History

For several hundred years Western music has been based on composition and performance. Most attention has been focused on the conception and generation of sound, and very little on its propagation. Written notes are two-dimensional symbols of a three dimensional phenomenon. No matter how complex a system of notation or how real the illusion of depth, written music is trapped on a flat plane."

Alvin Lucier “Careful listening is more
important than making sounds happen” (1979)

The Sonic Crystal Room is a new idea of theatre that works with unique and unprecedented acoustic principles. These principles are derived from Sonic Crystals, a meta-material formed by a grid of columns that allows the focusing, direction and amplification of the sound through solely through its geometric configuration.

The Sonic Crystals let you build mirrors, lenses, and prisms that modify the acoustic sound perception of the space, creating illusions of displacement, acceleration and perspective apart from the conventional sound sources.

Manuel Eguía is a Doctor in Physics and creator of the Laboratory of Acoustics and Sound Perception (LAPSO), and has collaborated with Edelstein for the last ten years within the Acoustic Theatre research programme at the National University of Quilmes. The laboratory is a pioneer in the integration of art and science at an international level.

Oscar Edelstein is considered crucial in the map of Latin American contemporary music, new opera and performance. Renowned for his originality and always pushing the lines between the classical, the contemporary, and the popular; his music has been described as the first time that Latin America has led the avant-garde.

Edelstein incorporated the Sonic Crystal concept in some of his most recent works, for example the orchestral work “Cristal Argento I", which was premiered in 2011 in Switzerland and Germany by Basel Sinfonietta, and included processing of the live orchestra using response - impulse data obtained in a room based on Sonic Crystals. The process in live time was realised by a special programme created in the degree of music at the University of Quilmes by Manuel Eguia and Ignacio Spiousas and with the assistant Mauro Zanolli.

Audio

Early Prototype - Sonic Crystals

“Talk to Composers Forum” - Manhattan School of Music, 2015

Contact

Roque Sáenz Peña 352, Bernal
Buenos Aires, Argentina (B1876BXD)

[email protected]