I recently spent an evening catching up on a long queue of WNYC‘s RadioLab podcasts. While they’re all interesting (if not pretty damn great), I found part of the Ruled by Time episode particularly interesting. It was a piece by producer Aaron Ximm on the experience of listening to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for 24 hours straight, but only hearing it once —featuring the work, 9 Beet Stretch by Leif Inge. Inge is a Scandanavian sound artist who by his own self description, works with Conceptually Conceived™‚ projects of transmedial nature, both individually, in project-based ensembles as well as organizing events. Mostly exhibited in the Nordic Countries and in Mexico.

9 Beet Stretch is a behemoth of an audial concept. A soundscape made of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, digital stretched to a duration of 24 hours without distortion or pitch shifting, presented as a 24-hour-long sound installation/electroacoustic concert. Photo documentation of Inge’s installations consist primarily of the audience, sprawled on sleeping pads and bags, tents, hammocks and church pews — settled in for the 24 hour auditory experience.

Accompanying the shots are quotes regarding the experience (I thought I was a fly trapped in honey!) and some rather weird visualizations of 3D cybermodels languidly reclining in chunky 3D cyberspace. The effect of it streaming through my home in and out of sleep was interesting enough that I can relate, though I found it less Johnny Mnemonic and more meditative in an organic, 24 hour Tibetan singing bowl kind of way.

I’d hoped to find more visual documentation of the Hyperkinetic Video Machine Inge mentions. An audio-reactive, self-generating video device created as a visual accompaniment for the 9 Beet Stretch installations by Alfredo Salomón as a result of Inge’s fascination with his video work and subsequent request for collaboration. My own fascination with the description unearthed a decent clip (above) from one of the installations.

Even without the HVM, as far as Conceptually Conceived™ projects of transmedial nature go, the performance doesn’t disappoint on conceptual or experiential levels.

Thanks to Raudio‘s cooperation with Inge, you can determine that for yourself with their 24/7 stream of 9 Beet Stretch. A 10 minute mp3 excerpt from the beginning is also available here just remember, it takes some time to get audible.

via: Radiolab / Leif Inge / Raudio