“Landfill Totems” is a library created by Spitfire Audio in collaboration with Hainbach, composer, producer and pioneer of experimental electronics based in Berlin. It is a collection of complex and unique sounds, created using vintage test equipment collected from nuclear research labs and from heaps of scrap.
The artist has given new life to these devices, creating art installations at "totem"For the PNDT Gallery, which later became a complete album and library of sounds recorded at Patch Point Studios in Berlin.
The project
Initially there was no precise idea for the PNDT Gallery exhibition space. The installation had to be on display for 3 months and use as much test equipment as possible, which otherwise would not have found space in Hainbach's studio. Some equipment, even not working, was used as a support for the others or for its lights. The Landfill Totems project has expanded exponentially to become a full album and one sound library accompaniment recorded at Patch Point Studios in Berlin. The totems appear almost like anthropomorphic figures and in their composition a deep appreciation and affection for the engineering technology of the past is evident, "absolutely unique vintage equipment, assembled for one last swan song ”(one of the presets captures the sound of a dying machine). Stacked in three totem-like monolithic towers, each piece of equipment was chosen for its tone generation characteristics and modulation capabilities, wired together much like a modular synthesizer. The project also reminds us of the environmental cost of progress, what was once the pinnacle of technology quickly becomes impractical and doomed to waste, creating beauty from what is thought to be obsolete.
In the Hainbach collection there are medical equipment, telecommunication and high-end scientific research, vintage devices for the sound test, one modular nuclear instrumentation, an antiquated medical signal generator, a mixer formerly used by the Stasi (the state security and espionage service in former East Germany) and a band-pass filter Brüel & Kjaer 1613 which creates sounds of charleston, bass drum e watery sounds.
Library Preset
The patches were recorded by Hainbach and processed later by Spitfire Audio. Due to the particularity of the setup they are impossible to recreate with other synthesizers.
There are 40 presets which are divided into four sections:
* kling , each preset contains elements from the other sections
*Kland, tonal sounds, from pads that evolve into pulsating drones
* knarz, atonal sounds, textures and effects
* Krach percussion and drum, loops and patterns
You can edit Connection, Release, Reverb, Delay, Stretch e Distortion. Each patch is velocity sensitive. Despite the non-musical equipment used to create the sounds featured in Landfill Totems, the presets have been prepared to be “musical” and used in any type of composition. As Hainbach himself stated the library allows you to do experimental electronic music pressing a single button and with it you can create material rhythms, industrial battery shots e loop, electromagnetic noise e humanoid voices.
Walkthrough
Equipment used
The equipment used is really a lot. Watching the video of the preparation of the performance at the PNDT Gallery, I focused on the first of the totems from the left.
Philips LF-Generator PM5106
It is a laboratory instrument and is used to generate sine waveforms from 10 to 100 KHz. 70s Used as a clock for the Wavetek function generator.
Wavetek model 187
It is a pulse / function generator (sinusoidal, triangular and square). 80s
Grundig H&B Schwebungssummer 295
Model 295A Beat Frequency Oscillator made by Grundig / Hartmann and Braun. This unit can be tuned in a single sweep over the entire 20Hz to 20kHz audio frequency band without the need to change ranges and with a whopping 1000: 1 frequency ratio. sine waves.
Grunding SS01
Laboratory instrument from the 70s. Records small portions of signals (19,5 ms) on tape with frequencies up to 100kHz.
Grass S4 stimulator
Electro stimulation equipment. Used to generate 2 different types of clocks.
Bruel & Kjaer 1615
60's beat frequency oscillator. It receives pulses from the Grass and produces everything from percussive sounds a muffled sounds.
Totem scheme
The diagram shows the connections of the equipment. Note that the connections are changed by Hainbach, so this pattern is related to a certain moment of his performance. Before ending up in the mixer the sounds were effected with: MF Drive Moog, Spectacular Tempus, Behringer Ultra Tremolo e MashMallow Alexander, to modulate / distort / add rhythm to the sound.
Conclusions
This is a library with unique sounds of its kind, difficult to recreate because they are obtained from obsolete test equipment. It also has the value of historical testimony, because it "immortalizes" an artistic installation that we would never have been able to hear. There are many types of presets ranging from harsh, futuristic and dystopian sounds to more beautiful and emotional ones from other worlds. “Landfill Totems” is a library that can be used in electronic tracks but also in film soundtracks as well as in abstract sound design.
Useful Information
Product: Hainbach - Landfill Totems
Distributor: SpitFire Audio
Price: € 29
