The bells that mirror the soul of Notre Dame

Sound artist Bill Fontana’s latest project, ‘Silent Echoes: Notre Dame’, finds him working in the bell towers of the fire-ravaged cathedral recording the haunting sounds of Notre Dame’s ten church bells, which survived the catastrophe. A livestream of his ‘intimate acoustic portrait of the bells’ will premiere at the Centre Pompidou in June and broadcast live to different museums around the world.

Inspired by his upbringing in the vicinity of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland orchestra, sound artist Bill Fontana trained as a composer and has been interested in acoustics and the music that exists within structures since the 70s. Now based in California, his innovative vision has become internationally renowned through critically acclaimed installations on structures such as the Golden Gate Bridge to the Arc de Triomphe and Big Ben.

We wanted to find out a bit more about the man, his work and where he finds creative inspiration.

 

Finding music in everyday sounds – where did that come from?

Due to my interest in the physics and science of sound, I started to explore how the brain recognizes and organizes patterns of sound in music and I realised that for me, hearing the sounds around me is as beautiful as listening to music, and the idea of creating sonic artworks that intensify the art of listening was immensely appealing. When I moved to New York, I took a class in experimental music composition and got to know John Cage [avant garde composer] who became a great source of inspiration.

In the early 70s, I was hired by the Australian Broadcasting Company to record the sounds of Australia and make sound art projects for radio. At the time, the first FM stereo radio stations were going into operation in Australia, which was an absolute turning point for me as it gave me access to state-of-the-art, mobile sound recording equipment.

 

Tell us more about how you work?

To explore sound and the environment, you have to consider sound and vibration in three different modes – how it is in the air, in physical material and underwater. Sound moves at different speeds in those three elements, but they are all very reactive to stimuli. The combination of these three listening techniques is very important in explaining the deep musicality of patterns in any situation.

When I develop and research my projects, I use a portable recording studio, containing a set of digital recorders, sound sensors, accelerometers and sometimes hydrophones, to transmit or stream audio from the structure I’m working with to a public site or space, for example, a museum.