Structures for Wave Field Synthesis

This work was written and recorded by Elías Merino and Daniel del Río in 2016 during a residency at The Game of Life Foundation’s Wave Field Synthesis System in The Hague (The Netherlands). All the material is based on algorithmic synthetic sound and it was recorded in binaural format. According to the description in Game of Life Foundation’s website, Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) is a sound production technology designed specifically for spatial audio rendering. The WFS system consists of 192 speakers, which are arranged in a square formation of 10 by 10 metres. Unlike conventional audio procedures (e.g stereo / surround) the perception of these wave fields is not dependent on psychoacoustic “phantom” sound perception, therefore the WFS sound field is actually reconstructed physically. Although WFS is assembled in a 192x8 loudspeakers array, this work approaches the setting through the idea of a unitary – but divisible – object. Due to the technical and spatial characteristics of the system and its powerful possibilities, the music was built as a collection of different discrete synthetic sound bodies with unique peculiarities by exploring the location-unlocation concept and perspective variations. The work is accompanied by a limited edition booklet that includes a series of computer-generated 3D drawings, a process notes and an essay written by AA Cavia. The images of the booklet were created after the music, as a synaesthetic interpretation/portrait of the plasticity of sound, including as well an interpretation of the articulations and variations of the musical form. This visual imagery also portrays our idea of the WFS system as an unenclosed and malleable surface. Composed, mixed and recorded by Elías Merino and Daniel del Río Mastered by Roc Jiménez de Cisneros Booklet Design by Joe Gilmore Published by Superpang 2021