A visit with sound researcher Albrecht Fersch
Albrecht Fersch’s studio is located in a quiet side street in Wedding. Actually, it is not only his studio, but he shares it with the painter Lilla von Puttkamer. In order for the two to have a bit of peace from each other, they had a curtain hanging in the middle of the room for a short time. But the idea didn’t work out – and we're not at all surprised – because Albrecht often works with sounds and sometimes makes quite a racket. Among other things, he builds unusual instruments that have never existed before (they are called Vibrianoid or Typophon, for example).
In his studio half we discover a lot of wood, tools, said musical instruments and also numerous kitchen utensils. We ask him what it is all about. Albrecht answers us that he collects objects that make exciting sounds – and there seem to be an astonishing number of them from the kitchen: whisks, forks, graters, and so on. (He always finds the surprise and contrast between the way something looks and the way it ends up sounding interesting).
His Typophon also houses some kitchen utensils – the instrument is an old typewriter in a walk-in wooden frame, with objects attached to it with strings. When you press a key on the typewriter, you do not write a letter, but a sound, so to speak. In order to remember which letter triggers which sound, Albrecht builds mental mnemonic bridges: R (as in “Reibe”, the german word for grater) makes a wooden block run over the grater, and of course a gong sounds when G is pressed... and sometimes he can't remember the mnemonic bridge himself. (The ?-button sounds like a big question mark in the head, while the ! makes a noise as if something important had just occurred to you).
Albrecht gives us an exclusive name concert and plays all our names on the Typophon. He often gives such performances at exhibitions and festivals to which he is invited, but sometimes the visitors are also allowed to play the instruments on their own and try them out. And trying things out is really important to him! In the end, Albrecht himself is somehow – and has been since childhood – a sound researcher who also sometimes takes a piano apart to find out how it works and what happens when you change something, add something, take something away.
Finally, Albrecht shows us how we can build an instrument from simple components. A piece of drainage pipe, a cut-up balloon, wire, nuts and a few centimeters of tubing become our own new wind instrument in no time at all, which basically works like a simplified saxophone. We think up great names for it and blow into the instrument until we run out of air. As we all take our turns and then make music together, the street in front of the studio is no longer quiet at all. And you can see from the warm smile on Albrecht’s face that he quite likes it.
