Sun Dial I (DCF77) – Eric Maltz

Title: Sun Dial I (DCF77)

Artist: Eric Maltz

Release Date: 19/02/2023

Format: Cassette, Photograph, NFT, Digital

Catalouge Number: EM001

Distribution: Rubadub

Genere: Ambient

Tags: Land Art, Sound Art, Installation Art, Field Recording, DCF77, Electronic Music

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Contact: info@ericmaltz.com

Sun Dial I (DCF77) is the documentation of a site responsive land art installation which challenges the current measurement of time. DCF77 is a long wave transmission station located in Mainflingen, Germany. This array of broadcast antennas sends out a powerful pulse each second at the frequency of 77.5khz. The purpose of this transmission is the synchronization of railway systems, telecommunication technology, radio, and television stations. The range of this broadcast is tremendous, covering a 2000km area – essentially bathing every living being and inanimate object within its radius in quantized, atomic time.

In contrast to this modern means of time keeping, I secretly installed a Sun Dial in the field where DCF77’s antennas are located. Constructed of natural objects found on site, this is ancient technology which is only accurate in its region and cannot operate without the sun. The juxtaposition of these time keeping methods (one ancient, local, dependent on nature and the other ultra-modern, trans-national, and machine based) creates a site responsive environment. Inaccessible behind a barbed wire fence, the sun dial stands alone, quietly generating its own fragile frequency, questioning our relationship with time.

This particular version of Sun Dial I (DCF77)’s documentation is an embellishment on the aural environment of the installation. I perform three different musical ideas in the environment, adding textures to the ambient recording and a recording of the pulse itself, which I was able to capture from bordering fence with an electromagnetic microphone. The fourth track is the unedited ambience and pulse.

This release comes in a variety of different formats. Physically as a limited edition/hand numbered cassette with beautiful artwork, an extremely limited run of photographs, a short film, an NFT series, and as streaming/downloadable audio recording.

Time, like sound, is invisible, fluid, without body. We can measure it, try to capture it in a wristwatch or an mp3 – but these are just representations of an event already past. We are living in the echo of the industrial revolution, and the world is becoming a carefully regulated factory. Through experiencing other modes of time perception, we can become less efficient and more human.

About the Artist: Eric Maltz is a bricoleur and sound artist who combines land art, field recordings, filmic improvisations, and durational performance to create installations and experimental sound environments. His practice is rooted in the exploration and perception of time, dream study, and finding connections between disparate objects. Underlying all is the premise that sound is a vehicle for emotion.