Music for Sound Installation

Christian Wittman

"Music for Sound Installation" is an ambient project crafted to evoke immersive and atmospheric soundscapes, akin to the pioneering work of Brian Eno. Inspired by the intersection of music and contemporary art, each track serves as a sonic counterpart to a visual experience, inviting listeners into a realm of auditory exploration.

Just as a sculpture or painting transforms physical space, each composition in "Music for Sound Installation" aims to transform auditory space, creating a serene and contemplative atmosphere.

Through layers of harmonies and carefully sculpted textures, the album transports listeners to a world where sounds become almost tangible and visible. Whether experienced alongside sculptures, paintings, or immersive video installations, the music serves as a conduit for deepening the sensory experience, blurring the boundaries between sound, time and space.

"Music for Sound Installation" is an ambient project crafted to evoke immersive and atmospheric soundscapes, akin to the pioneering work of Brian Eno. Inspired by the intersection of music and contemporary art, each track serves as a sonic counterpart to a visual experience, inviting listeners into a realm of auditory exploration.
Just as a sculpture or painting transforms physical space, each composition in "Music for Sound Installation" aims to transform auditory space, creating a serene and contemplative atmosphere.
Through layers of harmonies and carefully sculpted textures, the album transports listeners to a world where sounds become almost tangible and visible. Whether experienced alongside sculptures, paintings, or immersive video installations, the music serves as a conduit for deepening the sensory experience, blurring the boundaries between sound, time and space.

Music for Sound Installation by Christian Wittman

Temporal Fragments

Temporal Fragments(2024.24.02d. Ancient Temple.) by Christian Wittman

Harmonic Colors

Harmonic Colors(*** 2024.06.02b) by Christian Wittman

Suspended Realities

Suspended Realities(2024.24.02 Enoesque) by Christian Wittman

Zen Garden

Zen Garden(2024.24.02b Enoesque 2) by Christian Wittman

Echoes of Stillness

Echoes of Stillness(01.10a) by Christian Wittman

Tranquility in Motion

Tranquility in Motion(27.10 Endless Rotation) by Christian Wittman

Ethereal Expanse

Ethereal Expanse(02.11a. Space Dizzyness) by Christian Wittman

Synchronicity of Silence

Synchronicity of Silence(2024.20.02c. beyond the void) by Christian Wittman

Contemplative Drift (Extended Mix (Music for Sound Installation))

Contemplative Drift(Extended Mix (Music for Sound Installation)) by Christian Wittman

Contemplative Drift

Nocturnes I

The starting point for this album is a photo taken one summer evening from a window in Dunkirk, a memory of a free reverie in front of the spectacle of a blazing twilight, where the last lights of the setting sun were about to vanish between the darkness of the Northern sea and that of the sky.

"Nocturnes I" is the musical story of a night between dusk and dawn, accompanying thoughts, images, memories and sensations.

Minimalist, intimate musical landscapes, where electronic instruments and treatments gently suggest peace and serenity.

Ambient music between wakefulness and sleep, at the threshold of dreams, when everything calms down and silence is woven in with the murmurs of the night. 

"Nocturnes I" accompanies the quiet flight of consciousness into the dreamy heart of night.

-----------------------------------

REVIEWS

•• "One of the standout tracks from this captivating release is the mesmerizing “Evanescent Shades,” an ambient composition that delicately weaves together ethereal tones and atmospheric textures."
https://electronica.org.uk/blog/christian-wittman-takes-us-on-a-serene-journey-with-evanescent-shades/

•• "I really love the sound design of your work. It's so alive, so organic, like I've said before I am left wondering how it's done 😊 It really is a unique atmosphere created in the hands of someone with a keen eye both of the details and the totality." (Beatradar)

•• "Nocturnes is listened to with eyes half-closed, letting its shifting landscapes unfold, so many subtle incidences inviting themselves surreptitiously.
An unfolding of our inner films, Chritian Wittman's ambient is always sonic lacework, nothing predictable, you have to follow the path as it unfolds, and when it's over, you pick up another from his discography.
I draw the parallel with possible sonic haikus.
Enjoy your immersion."
(THIERRY MOREAU)

The starting point for this album is a photo taken one summer evening from a window in Dunkirk, a memory of a free reverie in front of the spectacle of a blazing twilight, where the last lights of the setting sun were about to vanish between the darkness of the Northern sea and that of the sky.
"Nocturnes I" is the musical story of a night between dusk and dawn, accompanying thoughts, images, memories and sensations.
Minimalist, intimate musical landscapes, where electronic instruments and treatments gently suggest peace and serenity.
Ambient music between wakefulness and sleep, at the threshold of dreams, when everything calms down and silence is woven in with the murmurs of the night. 
"Nocturnes I" accompanies the quiet flight of consciousness into the dreamy heart of night.
<hr>
REVIEWS
•• "One of the standout tracks from this captivating release is the mesmerizing “Evanescent Shades,” an ambient composition that delicately weaves together ethereal tones and atmospheric textures."
<a href="https://electronica.org.uk/blog/christian-wittman-takes-us-on-a-serene-journey-with-evanescent-shades/">https://electronica.org.uk/blog/christian-wittman-takes-us-on-a-serene-journey-with-evanescent-shades/</a>
•• "I really love the sound design of your work. It's so alive, so organic, like I've said before I am left wondering how it's done 😊 It really is a unique atmosphere created in the hands of someone with a keen eye both of the details and the totality." (Beatradar)
•• "Nocturnes is listened to with eyes half-closed, letting its shifting landscapes unfold, so many subtle incidences inviting themselves surreptitiously.
An unfolding of our inner films, Chritian Wittman's ambient is always sonic lacework, nothing predictable, you have to follow the path as it unfolds, and when it's over, you pick up another from his discography.
I draw the parallel with possible sonic haikus.
Enjoy your immersion."
(THIERRY MOREAU)

Twilight on Fire

Gates of Consciousness

Gates of Consciousness by Christian Wittman

Rivers of Dreams

Ethereal Lullaby

Around Midnight

Evanescent Shades

Flight of a Sleeping Soul

Flight of a Sleeping Soul by Christian Wittman

Pale Dawn

A Slow Awakening

Apeiron

"Apeiron" is a Greek word which, according to the philosopher Anaximander of Miletus (6th century BC), designates the first element from which everything emerged, the primordial entity which generated the cosmos by successive splits.

The meaning of this word is still debated today: "infinite" or "indeterminate"? Literally: "without limit".

“Apeiron” was thus the founding concept of a bold rational cosmology, distinct from traditional myths, to explain the genesis of the universe, the earth, the ocean, the celestial sphere, the stars, physical phenomena and, of course, the emergence of life forms.

This starting point inspired me a form of contemplative and spiritual "space music", which attempts to reflect the mixture of imagination and intellectual speculation at work in this conquest of the universe by human thought.

With this album, I'm moving towards a more contemporary, hybrid sound and style, mixing electronic treatments and textures with processed human voices and classical instruments.

“Apeiron” is an attempt to explore new listening dimensions in the genre of electronic space music.
credits
released February 2, 2024

Electronics, sound design: Christian Wittman

Composed and produced at Nina Studio, Paris, November - December 2023.

Artwork: Christian Wittman 

"Apeiron" is a Greek word which, according to the philosopher Anaximander of Miletus (6th century BC), designates the first element from which everything emerged, the primordial entity which generated the cosmos by successive splits.
The meaning of this word is still debated today: "infinite" or "indeterminate"? Literally: "without limit".
“Apeiron” was thus the founding concept of a bold rational cosmology, distinct from traditional myths, to explain the genesis of the universe, the earth, the ocean, the celestial sphere, the stars, physical phenomena and, of course, the emergence of life forms.
This starting point inspired me a form of contemplative and spiritual "space music", which attempts to reflect the mixture of imagination and intellectual speculation at work in this conquest of the universe by human thought.
With this album, I'm moving towards a more contemporary, hybrid sound and style, mixing electronic treatments and textures with processed human voices and classical instruments.
“Apeiron” is an attempt to explore new listening dimensions in the genre of electronic space music.
credits
released February 2, 2024
Electronics, sound design: Christian Wittman
Composed and produced at Nina Studio, Paris, November - December 2023.
Artwork: Christian Wittman

1. Astral Dream (Original Mix)

1. Astral Dream

2. Apeiron Whispers (Original Mix)

2. Apeiron Whispers

3. Chiaroscuro of Infinity. (Original Mix)

3. Chiaroscuro of Infinity. by Christian Wittman

3. Chiaroscuro of Infinity.

4. Spectral Ambiguity (Original Mix)

4. Spectral Ambiguity by Christian Wittman

4. Spectral Ambiguity

5. Indistinct Echoes (Original Mix)

5. Indistinct Echoes by Christian Wittman

5. Indistinct Echoes

6. Logos and Cosmos (Original Mix)

6. Logos and Cosmos

7. Contours of the Void (Original Mix)

7. Contours of the Void by Christian Wittman

7. Contours of the Void

8. Mystic Harmony (Original Mix)

8. Mystic Harmony

Ambient Mapping II

Ambient music is an encounter with slowness, silence, the depth of listening, immersion in sound, navigation on sounds to dream, think, travel, imagine...

"Ambient Mapping II" weaves different threads: silence, loops, sound spaces, "Fourth World" rhythms, possible melodies.

In this album, I experimented with geometrical compositional forms, superimposed, shifted, random, in different mixes distributing sounds, patterns, rhythms in an evolving space.

--------

REVIEWS

• "This is very good. Subtle piano tones with powerful deep pads sound great" (Chitra Records)

• "Lovely composition. I loved the soft and ethereal melodies. Nice piano touch, so sweet and peaceful. I loved the melancholy mood. We’ll add your beautiful music to our playlist "focus instrumentals" (About "Lines") (Listnerd, Spotify playlist curator)


•  "Cinematic music at it's best. Wonderful soundtrack feel here. A proper production and theme. Adding this on Cinematic Soundscapes and Compositional Ambient" (about "Lines"). Lauge  (musician and playlists curator)

• "Meditative and relaxing..." Maneli (Spotify playlist curator)

• "This is a delightful ambient track and makes a great fit for our Ambient playlist.  Wishing you much success!" Sherry Finzer (Spotify playlist curator)

• "Lovely delicate ambient work, happy to have it in the Slow Ambient list." The Slow Music Movement (Spotify playlist curator)

• "Very cool! Great work on the instrumental! Great work on designing the various sounds. Nice work on the synth sound! It works very well.
Focussing on mixing, you make the instrumental sound very good !"  Palette (Spotify playlist curator)

• "Very beautiful, certainly a great fit for one of our playlists!"   Music Dances When You Sleep, Spotify playlist curator, blogger.

• "Stunning track! Keep the beautiful music!" (About Curves) Salt of the Sound, Spotify / Apple Music playlists curator.  

Ambient music is an encounter with slowness, silence, the depth of listening, immersion in sound, navigation on sounds to dream, think, travel, imagine...
"Ambient Mapping II" weaves different threads: silence, loops, sound spaces, "Fourth World" rhythms, possible melodies.
In this album, I experimented with geometrical compositional forms, superimposed, shifted, random, in different mixes distributing sounds, patterns, rhythms in an evolving space.
<hr>
REVIEWS
• "This is very good. Subtle piano tones with powerful deep pads sound great" (Chitra Records)
• "Lovely composition. I loved the soft and ethereal melodies. Nice piano touch, so sweet and peaceful. I loved the melancholy mood. We’ll add your beautiful music to our playlist "focus instrumentals" (About "Lines") (Listnerd, Spotify playlist curator)
• "Cinematic music at it's best. Wonderful soundtrack feel here. A proper production and theme. Adding this on Cinematic Soundscapes and Compositional Ambient" (about "Lines"). Lauge (musician and playlists curator)
• "Meditative and relaxing..." Maneli (Spotify playlist curator)
• "This is a delightful ambient track and makes a great fit for our Ambient playlist. Wishing you much success!" Sherry Finzer (Spotify playlist curator)
• "Lovely delicate ambient work, happy to have it in the Slow Ambient list." The Slow Music Movement (Spotify playlist curator)
• "Very cool! Great work on the instrumental! Great work on designing the various sounds. Nice work on the synth sound! It works very well.
Focussing on mixing, you make the instrumental sound very good !" Palette (Spotify playlist curator)
• "Very beautiful, certainly a great fit for one of our playlists!" Music Dances When You Sleep, Spotify playlist curator, blogger.
• "Stunning track! Keep the beautiful music!" (About Curves) Salt of the Sound, Spotify / Apple Music playlists curator.

Line (Original Mix)

Line

Curves (Original Mix)

Curves

Ridge Line (Original Mix)

Ridge Line

Canopy (Original Mix)

Canopy

Delineation (Original Mix)

Delineation

Fourth World (Original Mix)

Fourth World

Squaring the circle (Original Mix)

Squaring the circle

Music for Art Gallery I

"Music for Art Gallery I"  is inspired by the world of contemporary art - sculptures, video installations, performances, painting - and invites you to a journey through some of the great art capitals of today, from New York to Amsterdam, from Berlin to Athens, from Rome to Los Angeles.

These eight compositions are both ambient and experimental, they are at the crossroads of minimalism, a certain acousmatic abstraction and sound design...

I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.

It is an ambient music that unfolds contemplative atmospheres in a slow travelling of the gaze and the mind on virtual works, that the listener is invited to imagine....

I hope to initiate a collaboration with art galleries and contemporary artists to inscribe my sound research in real places.

-----

REVIEWS

••• "Conceived as a multi-sensory experiential piece best suited for visual accompaniment of a gallery, the French artist Christian Wittman’s “Manhattan” is a lovely slice of experimental ambient work that finds its home in various nexuses of a venn diagram of several musical schools of thought. Of the piece, Wittman states, “I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.” The resulting composition is one that is easy to get lost in - all the better to take while you stroll the MOMA or Whitney in Manhattan. "

Ryan HALL. Tome of the Weather Machine (tometotheweathermachine.com)

•• Great sounds and cool production. Beautiful arrangements.
I really enjoyed the ethereal and mysterious mood! (LISTNERD, about "Manhattan")

•• "Captivating soundscapes and floating atmosphere.." (Music for Home, about "Manhattan")

 

"Music for Art Gallery I" is inspired by the world of contemporary art - sculptures, video installations, performances, painting - and invites you to a journey through some of the great art capitals of today, from New York to Amsterdam, from Berlin to Athens, from Rome to Los Angeles.
These eight compositions are both ambient and experimental, they are at the crossroads of minimalism, a certain acousmatic abstraction and sound design...
I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.
It is an ambient music that unfolds contemplative atmospheres in a slow travelling of the gaze and the mind on virtual works, that the listener is invited to imagine....
I hope to initiate a collaboration with art galleries and contemporary artists to inscribe my sound research in real places.
<hr>
REVIEWS
••• "Conceived as a multi-sensory experiential piece best suited for visual accompaniment of a gallery, the French artist Christian Wittman’s “Manhattan” is a lovely slice of experimental ambient work that finds its home in various nexuses of a venn diagram of several musical schools of thought. Of the piece, Wittman states, “I tried to suggest through sound design the sensory, visual, tactile, spatial universe of contemporary art, with its surfaces, its materiality, its geometry, its perspective games, its architectures of lines and shapes.” The resulting composition is one that is easy to get lost in - all the better to take while you stroll the MOMA or Whitney in Manhattan. "
Ryan HALL. Tome of the Weather Machine (tometotheweathermachine.com)
•• Great sounds and cool production. Beautiful arrangements.
I really enjoyed the ethereal and mysterious mood! (LISTNERD, about "Manhattan")
•• "Captivating soundscapes and floating atmosphere.." (Music for Home, about "Manhattan")

Music for Art Gallery I by Christian Wittman

Manhattan (Original Mix)

Manhattan

Auguststrasse (Original Mix)

Auguststrasse

West Hollywood (Original Mix)

West Hollywood

Marais (Original Mix)

Marais

Flaminio (Original Mix)

Flaminio

Kolonaki (Original Mix)

Kolonaki

Soho (Original Mix)

Soho

Spiegelwartier (Original Mix)

Spiegelwartier

Music for Slow Motion  Dance

 “I’ve been meaning to write to tell you how good "Music for Slow Motion Dance" is: an unassuming little masterpiece.”  (Stephen Hill, Hearts of Space Radio Program)


Following on from an experiment carried out a few years ago by Lightwave with Popdreams, a street dance and slow motion company, this ambient, minimalist album was conceived to accompany experimental, contemporary choreographies based on the slowness and fluidity of movements and postures, between the techniques of mime, moon walking and butō theater.

The concept behind this album is slowness, time stretched out, suspended, like a film in slow motion, where gestures and movements become a weightless choreography...

I composed this album with the gestures and expressivity of butō performers in my mind's eye, in a space-time other than our own, inviting us to think differently about our relationship to the body and the soul, to movement, but also to looking and listening...

This ambient album is an invitation to slow down and free ourselves from gravity, to reach the lightness of lunar angels...

“I’ve been meaning to write to tell you how good "Music for Slow Motion Dance" is: an unassuming little masterpiece.” (Stephen Hill, Hearts of Space Radio Program)
Following on from an experiment carried out a few years ago by Lightwave with Popdreams, a street dance and slow motion company, this ambient, minimalist album was conceived to accompany experimental, contemporary choreographies based on the slowness and fluidity of movements and postures, between the techniques of mime, moon walking and butō theater.
The concept behind this album is slowness, time stretched out, suspended, like a film in slow motion, where gestures and movements become a weightless choreography...
I composed this album with the gestures and expressivity of butō performers in my mind's eye, in a space-time other than our own, inviting us to think differently about our relationship to the body and the soul, to movement, but also to looking and listening...
This ambient album is an invitation to slow down and free ourselves from gravity, to reach the lightness of lunar angels...

Music for Slow Motion  Dance by Christian Wittman

Tension : Extension (Original Mix)

Tension : Extension

No Gravity. Pt. 1 (Original Mix)

No Gravity. Pt. 1

Time Stretching (Original Mix)

Time Stretching

Endless glissendi (Original Mix)

Endless glissendi

No Gravity. Pt. 2 (Original Mix)

No Gravity. Pt. 2

Levitation (Original Mix)

Levitation

Suspended Motion (Original Mix)

Suspended Motion

No Gravity (Extended Version) (Extended Version)

No Gravity (Extended Version)(Extended Version) by Christian Wittman

No Gravity (Extended Version)

Voice Breath Heart and Soul

Monkey Business Audio

This piece rose from a single vocal recording of my girlfriend's soul singing and a recording of her heartbeat.
Every sound you hear has been hand-crafted from these recordings in Steinberg HALion 6, no other synths or samples involved.
Production was done in Cubase with Waves plugins for mixing and mastering.

I had 2 approaches to sound design on this project.

One was more of the creative/curious/random kind, where I utilized snippets from the original recording in the sampler or as a wavetable source. The "ah" choir pad (e.g. at 3:30) is a sample based instrument, the "oh-oh-yah-eh-ih-ye" pad (coming in at about 1:13 and 3:37) is a wavetable sound.

The other approach was more technical. I scanned through the recordings looking for "clean" or "pure" sine waves, saved them as wav files, ordered them by "cleanness" and created a wavetable out of them. For the other basic waveforms I used GNU Octave to create saw, square and triangle waveforms from the sine wave samples I saved earlier and also made wavetables from them. I scan randomly, but slowly through the wavetable to create a permanently changing sound source.

To create noise I collected everything from the recording that could be used as such, like breaths, f-, s- and sh-sounds and the like. I lined them all up on an audio track, added delay and reverb to diffuse the sound and make it more noisy. I layered a copy of the track on top of it, but shuffled the order of the samples and changed the reverb and delay parameters a bit. I repeated that process until I found the noise was dense enough. Finally I used an EQ to make it sound like white noise. I bounced the results to disk and got a roughly 45 seconds long noise sample, which I used in a sampler as noise source. The sample starts at a random position every time a note is triggered.

After that, the rest is essentially subtractive synthesis, modulation, layering and postprocessing.

This piece rose from a single vocal recording of my girlfriend's soul singing and a recording of her heartbeat.
Every sound you hear has been hand-crafted from these recordings in Steinberg HALion 6, no other synths or samples involved.
Production was done in Cubase with Waves plugins for mixing and mastering.
I had 2 approaches to sound design on this project.
One was more of the creative/curious/random kind, where I utilized snippets from the original recording in the sampler or as a wavetable source. The "ah" choir pad (e.g. at 3:30) is a sample based instrument, the "oh-oh-yah-eh-ih-ye" pad (coming in at about 1:13 and 3:37) is a wavetable sound.
The other approach was more technical. I scanned through the recordings looking for "clean" or "pure" sine waves, saved them as wav files, ordered them by "cleanness" and created a wavetable out of them. For the other basic waveforms I used GNU Octave to create saw, square and triangle waveforms from the sine wave samples I saved earlier and also made wavetables from them. I scan randomly, but slowly through the wavetable to create a permanently changing sound source.
To create noise I collected everything from the recording that could be used as such, like breaths, f-, s- and sh-sounds and the like. I lined them all up on an audio track, added delay and reverb to diffuse the sound and make it more noisy. I layered a copy of the track on top of it, but shuffled the order of the samples and changed the reverb and delay parameters a bit. I repeated that process until I found the noise was dense enough. Finally I used an EQ to make it sound like white noise. I bounced the results to disk and got a roughly 45 seconds long noise sample, which I used in a sampler as noise source. The sample starts at a random position every time a note is triggered.
After that, the rest is essentially subtractive synthesis, modulation, layering and postprocessing.

Voice Breath Heart and Soul by Monkey Business Audio

Cough Cough Breath

Joanie

Another Sunrise
Another Sunset
Time's moven' - I'm snoozen'
Too busy to git...

Get another moment
Grab another kiss
Steal another hour
Who can resist?

Born for a moment
For Heaven's sake
Deep bruises - confuses
Just gonna' take...

Take all my freedom
Take back my time
Snatch all I can
While life is mine

Come on, come on Baby, Come on, Come on
Come on, come on Baby, Come on...
Come on, come on Baby, Come on, Come on
Come on, come on Baby, Come on...

Cough, Cough, Breath
Cough, Cough, Breath
Cough, Cough, Breath
Cough, Cough...

Another Sunrise
Another Sunset
Time's moven' - I'm snoozen'
Too busy to git...
Get another moment
Grab another kiss
Steal another hour
Who can resist?
Born for a moment
For Heaven's sake
Deep bruises - confuses
Just gonna' take...
Take all my freedom
Take back my time
Snatch all I can
While life is mine
Come on, come on Baby, Come on, Come on
Come on, come on Baby, Come on...
Come on, come on Baby, Come on, Come on
Come on, come on Baby, Come on...
Cough, Cough, Breath
Cough, Cough, Breath
Cough, Cough, Breath
Cough, Cough...

sounddesign