100 KEYBOARDS (Moire Resonance by Interference Frequency)

Live music performance featuring over 100 toy keyboards.

Each keyboard plays a sustained note of a certain pitch, and as the number of keys increases, a strange moiré of sound is created. Since most of the keyboards being played are cheap products or made as toys, the pitch and tuning of each key may be slightly off fluctuate slightly in pitch when played for long time and battery powered. The slight misalignment creates a complex resonance.

This performance focuses on the phenomenon of “interference sound”, which is a complex distribution of sound pressure and other parameters when sound waves of the same frequency but with different propagation directions overlap, and on the phenomenon that the sounds like a “moiré” pattern due to the resonant generated by the subtle differences in pitch.

By changing the direction of the ears and/or while moving around the keyboards, the complex interfering sounds and resonances in space will produce different sound buzzes, loops, and beats at each minute location. It is an auditory experience like weaving a “textile pattern,” the original meaning of “moire,” with each ear.

Japanese sound artist ASUNA has been creating experimental music and installation work since the late 1990s. He is a pioneer in the experimental ambient/drone/ improvisation scene in Japan and has collaborated with both Japanese and international electronic musicians. Collaborating artists include Jan Jelinek, minoru sato-m/s (ex.WrK) and Pękala Kordylasińska-Pękala. He has also released a prolific number of albums for European, American and Japanese labels.