Craig Colorusso :: Sun Boxes (Self-Released)

Isn’t it good to know there are people out there building solar powered sound installations?

[Release page] Sun Boxes is something a bit different to the staple of releases covered in these pages. This is truly in the realm of the conceptual. Sun Boxes is in fact an installation by sound artist Craig Colorusso rather than a performance or production. The premise of the piece is this: Twenty speakers, all independent from each other are arranged in outdoor spaces big enough to allow people to walk freely among the speakers. Each speaker is powered by a solar panel, hence the name, and has incorporated a PCB which plays a single looping guitar note. Collectively, all the notes come together to form a chord, a Bb chord as it happens, but I suppose it could be any chord, or even a collection of unrelated notes, if such things exist. Each note has a different length, so the notes being played shift against one another, continually changing the collective harmonic texture of the installation. As well as this, at different geographical points within or around the installation, some speakers will be nearer and others farther away to the person experiencing the piece, which will of course alter the relative volumes of individual notes for that person. Effectively, a person walking around the installation creates their own individual composition, one which will be different to everyone else’s version. Clever eh? It reminds me a little of an album by Japanese composer Ryoji Ikeda (+/- on Touch) that I studied at University — who composed an entire album out of sine waves that slowly faded in and out of the piece. Pretty boring at first, but after a while, I realised that the position of my head actually altered my perception of the sound; the music was a sonic environment which reacted with individuals moving within it’s range to create unique individual experiences.

I know what you are probably thinking, and yes, maybe the recorded result is a little bit on the wooly side. It’s certainly not a track anyone will be dropping at a free party at one in the morning, but there is a certain mesmerising quality to the subtly morphing ambient soundscape going on here. I feel however, that to judge this on the merit of the recording is to miss the whole point of the project. It’s an immersive experience that needs (I imagine) to be experienced first hand for the full effect. It deals with the relationship of humans and their environment, it’s also something to do with how we all perceive the same things differently to one other because we all have a slightly different perspective, and it’s an appreciation of the fact that we all rely on the Sun for everything. Well, maybe it is, I’m not very good at doing the old artistic rhetoric. I’m sure there is some deep meaning in there somewhere. This is a pretty interesting project either way, and if you get the chance, you should go and check out his work. Failing that, support what he does by buying a record. Isn’t it good to know there are people out there building solar powered sound installations?

The recordings on offer here are of the installation in two locations in Massechusetts: “Grassy Field” is from Maudslay State Park, Newburyport in September 2010, and “Frozen Pond” is from Long Pond, Plymouth in 2011. Both, I think are created by walking through the piece with a microphone, getting a first person perspective of the changeing sounds. You can buy them as digital files or as a rather cool coloured 7” vinyl.

Sun Boxes is available here. [Release page]