Fear Of The Object

Tip! These 4 CDs comprise a three-year time span of work between video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen and percussionist Chris Cogburn. The initial concept informing the project is to examine the differences between the resonant frequencies and wild harmonics of physical objects and the exactness of sine tones and just-intonation. An additional layer of video is produced live using audio signals as raw video voltages, thereby transforming sound into video in ways far beyond the classic parameters of volume or frequency. The resultant video is again turned into sound through a reading of the debris emitted by the video signal.

The project evolved through collaborations with Ingar Zach (percussion), Aimée Theriot (cello), Juan Garcia (double bass), and Judith Hamann (cello). From the basic concept of the resonances of physical objects in dialogue with architectural space, these musicians each pushed the project forward in new and unexpected ways which explains the differences between the 4 CDs.

From Fear of the Object box set artist text, Kjell Bjørgeengen:
We scrutinize the notion of artistic subjectivity in relation to the objective conditions under which the music and video unfold during performances. Our joint work is an investigation of a mediated given and produced reality. We let the physical objects speak. The resonance of the objects on Chris Cogburn’s table are set in motion, reflected by the architecture of the given space.

The physical conditions have priority; our interventions come only after the experience of the situation. It is a listening more than an expressive endeavor. Our work is a cautious activity, in a way reflected from the outside, the turn of a knob, the bowing of a string, not spontaneous, but posited by an internalization of the wholeness of the situation. It is sometimes hard to hold back, to break the conditioning of the musician/artist and refrain from acting until necessary.