I’ve just returned from a fun, but exhausting week in Geneva setting up the latest installation version of Brian Eno’s new album The Ship.
The album has been reworked to play across many assorted speakers, ranging from modern PAs to ancient hifi components, scattered through the room.
The launch itself was an arresting experience ; one of the final steps is to export the piece from a “working” form to a “playback” form (essentially creating a separate track for each speaker.) This takes several hours, and I’ve done it several times without hitch. This time, something went wrong…
A software glitch caused all of the tracks to be reduced in volume by up to 5db, and we discovered this only after the process completed, an hour before opening.
With no time to reexport, we hastily rebalanced it by ear, getting a working mix two minutes before opening. Then after the launch evening was over I had an “entertaining” experience repeating the export, working around the glitch and testing it, finishing at around 3:30 a.m.
Many of these photos were taken during that time, when for the first time in my life I found myself alone in a museum at night. Spooky. It might make a good film.
I slept well last night.
