.
  • Neptun (1996), 17-meter loudspeaker ribbon, 8-channel audio.
  • Horizont (1996), loudspeaker ribbon, 1-channel audio.
  • Vier Räume (1998), Concert installation with 16 high performance loudspeakers, 16-channel audio.
  • Intermezzo (1999), acrylic glass greenhouse walls, integrated loudspeakers, 12-channel audio.
  • Nachklang (1999), 3 high performance loudspeakers in 3 bell towers within the city of Weimar, recordings of the Buchenwald bell.
  • Silence (Blue) (1999), blue plastic film, 8 loudspeakers, soundtrack “Music for Quiet Spaces” (1984), 2-channel audio.
  • Chambre 108 (bleu) (2004), Silence (Blue) for a hotel room and 1-2 persons.
  • Outside In (Blue) (2010), Converted train wagon, blue plastic film, 24-channel audio.
  • Spiegelung (Blau) (2009), Blue plastic film, high performance loudspeaker system, real-time spectral analysis and sound processing with MAX/MSP, 12-channels audio.
  • SoundBits 01 (2002), 576 piezo loudspeakers, 576 1-bit audio channels, special hardware. Realised at IRCAM (Paris) with the collaboration of Norbert Schnell (programming) and Emmanuel Fléty (Hardware).
  • Son ⟷ Silence (2003), Acrylic glass, 300 integrated piezo elements, 6-channel audio.
  • Audio Books (2005), 7 notebooks with handwritten texts and integrated piezo elements, 7-channel audio.
  • Jerusalem Saal (2005), 24-channel sound, synchronised light.
  • à voir en silence (2006), handmade paper, integrated piezo elements and wires, edition box, 1-channel Audio (set of 3).
  • à lire en silence (2006), Notebooks with handwritten texts, integrated piezo elements and wires, edition box, 1-channel audio (set of 3).
  • Outside In (2006), Blue acrylic glass plates, integrated loudspeakers, 16-channel audio.
  • Nature Morte (2008), Video by Susan Minard, soundtrack “Music for Quiet Spaces” (1984), 2-channel audio.
  • Geschichtsbaum (2015), GPS-App for smartphones, headphones. App-programming: Alexander Pospischil.
  • Phrix Soundwalk (2015), GPS-App for Smartphones, headphones, App-programming: Alexander Pospischil.
  • Rende Soundwalk (2015), Soundfile for smartphones, headphones.
  • On And Between (2017), hundreds of piezo loudspeakers, wire and 4-channel audio combined with 60 SD-card audio players.
  • River Dream (2017), video projection, subwoofer.
  • Rosace (2017), 42 loudspeakers, 16-channel audio.
  • Rosace (contained/released) (2019), 112 loudspeakers, 40-channel audio.
  • Verlorene Glocken / Long Lost Bells (2019), 2 steel plates, 2 transducers, 2-channel audio.
• Selected Compositions
  • Music for Quiet Spaces (1984), for vibraphone and delay.
  • Qu’il m’en souvienne… (1987), Stereo or 4-channel audio.
  • Ré (1991), clarinet and stereo fixed media.
  • Resonanz (1993), piano, percussion and stereo fixed media.
  • The Book of Spaces (1989/2004), 12-channel audio.
  • Diary for S. (2008), stereo.
  • Listening to Australia (2008), radio composition, stereo.
  • The Qikiqtaaluk Deep Map (2014), radio composition, stereo or 5.1-surround sound.
  • Kayapó - the crying chieftain Raoni (2019), radio composition, stereo.
• Selected Publications
• Robin Minard — Werke/Works 1984-2019. Texts by Robin Minard, Helga de la Motte-Haber, Barbara Barthelmes, Annegret Laabs. Ed. Annegret Laabs. Vienna: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2019.
• Replacing the Source. In: The Statement! Sound-Installation, Vol. 02, translation Barbara Barthelmes. Ed. Ullrich Eller, Christoph Metztger, Heidelberg & Berlin: Kehrer Verlag, pp. 41-46, 2015.
• Vom Klang der Kälte. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, No. 3_2013, Mainz: Schott, pp. 8-12, 2013.
• ‘sounding D’ Un projet d’écoute à travers l’Allemagne. In: Sonorités, Nr. 6, September 2011, Nîmes: Champ social éditions, 2011.
• Arten des Hörens. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, No. 5_2011, Mainz: Schott, pp. 49-51, 2011.
• Four Spaces/Four installations. Text by Jean-Michel Lejeune. Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag, 2004.
• Musique concrète and its importance to the visual arts. In: Resonanzen/Resonances. Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag, pp. 38-48, 2002.
• Silent Music - Between Sound Art and Acoustic Design. Audio-CD. Text by Barbara Barthelmes, Helga de la Motte-Haber, Robin Minard, Bernd Schulz. Ed. Bernd Schulz, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag, 1999.