A commission from the festive programme ‘Carillon, 500 years’, the City of Bruges,
Brugge Plus vzw and the Concertgebouw Brugge. Klankentoren is an installation of sound recordings of Bruges’ bells. The installation has been transferred to the Concertgebouw, where it is part of a permanent exhibition of sound installations.
The Klankentoren is made up of a number of vertically stacked modules. The modules allow you to hear a sound that is moving. The idea was inspired by the sound of the bell itself, for a bell sounds completely different when it is stationary to when it swings to and fro in the bell tower.
The modules were inspired by the Leslie speaker, invented by Don Leslie. The Leslie speaker is a rotating loudspeaker with a unique sound, usually associated with the Hammond organ which often used it. The moving sound is created by the rotating elements. These are specially fashioned panels which cause the sound to reverberate in ever-different ways. Thus the sound constantly changes according to the speed at which the panels rotate.