• Free shipping nationwide for purchases of 11,000 yen or more
Knud Viktor // Les Ephémères LP

Knud Viktor // Les Ephémères LP

¥3,480
  • Availability:

Denmark, who passed away in 2013Photographer / painter / videographer from CopenhagenA label specializing in recurrence of songs produced by Knud Viktor at the request of French radio station France Musique in 1977.Reissued by the Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology.

It is a piece that can be enjoyed in ASMR with plenty of refreshing sounds such as the sound of a suikinkutsu, the chirping of birds, and the sound of insects. Includes DL code and 24-page photo book. It is a 180g weight board.

Labels and other works Click here for more information. ///Click here to see more Institute for Danish Sound Archeology releases available at Tobira. 

-------------------------------

Vinyl LP + booklet. Transferred and re-mastered from the original master tape
--A closely reconstructed cover featuring Knud Viktor's own photographic artwork
--24page booklet illustrated with Viktor's amazing photographic works
--Extensive essay on Viktor and his work by curator Magnus Kaslov

From the label: 

The lost masterpiece Les Éphémères by the self labeled'sound painter' Knud Viktor (1924-2013) now sees its first ever release by Institute for Danish Sound Archeology – 40 years after it was conceived. Viktor's pioneering work – his Images Sonores – are composed of field recordings of insects, animals and the his surroundings.

A finished master tape and even a complete cover layout for Les Éphémères was found in Viktor's archives after he passed away in 2013. The phenomenal piece was originally commissioned by the French radio station France Musique in 1977. The twenty short'sound images' of Les Éphémères were originally broadcast as vignettes in-between other radio programs.

From the middle of the 1970's Viktor began composing almost exclusively for four channels. He invented his own intuitive quadraphonic mixer – the Tetramix – to realise his spatial visions for his Image VI – The Lubéron Symphony, and from then on worked with quadraphonic sound, thus Making the release of his works difficult. Les Éphémères is close in time and also holds close ties to The Lubéron Symphony, which Viktor considered his magnum opus. Perhaps most strikingly is the shift in the way he uses the recordings of insects, birds and animals in both The Lubéron Symphony and Les Éphémères: Often untreated and clearly recognizable, the field recordings leave the inherent melody and rhythm of the animal sounds to sing for themselves, layering recordings to create simple and elegant sound images. In two of the twenty pieces Viktor's own voice blends with the animals, as he recites two poems. One about the singing vineyard populated by musical crickets, the other painting an autumn picture with wine bubbling in the barrels as we hear the wine flies humming.

Viktor's work emanates with a tremendous love and fascination with his companion species and the landscape and geology that surrounded him. His works are devoted to depicting the life on the mountain where he lived for fifty years. Hearing how the ecology of the landscape changed as commercial farming and pesticides took effect, a larger perspective in his work became clear to him:

"As it turns out, my work has actually set many things in motion; it touches upon something universal that I feel I have a duty to convey to others. A duty that I feel as a citizen of the earth. Not as a human citizen , but as a citizen of the earth. It may sound pretentious, but this is a question of generations to come. "– Knud Viktor

The world has seen dramatic ecological change since Viktor recorded his sounds. Not only have the individual insects and animals that he recorded vanished from Lubéron, so too have entire species. Like fossils, their imprints now exist only in his works, in the recordings stored On tape. In the midst of our planet's sixth mass-extinction event, the growing silence that Viktor heard in his immediate surrounding is now global: scientists estimate that half of the planet's animal life has already disappeared. Viktor's sound works allow us to borrow his ears. They convey his love for the animal worlds that surrounded him and perhaps we too can see our companion species differently through his works.
 

Artist: Knud Viktor

Label: Institute for Danish Sound Archeology

Denmark, who passed away in 2013Photographer / painter / videographer from CopenhagenA label specializing in recurrence of songs produced by Knud Viktor at the request of French radio station France Musique in 1977.Reissued by the Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology.

It is a piece that can be enjoyed in ASMR with plenty of refreshing sounds such as the sound of a suikinkutsu, the chirping of birds, and the sound of insects. Includes DL code and 24-page photo book. It is a 180g weight board.

Labels and other works Click here for more information. ///Click here to see more Institute for Danish Sound Archeology releases available at Tobira. 

-------------------------------

Vinyl LP + booklet. Transferred and re-mastered from the original master tape
--A closely reconstructed cover featuring Knud Viktor's own photographic artwork
--24page booklet illustrated with Viktor's amazing photographic works
--Extensive essay on Viktor and his work by curator Magnus Kaslov

From the label: 

The lost masterpiece Les Éphémères by the self labeled'sound painter' Knud Viktor (1924-2013) now sees its first ever release by Institute for Danish Sound Archeology – 40 years after it was conceived. Viktor's pioneering work – his Images Sonores – are composed of field recordings of insects, animals and the his surroundings.

A finished master tape and even a complete cover layout for Les Éphémères was found in Viktor's archives after he passed away in 2013. The phenomenal piece was originally commissioned by the French radio station France Musique in 1977. The twenty short'sound images' of Les Éphémères were originally broadcast as vignettes in-between other radio programs.

From the middle of the 1970's Viktor began composing almost exclusively for four channels. He invented his own intuitive quadraphonic mixer – the Tetramix – to realise his spatial visions for his Image VI – The Lubéron Symphony, and from then on worked with quadraphonic sound, thus Making the release of his works difficult. Les Éphémères is close in time and also holds close ties to The Lubéron Symphony, which Viktor considered his magnum opus. Perhaps most strikingly is the shift in the way he uses the recordings of insects, birds and animals in both The Lubéron Symphony and Les Éphémères: Often untreated and clearly recognizable, the field recordings leave the inherent melody and rhythm of the animal sounds to sing for themselves, layering recordings to create simple and elegant sound images. In two of the twenty pieces Viktor's own voice blends with the animals, as he recites two poems. One about the singing vineyard populated by musical crickets, the other painting an autumn picture with wine bubbling in the barrels as we hear the wine flies humming.

Viktor's work emanates with a tremendous love and fascination with his companion species and the landscape and geology that surrounded him. His works are devoted to depicting the life on the mountain where he lived for fifty years. Hearing how the ecology of the landscape changed as commercial farming and pesticides took effect, a larger perspective in his work became clear to him:

"As it turns out, my work has actually set many things in motion; it touches upon something universal that I feel I have a duty to convey to others. A duty that I feel as a citizen of the earth. Not as a human citizen , but as a citizen of the earth. It may sound pretentious, but this is a question of generations to come. "– Knud Viktor

The world has seen dramatic ecological change since Viktor recorded his sounds. Not only have the individual insects and animals that he recorded vanished from Lubéron, so too have entire species. Like fossils, their imprints now exist only in his works, in the recordings stored On tape. In the midst of our planet's sixth mass-extinction event, the growing silence that Viktor heard in his immediate surrounding is now global: scientists estimate that half of the planet's animal life has already disappeared. Viktor's sound works allow us to borrow his ears. They convey his love for the animal worlds that surrounded him and perhaps we too can see our companion species differently through his works.
 

Artist: Knud Viktor

Label: Institute for Danish Sound Archeology