Christof Migone (b. 1964, Switzerland)
The Doric Dozen, 2019
Swan Song, 2019

A dozen of distillery employees provide samples of their highest and lowest pitched voice that Migone processes in relation to the duration of their employment with the distillery. The sounds are then used in the Swan Song installation featuring also some re-purposed distillery equipment, “distilling sound”.

Firstly, I am somewhat surprised to find very similar processing of sound as I have used in some time-oriented pieces of my Artificial Ignorance Choir, stretching them to specific durations in order to make specific points. [Does it make me a real artist if I intuitively do what real artists do?!] But then again, sound processing tends to rely upon a couple of handfuls of basic methods and combinations thereof.

Secondly, it does not stop there, with sounds being made part of a larger installation. And I rarely feel “done” only because I have an object or a recording – staging of the audience encounter with it is often equally, if not more, interesting and important part of any process.

Then, thinking of this particular piece, I do wonder what such sonic rendition of the staff’s working time at the company – or playful projection of distillation of whiskey onto distillation of sound – does. It does not generate any really interesting insights for me (although it does provide this reference point), but on the other hand, I have not experienced the piece onsite and I do not have personal relation to the subject matter either, and this might just as well be one of those site-specific works that have to be experienced in situ.