KUNSTRADIO

The soundscape from the Hainburger Au, recorded in May 1990, initially formed the material for the live sculpture "Landscape Soundings" on Maria Theresien Platz as part of the Vienna Festival 90. For two weeks, sounds from the wetlands were transmitted without interruption to Maria Theresien Platz and ORF Radio with the help of 16 microphones. In 1994, this audio material was used to create the work "Virtual Nature" at the Vienna Funkhaus for the ORF-Kunstradio program and for a CD.

As a supplement to the catalog of the live sculpture “Landscape Soundings,” a CD "Landscape Soundings - Klanglandschaften" was also produced in 1990, containing the sounds of Bill Fontana's research walks in the marsh in March 1990 and tracing a March day in the Au. The recordings were made with the help of two microphones and in the presence of Bill Fontana himself.

As always, Bill Fontana did not alter the sounds themselves in his work “Virtual Nature” and, with the exception of one passage at the beginning, did not mix them together and, above all, did not embellish or romanticize them.

In his work in the studio, Bill Fontana did not alter the temporal or spatial structure and perspective of the recordings he had selected in any way. Even when working with recorded sounds, he remained as close as possible to the live sound and to his principle of changing not the sound itself, but the context in which we hear the sound, with the aim of getting people to listen in the first place.

Perhaps even more so in 1990, sound ecology was a central concept in Bill Fontana's work. Another important concept was that of simultaneity. These concepts and live transmission also played an essential role in other installations by Bill Fontana. “Simultanios Resonances” was, for example, the title of his installation in the exhibition “Zeitgleich” (Simultaneous), which took place in the former salt warehouse in Hall in Tyrol. This installation mixed live sounds from the Hall Valley with recordings of ocean sounds to create an intense soundscape. Bill Fontana caused an international sensation in June and July 1994 with “Sound Eiland,” a work that turned the Arc de Triomphe in Paris into a sound sculpture. The sounds came via 16 live lines from various locations in the city of Paris and 4 live lines from the Atlantic coast in Normandy.