Bekkelaget Sewage plant

Arne Nordheim and Soundscape Studios

They are making music at a sewage treatment plant in Oslo. The city's 300,000 residents will generate noises in the plant every time they take a shower or flush a toilet. Soundscape Studios has attached leads to a computer and plans to air the recorded sounds on 32 strategically placed loudspeakers below ground. Aftenposten quotes Mr Nordheim telling Dagens Næringsliv newspaper that he has studied the audio workings of the plant. He says there is a clear distinction between the level of activity before and after the main evening news. Anyone wanting to hear the music will have to visit the Bekkelaget plant because the avante-garde artist is not to release a CD. Mr Nordheim says it would be hard to publish the sounds because the ongoing nature of the work means it will be constantly changing.

The system is based on a computer which analyze data from the sewage and makes this into music. The sound and distribution of sound is changing according to the data in real time.

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