18 June 2009
IMM studio A 2.24
Andres Bosshard on sound and space
www.klangturm (sound tower), www.giardinosonoro.it, www.soundcity.ws - like the poetic titles of his websites promise, Andres Bosshard has been stepping over the final frontiers for over thirty years on purpose. He started going on sound-expeditions back when he was a musician. His expeditions did not only reach for industrial ruins and bridge arches as venues, in fact, Andres Bosshard broke his first sound barrier during his Embankment dam concert in Fusio, Valle Maggia in 1992. The Telephonia, a satellite-sound and video-bridge installed on the mountain top of the Swiss Säntis to the Hall of Science in New York and, finally, the Echo from the Moon alongside Pauline Oliveros, a radio live-uplink to the surface of the moon in 1996 from the Salzburg cathedral - all his projects taught him respect for the infinite sound-waves of space.
Apart from 15 years of sound-adventures and touring with Nachtluft (live-installations-improvisations-space-attack-trio: drums-electro-stuff-tape-machines and mobile sound-converters) through West- and Eastern Europe and Japan, Andres Bosshard started travelling Pakistan and India on a regular base. There, he was seduced by the secrets of Radio is when sounds fly around the house and The king's sound of Bandladonga.
First as a fellow, than as a visiting professor at KHM, Andres Bosshard is currently an assistant professor at the Zurich University of the Arts, teaching media arts. He also has a research-position at Department Grün Zurich, looking after sounds for the city. He is furthermore building up a "Stadtklang"-master-workshop at the European capital of culture, Linz. "Stadtklang" and "stadtklang"-compositing are the creative borders Andres Bosshard is playing with at the moment. He is using his entire experience to create a "Stadtklang". The knowledge of a carpet-salesman in the Thar desserts are just as much of an influence as a flying sound-swirls taught by Master Palisdar Umram Chamosch, that influenced Andres Bosshard forever.