The Empire of Light explores and organizes in real time the sounds of electromagnetic fields and electric current emitted and dispersed by man-made technologies. We like listening to the sound of circuits and windings of small household appliances, we love the symphonic confusion of the electromagnetic fields of cities, with their street lamps, wi-fi networks, traffic lights… We record the sounds of electromagnetic fields - EMF - everywhere, creating sound memories – our “electromagnetic postcards”: we recorded the EMFs of village bars, a textile factory, a medieval village, an art foundation, our homes and many cities; people always get curious and many times they ask us if our devices are also capable of revealing the voices of spirits and ghosts.
We never thought of getting interested in spiritualism with our electromagnetic explorations: Audiomanzia – the open call proposed by Centro d'Arte di Padova in cooperation with SaMPL Sound and Music Processing Lab Conservatory “C. Pollini” – has given us the opportunity to conduct our first paranormal investigation...
Electromagnetic field meters and recorders are among the indispensable tools of a good ghost hunt; Specter.fandom.com states, "an EMF meter measures electromagnetic fields emitted by faulty wires and radio waves, but investigators insist it can also detect spirits." The SpiritsHack.co.uk website reads: “One of the most common forms of ghost hunting equipment is called a Spirit Box or Ghost Box, a small piece of equipment which scans radio waves for spirits attempting to communicate through noise or other sounds. Supporters of Radio Voice Phenomenon (RVP) claim to be able to use radio equipment to communicate with ghosts and spirits."
This last quote made us understand which - among the devices we already use - was the most suitable for our new sonic-paranormal research: we opted for a SOMA Ether model, described as follows by its manufacturer:
“ETHER is a kind of anti-radio. Instead of being tuned to a specific radio station, it receives all the interference and radiation that a traditional radio tries to eliminate in order to create a clean signal. It captures the radio waves “as is” from hertz to gigahertz because it doesn’t contain the tuned input circuit that filters out all frequencies except the narrow band of a specific station. This allows ETHER to perceive the invisible electromagnetic landscape that humans created unintentionally, making possible live electromagnetic field listening and recording. As the inspiration for this project, I took the design of the very first radios (early 1900s) that had no tuning whee
To be sure of being able to meet the ghosts, we went to a place where thousands of bloody deaths took place: we went to the banks of the Piave river, where the terrible battle of the Solstice was fought in June 1918. We entered bunker 5 of the Lucca Brigade and we recorded our stay in space.
We don't want to influence the ratings, we limit ourselves to writing a short descriptive lineup of the recording you are listening to:
da 00:00 a 00:34 listen to the airwaves as they are. We are at the entrance to the bunker.
da 00:34 a 01:20 sudden changes in volume and the appearance of a rhythmic pulsation can be heard: at this moment we are in the main room of the bunker, near the loophole used by the Italians to shoot at the Austrian soldiers on the banks of the river. Pulsations drowned out by white noise prompted us to use equalization to cut out the mid and high frequencies and bring out the low frequencies.
da 01:20 a 01:28 after a quick transition, hear only the low frequencies
da 04:08 a 06:00 attracted by some sizzles we created a new transition to return to listening to the full range of frequencies, enhancing the highs more.
Bunker 5 Brigata Lucca has been selected to be part of Audiomanzia together with 6 tracks more, chosen between almost 250 submissions from all over the world.
The selected pieces, which will be played in a concert on the 19th of May 2023 at Circolo Nadir in Padova (IT) as part of the Audiomanzia Festival, are:
Berk Yagli – Zen Of Aggression
Filippo Mereu – Attitu
Pier Alfeo – Il Seme dell’Astio
Bruno Cunha – Post-Brasilis
Panayiotis Kokoras – Magic
Maria Christine Muyco – Uma’ (Farm) Dwellers and Whisperers
L’Impero della Luce – Bunker 5 Brigata Lucca
Audiomanzia's Next stop: Manchester Metropolitan University! Stay tuned for further info!