Collaborating since 2004, Dispersal Patterns
is Bach and Kannenberg’s second joint project.
Departing from their earlier emphasis on
systems and graphic notation, they here rely
on intuitive communication as they weave two
improvised soundscapes from quiet field
recordings, analogue instrumentation, digital
synthesis, found sounds and minimal signal
manipulations. Bach and Kannenberg have
previously explored concepts of place,
soundscape and transmission in their first
collaboration, Two Cities, an audiovisual
documentation of their respective morning
commutes. Utilising an online collaborative
interface maintained by
Furthernoise.org,
Bach and Kannenberg improvised an hour-
long manifestation of Two Cities that was
simultaneously broadcast into brick-and-
mortar locations in London, Bristol, and
NYC. The hour-long set of sound and imagery
reveals a haunting meditation on place,
migration, and the life cycles of broadcast
signals. Revisiting these themes of temporal
displacement and dislocated sounds, Bach
and Kannenberg made a number of radio
appearances on Chicago area college radio
stations in the first half of 2008, introducing
their recontextualised sounds into new virtual
and physical environments (including the Whitney
Museum of American Art in New York as part
of Neighborhood Public Radio’s participation
in the 2008 Whitney Biennial). The distinction
between source and signal, and between audition
and reception, is blurred in the commingling of
textures and elongation of gently evolving drones.
Their embrace of improvisation as a common
sonic infrastructure allows the pair to engage
in a productive partnership, despite the
geographical distance between them. Geography
and place figure prominently in their work,
as both artists investigate and document their
surroundings, and in Dispersal Patterns the
duo have fixed on a dynamic tonal and timbral
palette inspired by the conflicting experiences
of acclimation and egress.
released September 24, 2020