Can you tell us about your background?
Forty years ago I was working as a composer in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the late 60s, I began to realise that what most people thought of as noise, I thought of as minimalist music. So I started making sound sculptures, or installations inspired by recordings of vibrations. Since then, I’m always listening wherever I go, imagining how I can record the sounds I hear.
What was your first sound sculpture?
It was in New York, in the early 70s. I put a microphone inside a large bottle, then made an installation of the vibrations within the bottle caused by the resonating traffic around it. I did the same with tubes and sea shells.
How did people react to them in the 70s?
My work wasn’t mainstream. People didn’t know what to make of it. But in 1973 a radio producer from ABC came to one of my exhibitions in Sydney and my work blew his mind. I told him, ‘I want to record what Australia sounds like.’ I meant I wanted to capture the accents of the Australian English people and immigrant population, and the wildlife. He got my name out there, on radio.
What technology do you use and how has this changed over the years?
The high quality microphones in the early 70s are similar to the high quality mics I use now, although digital recorders are new. Ten years ago, I started using tools called accelerometers which structural engineers use to measure vibrations. I used them for the first time in 2004 at the Palace of Westminster in London, to pick up the sounds of Big Ben.
Sound is all around us, so how do you pick your projects?
I’m often invited to do something, and I choose situations where I’ll be challenged, or projects which will teach me something new. I always travel with recording equipment so I’m prepared.
What was your trickiest project?
My main difficulty is getting access to where I want to record. I’m trying to develop a sound sculpture at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but it’s tricky getting permission to areas that are not open to the public.
And your Abu Dhabi Festival work?
In October 2013 I visited Abu Dhabi and was inspired by the sounds of the desert. I was interested in the geology and physics of sand dunes, and so I buried accelerometers in the sand. When the wind blew, it caused millions of particles of sand to shift, and the accelerometers measured the movement – it sounded like waves in the sea. So I recorded the hidden voice of the desert.
Among my others pieces here will be the Australian eclipse, my Big Ben project and ‘White Sound’, which is a recording of waves washing over pebbles on Chesil beach in Weymouth, Dorset, on Britain’s Jurassic coast. I will also show vibrations recorded on Millennium Bridge in London which was exhibited in the Tate Modern.
Bill Fontana will be exhibiting at Emirates Palace Gallery. www.abudhabifestival.ae
