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February 8, 2024

KLING KLANG KLONG at the 40th TED Conferences in Vancouver! This April, we will share the stage with a few of the most brilliant minds speaking about the dazzling cutting-edge technology to boundless creativity.

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January 9, 2024

Watch our latest talk at KIKK Festival 2023 about the principle behind our work:
RESONANCE. Exploring the transformative power of sound.

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December 21, 2023

After the successful exhibition series "Himmel unter Berlin", the creators present the next extraordinary series Dark Rooms Vertical. You can find more information and buy tickets here: thedarkrooms.de/en

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August 10, 2023

The gloomy Berlin weather of the last few days was perfect for doing bits and bobs, cabling and testing! Pascal is making the first experiments for a new, outdoor installation coming soon!

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July 31, 2023

5th birthday to one of our favourite projects, MEANDERING RIVER. Time flies! It has been exhibited over 25 times across the world. It was also our first piece dealing with AI generated music, its crazy to see how much the field progressed in those 5 years...

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July 12, 2023

We are really happy to announce that we are presenting a multi-channel sound installation at Schemerlicht Festival. The installation is bringing the hidden world of soil to our level, as magnifing glass to life under our feet, and our role as humans to conserve it!

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Photo by Müller Mulinarius

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June 20, 2023

Last chance to see EVENT HORIZON, at least for a while! The wonderful Himmel unter Berlin is coming to an end tomorrow, we wish you a great last stroll in the dark tunnels!

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NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER

Here you'll find our biannual news about recent projects, upcoming exhibits and events.
About us
Introducing Resonance

„When people of similar frequencies come together, output is not a simple sum of individual work, but exponential. Output at this stage is beyond any logical limit.“
- Ravindra Shulka, A Maverick Heart: Between Love and Life -

Resonance as a principle has been the driving force behind our studio since its beginnings, both in the practical and ideological sense; We thrive on finding a shared wavelength within our team and beyond, resonating with captivating topics or specific tools. It's what ignites our passion and fuels our curiosity every single day.

The past years, our work created on this shared wavelength has proven its ability to reach far, and find resonance in others: be it our audiences or partners. We believe that projects born from and shaped with resonance will always strike a chord (pun intended) and leave a profound, lasting emotional impact.

This season, our focus has revolved around another form of resonance - the connection between humans and nature. Sound serves as a great tool, highlighting the interconnection and the mutual influence between the two. It allows us to sense processes that remain hidden from our eyes and enables us to uncover fresh perspectives.

Read below to find out more about our latest projects and upcoming news!

Sound Scenography
MYRIAD. Where we connect.

A cross-media installation that tells the stories of animal migrations and their challenges in the Anthropocene era.

This October, the captivating walk-through installation, Myriad premiered at Frankfurter Kunstverein. This cross-media project at the intersection of art, science and storytelling explores the beauty and challenges of the animal’s global migrations. Through an immersive experience, Myriad unveils the impact of the Anthropocene era on natural habitats, emphasizing the intricate interconnectedness of ecosystems. At the heart of Myriad's narrative lies our immersive soundscape, meticulously crafted to create an ecosystem of distinct sounds.

The installation is divided into four chapters, each narrating the tale of different animals species residing in Water, Air, and Land, and the profound impact of the Anthropocene on their lives. With each chapter the soundscape undergoes a transformation, adapting its characteristics to reflect the element being portrayed: in „Air“ it sounds soft and light, in „Land“ it feels warm and earthy.

To achieve these abstract sonic textures, we recorded the sounds of specific materials assigned to each chapter, such as rattled metal junk for "Anthropocene" or swinging plastic tubes for "Air". Then we extracted the sonic features of the recorded sounds through a processing technique called convolution synthesis. Simply put, we used the resonant quality, the so-called acoustic body of one object, and applied it onto a different sound, such as a human voice or a guitar. This technique is a great way to create new and unmatched textures between real and synthetic worlds.

Inspired by Soundscape ecology we organised these hybrid textures to mimic a sonic ecosystem. Research shows that acoustic ecosystems are ever changing networks, where different species occupy different parts of the frequency spectrum to communicate with each other. Human intervention - like the traffic on a new highway - interfere by introducing a new type of noise, which can potentially cause animals not only to alter the way the communicate, but also to relocate. Among many, sound is another dimension to study and contemplate the effect of the Anthropocene and see how different ways of life mutually co-create our reality.

MYRIAD is a project by the Interactive Media Foundation and Filmtank in co-creation with Miiqo Studios, Context Film and Artificial Rome. The installation MYRIAD. Where we connect. was produced with the support of the Frankfurter Kunstverein for the exhibition.
Sound Scenography
World Expo

We are really excited to return to the worldexpo in 2025 after having made great experiences in creating the sound scenography for the Luxembourg, and the Sustainability Pavilion in 2021! More details coming soon!

Sound & Light Installation
Singing Soil

Listening to the invisible

Singing Soil is a sound and light installation created for the Schemerlicht open-air festival at the Netherlands, which aims to nurture post-anthropocene thinking every year. Our piece immerses visitors in the rich, yet invisible world that dwells under our feet, and draws attention to the necessity of a harmonious coexistence with other life forms.

There is a whole universe in the soil, hiding a high-performance network of microorganisms. It is an advanced civilisation, whose well-being is crucial for our planet. That is why regenerative agricultures, like the Bodemzicht farm work to grow living soil, capture CO2 and increase biodiversity. We collaborated with them to bring the proof of this hidden vitality to our level of perception, by recording the soil life with a special underground microphone. We were surprised ourselves, how much there is to listen to in this seemingly lifeless habitat.

The final installation comprises the multi-channel soil soundscapes and multiple Singing Bowl Light Sculptures, representing collaboration between nature and human.The singing bowls are controlled by a complex stochastic system, which in turn, affects the soil recordings: In an equilibrium, the underground soundscape and the human-made sounds enrich each other. Yet too much human interference easily out voices nature and isolates us from engaging with other beings. Singing Soil aims to help us realize how little we truly perceive about our world; by actively listening, we can rebuild these connections and enhance our understanding.

Singing Soil was originally commissioned by Schemerlicht Festival, October 2023
Exhibition
The dark rooms - vertical

Our next exhibition is very near.

After the successful exhibition series "Himmel unter Berlin", the creators present the next extraordinary series Dark Rooms Vertical. We are excited to be part of another very special and unique exhibition.This exhibition series takes place in the dark towers of Berlin, where visitors can experience light and sound installations in an old automobile factory from 1917. The exhibition aims to create a contrast between the pulsating metropolis and the darkness that sharpens the senses. The exact location is secret and will be revealed to the guests only 48 hours before their visit.

You can find more information and buy tickets here: thedarkrooms.de

Photo by Trystan Lothaire
Talk
KLONG at KIKK

At this year's KIKK festival, we shared our work on sound and how it has inspired others to think differently. 

The auditorium seating was highlighted blue, with people's faces slightly accentuated by computer screen light. When one looked towards the direction of the stage, the spotlight was on Felipe Sanchez Luna, our Managing and Creative Director – for those who don't know him yet – who was invited to speak at this year's KIKK festival on October 27th

A talk that stood out was by award-winning Executive Creative Director Carl Addy, with his ground-breaking visuals and immersive experiences. Work, titled Samare stationnaire, by  Vivien Roubaud had aeronautics specialists comparing it to an autogyro – a small aircraft with a horizontal propeller that keeps the device in the air, but that doesn't move forward. Through careful symmetrical geometry, the samara hovers in the air. It was a masterful, memorable piece. From our perspective, you can read more about the festival here – and don't forget to subscribe on LinkedIn for an in-depth look into the sounds of KLING KLANG KLONG.

WWW
Forget the error 404!

At the klongs studio, we have just launched our new website. What a journey it has been, with teamwork not only from us – we collaborated with a creative agency HENKELHIEDL in Berlin to accomplish this. Uwe Viehmann and Markus Lohmann,from HENKELHIEDL,  shared some thoughts on how this process came together, and we are happy to share them with you! It all started when Marcus saw the Event Horizon installation. "I like the simplicity of the light installation, the dark room and the matching sounds," he says, and this was the inspiration for the redesign.

You can see the immersive flows integrated into the design, highlighting how we intertwined thought, music and design into every aspect of our projects. "I played around with the content before starting the redesign and included the vision of the website by playing with a certain style or art piece in my mind – or even music," Marcus explains.

He says that he always looks for a vision when starting the design process. "Sometimes I try to find some words which describe an image," he explains. This style that was envisioned came to life on our website. We included stylistic aspects, and by analysing the information architecture, we ensured that our content was presented in a way that was true to our work. But, like all great visions that are met, there were a few challenges. Uwe says that the main challenge was to focus on one of the many ideas on how to translate the power of sound without focusing too much on sound as a default "because this is dangerous in the web – in other words, browsers and search engines punish websites when playing sound as a default," he explains.

We were really happy to hear that the team at HENKELHIEDL thought our previous website was already very good – but we agreed that it needed a little more depth. What can we say when embarking on such a project but listen to the experts! Uwe suggests hiring an expert is essential to take an outside-in perspective (aka from customers or users) and avoid taking the supposedly politically motivated inside view as the supposedly objective truth. "Remember to take the next step without forgetting the past – aka the content" and ensure you create the vision this way.

Ensuring that HENKELHIEDL works with their clients rather than for them. The creative agency notes design as part of their DNA; the canvas is the digital world. People usually come to a creative agency seeking a unique idea or because they don't have the digital knowledge or accessibility to create the idea they want.

Every project can come with its challenges because, as Uwe says, "every project is different", and while clients might not want to create standardized alternatives, it's important to "never rely on the steps from another, but create your own dance for this endeavour," Uwe adds.

"It's very cool to work with people who have the same passion for their work as I do for mine," says Marcus. It was inspiring for this team to come together – there was definitely mutual respect from both sides for the projects we embarked on, including this one.

The best part of the website are the videos in the background of the project detail page that go black and white when you mute the video. You can check them out here.

Our biggest lesson was to understand how immersive and powerful soundscapes can be, a moving image is only half as powerful. In the words of Uwe, "if you want the full experience for your project, hire the Klongs!"

Sound Installation
Marionette

What happens to an open society that cannot agree on a common reality?

Earlier this year our installation together with "Künstler ohne Nahmen" became the centrepiece of the Marionette exhibition at POPKUDAMM BERLIN about the bizarre world of deep fakes. The piece played with perception and viewer expectation, to bring attention to deep fakes and how sensitively we have to deal with media in the future.

Standing under the tents, visitors heard a soundscape of rain and thunderstorms intertwined with a piano piece derived from the pealing of bells, creating a nostalgic sentiment about camping and stormy summer nights. Yet by reaching the end of the installation, lighting, rumbling and the forest of tents gained another meaning: The gruesome reality of war. The light and sound choreography followed the rhythm of the first missile attacks on Ukraine in February 2022.

Exhibition
KHROMA NEW MEDIA CENTER

Two of our sound scultpures became part of the opening exhibition of the Khroma Berlin New Media Center.

Khroma Berlin is a New Media art center, spanning over 1200 square meters presenting light and sound installations, code-driven, kinetic and interactive art. We are very proud to announce that two of our sound sculptures are part of their first exhibition. Fireflies makes the emergent behaviour of the synchronous fireflies audible, while Touch-me-not, a kinetic installation reflects on the very nature of the relationship between art peace and visitor.

AI generated Image
Sound Scenography
Mine Stories

Investigating into the sound of the past, to transform an old story into a tangible experience

We are excited to take part in designing a museum experience which tells the story of a mining site through big scale interactive exhibits. It is truly special to be able to plan a whole exhibition with the sound in mind from the very beginning. The eerie beauty of the mine is an incredible sight, but still very much a land of darkness. The underground world of catacombs possesses a haunting soundscape with interesting acoustic properties which gives us plenty of wonderful opportunities to think, and bring the place alive sonically. We can't wait to tell you more as the project progresses!

Sound Design
Foam

Designing the urban space for a liveable city of tomorrow

FOAM Institute further develops design together with our friends at why do birds, to protect urban health through improving the acoustic quality of cities. After creating a uniform sound for Germany's electric buses in public transportation, FOAM is currently working on three further AVAS sounds for different brands. Working with several brands at a time gives a great opportunity to bring the design principle to life, and approach each one of them as a single part of a harmonious sound palette. Similarly to the instruments of an orchestra, even though all brands possess their own unique sound characteristics, when played simultaneously they melt together seamlessly, to create a harmonious backdrop to our daily lives.

Interactive Sound Environment
Sensescapes at Grassi Museum for applied Arts

Translating design epochs into visuals, sound, and movement

Sensescapes is an interactive 360° room installation which we created in collaboration with SCHNELLE BUNTE BILDER and Into Light at the Grassimuseum for Applied Arts in Leipzig. As part of the permanent exhibition “From Art Nouveau to the Present Day” museum visitors have the chance to immerse themselves in audiovisual interpretations of the exhibited style epochs (Bauhaus, Art-Deco, Streamline, Optical-Art, Computer-Art and Machine Learning). For each design era we composed and programmed interactive music and sound design. The visitors bring the interpretations to life and modify them through their movements, which allows them to learn playfully about the different design styles.

CREDITS: Media Scenography: SCHNELLE BUNTE BILDER, intolight / Sound Scenography: kling klang klong / Creative Consulting: Axel Buether
Interactive Sound Environment
Myriad

Sonifiying the complex system of animal migrations

The multiple award winning project Myriad explores the beauty and challenges of the animals’ global migrations in an ever-changing, globally connected world that is increasingly being influenced by humans.

The piece originally created as a Virtual Reality experience will be soon transformed into an interactive and immersive walk-through installation, to make its debut at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. We are really happy to support the beautiful storytelling of Myriad with an interactive spatial sound composition. The audiences will be able to join different migrating species, travelling along wind and ocean currents, across continents and over soaring mountain ranges as they make their way around the globe, side by side with an ever expanding human population. The intent of Myriad fits perfectly into our practise of sonification, in which we use sound to weave scientific insights into fascinating, emotional stories - in this case, stories of survival and perseverance.

CREDITS: Myriad is produced by Interactive Media Foundation and Filmtank in Co-Creation with Miiqo Studios, Context Films and Artificial Rome
Sound Scenography
Extending Our Tools

Adaptive audio system with one of the most advanced spatial audio mixing tools: L-ISA

In the last few months, we have been working on a big scale sound scenography project that gives us several opportunities to learn and try out new tools and formats. We were invited to use L’Acoustics’ spatial audio system & processor L-ISA throughout the exhibition.L-ISA introduces an object-based spatial mixing workflow for real-time rendered media experiences. This feature enables us to seamlessly integrate our spatial audio know-how into real-time generated visual workflows and let us create interactive and ever-changing sound environments in „3D“. Earlier this year we met their team at their headquarters near Paris and besides training sessions, we shared ideas on how to adapt their technology for our specific use case.

The project also gives us a chance to utilise our custom made, adaptive audio system for the first time in a spatial sound setting. Thanks to this tool the sound experience changes depending on the visitors pace and interests, adapting the whole dramaturgy of the exhibition on the fly. Combined, the two systems can create a vivid, versatile and immersive scenography that isn’t bound by sweet-spots, phantom sources or preconceived visitor behaviours.

Ludovic Specko
Sound Installation
Event Horizon

A journey through the event horizon at Himmel unter Berlin.

Our favourite secret exhibition, Himmel unter Berlin opened again this May at an amazing underground location. We presented a new, 12.2 channel sound and light installation that brings visitors on an emotional journey to the point of no return. Event Horizon is the boundary around a black hole where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape. The installation poses the question, what could we hear when time, information, and matter become disentangled from each other?

The 15 minute piece explores the topic through the human voice - superimposing musical materials that bridge the ancient and the modern, before ultimately becoming a state that melts, entwines and ultimately collapses into fragments of breath and text. We are very grateful for our collaboration with Fohhn, whose system helped us to immerse visitors in the sound, and translate an ungraspable phenomenon into an an emotional experience.

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