For the Fokker organ, the retro-futuristic ensemble gamut inc is developing a new composition in which the pipe organ is approached as an acoustic synthesiser as well as a sampler. This full-length concert programme consists of original works, specially written for the microtonal 31-tone organ. Thanks to the close approximation of just tuning offered by the organ, the instrument opens up a sound world that recalls the early days of electronic music, as developed in the studios of Cologne and Warsaw in the 1950s.
That the organ can be regarded as a form of additive synthesiser has long been recognised: organ pipes with different timbres are combined to create complex sound mixtures. But gamut inc take this a step further. Inspired by the phonorealistic concepts of Peter Ablinger, they investigate how audio data can be converted into overtone structures. In this process, the organ functions not only as a synthesiser but also as a sampler, in which sounds are reproduced and transformed using additive and subtractive techniques. By making use of the microtonal gradations of the 31-tone steps, resynthesis techniques emerge, along with complex beating phenomena, spectral interferences and slowly shifting harmonic fields, built up from precisely tuned layers of chords.
The duo gamut inc was founded in Berlin in 2013 by Marion Wörle (computer musician, graphic designer and composer) and Maciej Śledziecki (composer and guitarist). Together they develop electroacoustic music, innovative music theatre and computer-controlled musical machines. Since 2019 they have been working intensively with computer-controlled pipe organs, travelling worldwide to realise new compositions for so-called ‘hyper-organs’ in churches and concert halls. In 2021 they also initiated their own festival, AGGREGATE, devoted to computer-controlled organ and electronics, for which they invited international guest composers.
In this concert, Wörle and Śledziecki focus on the Amsterdam Fokker organ, which since its renovation in 2008–2009 has been equipped with a MIDI interface and was identified in a Harvard study in 2008 as one of the first hyper-organs in the world. MIDI technology, developed in the 1980s, makes it possible to control the organ via computer, with algorithmic composition software offering an intuitive and flexible way of composing. Thousands of notes and parameters can be generated and manipulated in real time, while the sound is still produced physically in the acoustic organ pipes.
With its nineteen additional tones within the octave, the 31-tone organ creates new technical and sonic possibilities, including the refined creation and manipulation of overtone structures. In their compositions, Wörle and Śledziecki explore stylistic means that are only possible thanks to programmability and computer control: automated registration changes, simultaneous tempi, shimmering masses of sound, complex polyrhythms, fluttering sound patterns and sliding transitions between tonal, noise-based and rhythmic material. The pipe organ is deployed here as a sound machine and acoustic synthesiser. The result is an organic, futuristic organ sound that reinvents the familiar instrument and gives it a radically contemporary voice.