Silophone.

October 22, 2001 7:07 PM

Silophone. "A sonic inhabitation of the Silo #5 grain elevator in the Old Port of Montréal ... Silophone makes use of the incredible acoustics of Silo #5 by introducing sounds, collected from around the world using various communication technologies, into a physical space to create an instrument which blurs the boundaries between music, architecture and net art." This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest things I've seen on the net in ages.
posted by tpoh.org (13 comments total)

yeah. This is very cool. Been around a while, but wortth another look.
posted by Kafkaesque at 7:13 PM on October 22, 2001

A little disturbed to hear Brack singing "I Got You Baby" playing inside of a grain silo in Canada ... but cool none-the-less
posted by deviant at 7:16 PM on October 22, 2001

Heh...what was fun for me was to post the link and then listen...and wait...for people to start making noise.

Heh heh...it was dead quiet when I first got there. The only noisemaker was me. I was lonely.
posted by tpoh.org at 7:20 PM on October 22, 2001

It's even cooler with all the lights switched off.
Now if I could only find that website about abandoned buildings with the Canadian Malt Co.(or something)and soundtrack that...
Very inspiring indeed. Thanks, tpoh.org!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:24 PM on October 22, 2001

OK, now relax, I'm not saying anything mean, and I'm not being "MeFi Police." Calm down.

Everybody calm?

OK. This was posted before. No, no, stay calm, nobody's giving anyone a hard time. You might find the earlier discussion interesting though. OK?

*backs away slowly*
posted by rodii at 7:27 PM on October 22, 2001

I did a search on my hard drive last go around with this. I found all kinds of wavs from Rouge Spear, including a crow and some naughty russians... it was fun.

Search your hard drive.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 7:45 PM on October 22, 2001

Looks like Silophone closed in June : (
posted by ParisParamus at 8:23 PM on October 22, 2001

not so much closed as finished..

this describes it as a one-year installation.

also, "silophone is a year long installation/inhabitation which will host several performances like ours and others less fabricated." (old yahoo groups message)

So the project is over but they're still keeping the equipment running, i guess. Fun to play with, but if i hear 'video killed the radio star' once more... grr.... won't be pretty.
posted by smt at 9:23 PM on October 22, 2001

It's been around a while, yeah, but Gigantically Cool, especially when you're bit, ummm, medicated. Fun to get a few people together and bang the logs with sticks...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:27 PM on October 22, 2001

Spoken word sounds like the voice of humankind echoing through empty caverns of time. Full of despair (the hollowness, the flatness) but also something of the divine (the reverberation, the organ effect). Very cool.

Is there a list of digital technological wonders of the world? If there is, this gets a vote from me.

Second time around or not, thanks a lot for the post--I had heard of this project and never realized I could play with it from home!
posted by ludicdruid at 8:14 AM on October 23, 2001

I loved this concept when I saw it many months ago, and loved playing with the site. About the same time I also found Piano Graphique, which is different but also major music fun.
posted by JParker at 1:09 PM on October 23, 2001

There's nothing new under the Sun.
posted by crunchland at 1:23 PM on October 23, 2001

I spent 2 strange days on the Silophone and then never went back again. During that time another person, who would announce his/her presence with a certain combo of sounds, we would jam together for hours. We got to learn one anothers favorite sound picks, the delays and build off each other to make some amazing soundscapes. Unusual experience. Are there other virtual community jam sessions?
posted by stbalbach at 5:32 PM on October 23, 2001