The Rain Machine consists of a system of up to 64 electronically controlled water valves that individually outputs drops of water with high precision.
It was constructed as a part of ‘COVER’ a choreographed sound installation in three parts by Location X.
The sound of the installation consists solely by the sequences of the transient sound of impact from droplets hitting the floor. Variations on timbre and volume is achieved by changing the sizes of the drops and the water pressure.
In the performance ‘COVER’ the instrument was playing a specially created composition with a duration of 20 min. with contributions from choreographer Taneli Törmä and set designer Kasper Hansen. Special software was written for the composition to make a sense of controlled random that would at one time resemble falling rain but have the ability to fade into completely controlled sequences. Other implementations in the specialized software used in the composition were based on procedural functions and symmetrical patterns.
Listen to an exerpt from the installation here (recorded in Aarhus on May 5th. 2018):
The idea of the rain machine was conceived by Kasper Hansen as a part of ‘COVER’ and further developed together with Taneli Törmä and Søren Lyngsø Knudsen.
Technical/electronical design, programming, construction and composition by Søren Lyngsø Knudsen. Light design by Petri Tuhkanen.
