Intercom

Installation | Kevin Shmidt.  
Music | Pablo Geeraert, Dominic Walther Battista 

2022

The recordings were heavily treated and re-synthesized to create a sense of straightforward musical narrative: the piece starts with rather clear soundscapes and ends with an aggressive and distorted beat. The industrial sounds take over the natural ones until the natural ones become barely audible. Maybe music and sounds can help us realize what we focus on and what we sometimes forget about. 

Dominic Walther Battista and Pablo Geeraert had the opportunity to compose pieces specifically for Kevin Shmidt’s INTERCOM sound installation at the Joliette Art Museum. As discussed with the museum and the artist, the compositions aimed to address the themes of gentrification, resource extraction, and global warming. The music is therefore entirely made out of field recordings taken at various contrasting locations: industrial areas of Montreal, and natural landscapes in Gaspésie. 

More about Intercom here

More about Kevin Shmidt here