A brief history about Stone and Sound - the Feßmann story

A brief history about Stone and Sound - the Fessmann story
by Hannes Feßmann
www.klangsteine.net
Contact: [e-mail]
Produced by Digital Natural Sound
© 2013 HANNES FESSMANN

[@SergeBach]

Magnifique ! Thank you very much for this video and for your instruments !

[@craigmclanachan1663]

I found your beautiful stone instruments by chance. I am a sculptor working with a fine limestone in New Zealand, Oamaru Stone. I find by tapping it I can estimate its structure and hardness. The hardest pings like marble and the soft has a hollow sound. I often think about stone instruments so seeing your work, and your father's is very interesting. The last one you show has wonderful tones. I thought of xylophones and flutes, both of which have been done of course. I have dreams of an exhibition of tactile sculptures and public participation in sound. A blind woman felt one of my pieces once and I have never forgotten her face as she 'got' it.

[@stoneandsound]

Thanks you! Yes, all people "understand" when they touch and feel it with their body. I would love to come to NZ one day. Would you be open to a visit? All the best.

[@atower17]

Wonderful video Hannes. Tells an excellent history and story about these most remarkable instruments you are building. I hope the world becomes more aware of this work you are doing with stone and sound. If anyone from the US wants to hear or play these stones or get a sonic massage with them we have two large ones at The Resonance Center in Pasadena, CA.

[@jimmilne19]

Very interesting video. I am impressed by not only your musical engagement, but you enthusiasm and dedication. The sounds produced are amazingly complex. That the sound is coming from stone is a wonder, astonishing even. Thank you for your work in this area and for sharing with us. I so look forward to your next videos.

[@stoneandsound]

Thank you! I try my best.

[@chrishoo2]

Wow! I’m loving this. Many thanks!

[@dlrishivanthi5047]

From the hardest of rocks emanates the most beautiful sounds... Atta! les Fessman...

[@AnderssonCamilla]

Wow Hannes! Beautiful! Thanks, I have added it to my webpage. Well done. Hugs /Camilla

[@Samarajiwa]

Super gemacht Hannes!

[@fairwitness7473]

Would love to hear 10 hours for sleeping. The harmonics and the sub sonic line calms my mind.

[@indumati58]

Danke Hannes :-)

[@matiasortola]

Thanks Hannes for this magical journey! Hope to meet you some time to share a musical moment!!

[@stoneandsound]

That would be great. Please let me know when you are around Europe one day. Thanks!

[@dafyddil]

Let's rock ;)

[@stoneandsound]

Thanks to everybody for the comments. As a person concentrating on Art, Sonic Art, Music... and it´s theories, I need to take time off and be concentrated to create the new, understand what´s going on and how it relates to the world, and not get confused with all the digital distractions day by day, that means sometime it takes longer to reply. Thanks for your understanding. A very important point to know about this kind of Art is that audio-visual means of today can´t mediate the experience and vibrations of the real time experience of it, you even could get a wrong picture. Imagine laying on the floor, feeling it trembling and being immersed in sound and vibration with all of your body. The proved possible pure tone let´s your mind relax simply because of it´s clarity sound-wise and in the same time your body gets activated by a sounds sculpture bringing the space into vibration. That´s something your PA or phone can´t do, even to the point it´s deforming the experience of it to an extensive point. Meet you one day at the real thing. Thank you.

[@paulmildner6093]

This could find great usage in movie soundtracks

[@iveno_]

HEY HANNES danke fuer die nachricht bei LINKEDIN, lass uns mal wieder reden. Super video !

[@Jubigrat]

Wow, ganz ganz toll...habe zum ersten mal über solch singende Steine erfahren. genial...ich arbeite in der Klangtherapie mit Gongs, Klangschalen uvm. und bin wirklich beeindruckt! Das Video erklärt gut die verschiedenen Formen wobei meine bevorzugte Form die organische runde ist...das letzte Exemplar welches auch dir Hannes am Besten gefällt. Wer weiss, vielleicht werde ich ja irgendwann mal im Besitz eines solchen Steines sein? :-)

[@alenlenia]

wow im a motion designer and i find this video and sounds so inspiring

[@caroldbritz]

Fabulous.

[@stoneandsound]

Thank you!

[@kristiaankristiaan5278]

Too cool.

[@narashivaya]

This research work on tuning stones it was mainly developed by a sardinian artist, Pinuccio Sciola

[@stoneandsound]

Hello! Thanks for your comment. My take on things would be: Pinuccio Sciola started to tune stone around 1995. Elmar Daucher did his first sculptures in the beginning of the 70´s. I guess Sciola learned about the work of Daucher, when he was artistically active in the region where Daucher stones are to be found in many public places. Some german cities display sculptures without sound by Sciola from the 80´s. Let´s guess they may have known each other, at least about the other, as successful and alive Artist are pretty rare. I haven´t heard of a sounding stone sculpture from Sciola before the death of Daucher in 1989, or do you have any facts proofing your take? Nevertheless, they had both a very different take on the phenomena, Daucher worked mainly with overtone ratios manifested in forms, Sciola focused on the earth, stone, fire, sound and their processes in relation to his artistic practice. They both did great work in the sculptural way. The practice to bring stone into sound was and is a worldwide shared knowledge and cultural practice with lots of variations, with traces of ancient practice to be found all over the planet. To put the bigger picture together is like a Puzzle, where some parts are lost forever and many others are difficult to find. Thank you

[@AlsonWeird]

@STONEANDSOUND Hello, I really like the instruments from years and I'm all the time looking to find them and buy them. Could you give me information where to buy it ? I'm making a Sonorium and this inspire me a lot. Thanks !

[@horus2779]

My imagination has not given me what it could be used for yet but what if we made a circular one like a wheel, We then put it on a shaft to rotate it, we would have a material maybe like used for singing bowl that would be fixed and adjustable to more or less pressure for higher or lower frequency

[@iveno_]

Servus hannes :)

[@scuttlebutt7415]

Went to a performance of Rachmaninoff's Vespers yesterday - I now understand the meaning of synergy.

[@detouredbriefly9426]

W O W !

[@HearturMind]

Could some of the ancient ones be tools for levitation? Has this been explored?

[@horus2779]

Have you tried a pyramid shape with 4 or 8 sides

[@horus2779]

Have you tried playing them with materials used for singing bowls, another guy made these , cubed ones as well, he also used a violine bow.

[@stoneandsound]

Yes, tried it all. Water and hands gives the possibility to reduce friction noices (very loud with the bow, giving presence to the high partials) and allows fine modulations of the sounds..

[@robbertvanderbildt]

Is there a way to learn how to construct these instruments? I really would like to give it a try and start with a small version :-).

[@stoneandsound]

Dear Robbert. I could become your teacher. I guess it´s possible, it´ll take time, money and effort. After some build stones you may get some sounds. You could come and we build your stone together. It takes some weeks to build it and we never know what comes out at the end, if the stone sounds or not and how it sounds. The "normal" thought of people is to build it by themselfs, it seems easy, but isn´t. Also it´s probably cheaper for you to buy a working one in the first place. If you have further needs or idea, we can discuss your ideas via email: [e-mail] Good luck!

[@stoneandsound]

CD release today! The sounds of the stone build for the MA of Steven Halliday, were send out to a selection of international composers: "Throughout the first half of 2018, Jasmine Guffond, Paul Jebanasam, Afonso Ferreira (Farwarmth) Tomonari Nozaki, James Leyland Kirby, Steven M Halliday, Monty Adkins, Yves De Mey and Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) sculpted a breath-taking suite of sound stone compositions." Casette and infos here: composerbuilt.bandcamp.com/releases composerbuilt.wixsite.com/mysite Enjoy!

[@TheTruthseekr]

will you ever show how they are made?

[@stoneandsound]

The most resent example is this: MA by Steven Halliday at Huddersfield Uni: Klangsteine, exploring the sound stones of Hannes Fessmann. We build a sounding stone and Steven developed a virtual stone. Videos, documentation to be found here: stevenmhalliday.com...

[@ivanbeltran7285]

Amazing work, inspiring and excellently well documented. Thank you

[@nick9323]

@@stoneandsound this link no longer works, could you provide another one please ?

[@ramstemp]

Sir where to buy this instrument please provide link

[@stoneandsound]

Do you want a sonic sculpture specially disigned by Hannes for you? Write an email and give me time. I´ll try to find out the best possibility out of thousands, that suits your personal benefit best and sounds incredible. I´ll give you a certificate that you have an Art piece build only by Hannes, should have some value in the future.. If you want just a cheap solution that sounds however, there are other people to approach. All the best!

[@ramstemp]

@@stoneandsound this is my email can you share me yours

[@GothPop]

10:10 can you play it with mallets?

[@stoneandsound]

You can, the sculpture is just designed to be played with water and hands, so mallets created sounds like on a Lithophone( litho=stone, xylo=wood), only the structure of sounds you hear in the video can´t be created with mallets. Thanks you

[@horus2779]

Have you studied further by researching the Musical pillars of India..

[@stoneandsound]

yes, I´ve played them for the first time in 2005, the Vitthala Temple pillars in 2008. I guess they were integrated into the modern concept of Hindu believe, as you find lots of neolithic sites in India were stone was used to produce sounds and experience. You find traces of the incorporation into social or religious concepts of sounding stone also in Ethiopia and France, I guess each usage had it´s own concept of integration. Stone and sound have accompanied the adventure of human developement from a very early stage. Even monkeys use stones as tools, by hitting different stones, humans had to find out about the specific sound qualities and started to incorporate it into their concept of world. In comparison the Vitthala Temple is an example to a quiet modern use (around 360 years)

[@horus2779]

would several stones alike all play in sympathy if one was played

[@stoneandsound]

Do you ask if the change their sounds by put together? If yes: they don´t change the pitch, phenomena of resonance appear, as each stone helps the others, depending of the installation, the space they are put in and the sounds played.

[@hellf.o]

Immense