“On a weekday in 1999, from a fixed point inside Chartres cathedral, I made an hour long sound recording. The recording formed part of my sound installation Silence Gothique for the exhibition Gotische Reflecties in the Stadsgalerij Heerlen.
At the time of recording, no organized religious activity was taking place. The building was being visited by tourists and groups of believers who were talking, praying and singing.
In 2010, I began to translate this universe of sounds into words and sentences, without stating the source of the sound or referring to the physical space of the cathedral.
In order to be able to approach sound as autonomous energy, I stripped my language of the styles and tools which are often used in describing sound: sound imitating words, words derived from seeing, words conveying human feelings, poetic / expressive phrases, technical sound and musical terms, similes and metaphors.
Wherever possible, I replaced words of Latin or French origins with words that I felt were more descriptive in nature.
All these restrictions and interventions were important in my attempt to come closer to the fundamental nature of both language and sound through listening and writing.”
An hour’s worth of sound recordings from the Chartres cathedral translated into a text that minutely describes a universe of sounds without naming the source of the sounds but rather by focusing on the sounds themselves.
With a short text by publisher Freek Lomme, English version, soft cover, 23 x 16 cm, 64 pages, ed/500, No.94 in the series Onomatopee Cabinet Project, Eindhoven 2013
ISBN 978-94-91677-08-3
Also available in Dutch
