INTERVIEW

Reethaus Conversations

The Artist Behind Berlin’s World-Class Spatial Sound Studio

While there are many powerful sound systems in Berlin, none quite match the all-encompassing, emotional power of Monom, an innovative spatial sound studio at Funkhaus just downriver from the Flussbad campus. While Slowness excitedly awaits collaborating with Monom on our own new performance space at Flussbad later this year, we caught up with founder William Russell, a recognized leader of the growing worldwide community of spatial sound fanatics.

WORDS Andrew Pasquier
PHOTOGRAPHY Jose Cuevas

While there are many powerful sound systems in Berlin, none quite match the all-encompassing, emotional power of Monom, an innovative spatial sound studio at Funkhaus just downriver from the Flussbad campus. While Slowness excitedly awaits collaborating with Monom on our own new performance space at Flussbad later this year, we caught up with founder William Russell, a recognized leader of the growing worldwide community of spatial sound fanatics.

WORDS Andrew Pasquier
PHOTOGRAPHY Jose Cuevas

From a whispering drone that shimmers across the eardrum to a cacophony of chords that rattle your senses, a visit to Monom, the innovative sound studio just downriver from the Flussbad campus, reveals the soothing, electrifying potential for mind and body offered by the burgeoning field of spatial sound. While Slowness excitedly awaits collaborating with Monom on our new performance space at Flussbad later this year, we caught up with William Russell, founder of the artist-run space and recognized leader of a growing worldwide community of spatial sound fanatics. When the Australia-born musician relocated to Berlin over a decade ago, he took a studio at Funkhaus and immediately fell in love with the dilapidated architectural gem that once served as the hub of East German radio production.

While many disused spaces in the German capital have become legendary venues for electronic music, Russell recognized that this one, with its unique acoustic design, was suited to a far more immersive type of sound experience. Working with technology developed by the Amsterdam-based studio 4DSOUND, Russell suspended omnidirectional speakers throughout Monom, immersing visitors in a 360° sound bath that forms, in his words, “an electronic symphony, an instrument to play the space.” Yet across Monom’s artist residencies and public programming, Russell insists on active, not passive, listening that invites multidisciplinary thinking and fosters community—aims shared by the emergent creative hub around Rummelsburg.

Slowness How did you get into working with spatial sound?

William Russell I started off my career as a musician. I was a classical percussionist on marimba, and then I started playing in a few bands. I got thinking about how to make live shows interesting with interactivity between audio and visuals. After I moved to Berlin, I got a studio where we are now: the Funkhaus. That was about 12 years ago, and the building was basically empty.

Slowness What state was Funkhaus in back then?

William There were still some artist and production studios, but most of the spaces were abandoned. In Sydney, where I’m from, this venue would have been one of the premier venues in the whole country! It was not tenable as a public-facing venue. In many spaces there were no bathrooms or basic utilities – electricity, heating, water. I became obsessed with the Funkhaus, and how to reactivate it. The main hall, this gem of a space, had been designed to broadcast live some of the highest quality orchestral recordings in the world. I began to think, how can we bring this space into a new era? And because we’re in Berlin, that naturally meant integrating electronic music into a new vision that would engage the artistic community here.

Slowness How did the architecture of Funkhaus inform the Monom project?

William As the main radio broadcast studio for East Germany, it was built for a specific acoustic purpose. Typical sound systems don't work very well. The sound is so well separated that there's no acoustic bleed. If you put a PA system at the front, the actual energy of that sound doesn’t transfer through the room. I began to imagine building something that played to the strengths of the environment. An orchestra is made up of a hundred-plus individuals playing essentially omnidirectional instruments. The sound of a cello is going not just one direction, but outwards everywhere. I thought, what if instead of a typical sound system, we installed a large-scale array with hundreds of speakers spread out in the room? We could send electric sounds to speakers in different areas of the room and create compositions – a sort of electronic symphony, an instrument to play the space.

Slowness Did this immersive type of spatial sound technology exist back then?

William I went around to maybe 15 of the best-known sound companies trying to find a system that would suit this space and concept. Only when I visited Today's Art Festival in the Netherlands did I come across the work of 4DSOUND, who we worked with to build out the Monom space. At the festival, I walked into a pitch-black room and had a very different sonic experience than ever before. There was just white noise, and then a drone started coming towards me across the space, through me, and the out the back. This was a moment where I changed my life focus — it was so beyond. Just that first sound was enough to give me a strong emotional reaction.

William Russell

Spatial sound technologies allow us to take people on journeys, transporting them into completely different worlds. You can tell narratives in a very interesting way.

Slowness There’s an emerging body of scientific research around spatial sound examining how it affects the body and the mind. Why do you think these environments are so emotionally intense?

William I have read a lot of papers linking spatial sound to well-being, but since I'm not a scientist I'm going to speak from personal experience. My theory about its potential to move and transport you is that spatial sound mimics the way that we hear sound in nature. It's a fundamental, original sense. Since we were amoebas, we developed highly sophisticated ways to sense vibration. We developed our sense of the world through the instrument which is our body. I believe our emotional states also developed in synchronicity with these vibrations in nature. Emotions are just a vibration, essentially. We even talk about emotion in these terms, like the vibe being good or bad. This doesn't come out of nowhere. Spatial sound technologies allow us to harness that feeling to take people on journeys, transporting them into completely different worlds. You can tell narratives in a very interesting way.

Slowness How did you develop Monom to become a hub for spatial sound?

William At first, I just had to focus on securing the space and getting to know the instrument. 4DSOUND, our partners, were guiding us in the technology but we also had to figure out a way to build an audience. It’s quite a niche field and the sustainability of the project was far from secure. None of us were venue owners, promoters or bookers. It was a very steep learning curve.

Slowness How did you develop Monom to become a hub for spatial sound?

Slowness Did you also have to develop a new way of working with sound artists?

William Like I said, this instrument is very different from any other sound-systems. It takes a slow process of artists coming in and working directly with the space. I really wanted Monom to offer long residencies. I didn't want it to be that artists would rock up two days before a show and throw something together. I wanted it to be more considered. I wanted artists to really get into the space and experiment, and for me to do that as well.

Slowness Are there any collaborations that have especially stood out to you?

William Our collaboration with Thomas Ankersmit blew my mind. His work explores the dynamics of natural phenomena. How does water work? How do waves work? The dynamics of these natural phenomena are based on spatial sound parameters. Wind is made up of hundreds of packets of energy that essentially are moving away from or closer to you. Personally, I love when natural sounds are integrated with abstract tones and music in ways other than you are used to hearing. It's very uncanny.

William Russell

How does water work? How do waves work? The dynamics of these natural phenomena are based on spatial sound parameters. Wind is made up of hundreds of packets of energy that essentially are moving away from or closer to you.

Slowness Spatial sound seems to be blossoming in popularity. Do you feel that you are part of an international movement of the medium?

William The field is absolutely growing! Apple has even released a platform for spatial sound music, bringing it into the mainstream. An issue is that there are no standards and a lot of competing companies who don't want to share technology. Let's say I'm coming at it from the point of view of an artist, not a technologist or a sound company. It's just a very different world. Creating new work is what we do, not selling sound systems—that's not our interest.

Slowness At Slowness, we’re really excited about being part of a creative hub near Flussbad. Have you felt a growing sense of cohesive artistic community in Rummelsburg?

William We are trying to create a community around spatial sound. That starts locally with partnerships like ours. We want to create an ecosystem, a sustainable model for supporting artists. Otherwise, this medium won't move forward if people can't dedicate their lives to producing music, and new audiences are not reached.

← Back to stories

The Journal

Meditations on slowness through photography, film, art and original reportage.

Essential

Statistics and Tracking

Reethaus Conversations

The Artist Behind Berlin’s World-Class Spatial Sound Studio

The Journal

A Night on the Riverside with Ember

Neo-Brutalist Master Arno Brandlhuber