Ignant and Mosche Present BOGEN: A Sonic Portal to Another Frequency

When Jason Heath, Founder and Creative Director of Berlin-based sound design agency Mosche, came across a sonic-sculptural installation by New York artist Kevin Stahl – twelve hulking subwoofers welded together in the primeval form of an arch – he was intrigued. “The installation is massive, with these engine-like elements. It’s made of 12 subwoofers, powered by a car battery and a Pioneer car radio. There are no external cables, so it can play for hours on its own. It’s got this raw, automotive feel to it – almost brutal,” Jason describes. “Kevin grew up in Brooklyn, where walking through the streets meant being constantly bombarded with the sound, like the bass from SUVs driving by. That inspired what he calls this ‘driving-sound sculpture.’ He bought 12 subwoofers, stacked them, and welded the top ones together – pure car power, built by hand.”

As a sound artist and designer, the contrast between the work’s deceptively simple appearance and imposing sonic impact prompted him to reach out to Stahl. “I found it fascinating because, on the one hand, it’s visually easy to grasp – you see the arch and immediately get it. But the sound threw me off,” Jason says. His expression of appreciation sparked a dialogue that led to the sculpture finding a new home at Mosche’s studio. “Kevin thought it would be great for the artwork to continue living in the context of a music agency rather than gathering dust,” he notes. Their mutual contemplation of its next iteration manifested in an exhibition at Berlin gallery BAM Works in spring 2024. “Sound for the sake of sound,” Jason describes it. “It was purely about experimenting.”

As Claire Mouchemore wrote in the program note for BOGEN’s installation at BAM Works noted, “the arch offers an opportunity to face and move through discomfort, rejecting the usual fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses. Defined by its eerie characteristics and inherent sense of impending doom, the score was designed to be experienced as a physical sensation rather than just heard.” During the exhibition vernissage, Jason observed viewers’ reactions. The imposing sculpture stood at the end of the space, emitting a pulsating soundscape. On arrival, people viewed it “as if it were a kind of black hole or a foreign object,” as Jason puts it. “The visual aesthetic is inviting, but the sound is so muddled, almost infrasonic, so deep and low. People hesitated at first, but eventually ventured in. It wasn’t just about listening; you had to move through it to feel it more intensely. It was like a sonic bath.”

Just as Kevin Stahl’s installation captured Jason’s attention, Jason’s exhibition resonated with Clemens Poloczek, Ignant’s Founder and Creative Director, who proposed layering a kinetic dimension to BOGEN: dance, captured through a short film and editorial to which Jason would set an original soundscape. “The sound I produced wasn’t the arch’s actual sound,” he says with a wry smile. “If it were, it would’ve been this relentless ‘bo-bo-bo-bo’ sound – the kind of background noise you’d instantly want to mute. It may look inviting and harmless, but when it’s on, it’s almost like a weapon. Kevin said it triggers a warning signal in your body, like the feeling of an impending natural disaster.”

BOGEN’s disconcerting energy is what dancer Meyron channels and responds to in the one-minute film and accompanying photo shoot, forming the next iteration of the sculpture’s story: fluid yet fragmentary, as otherworldly as the sound her movements interpret. The serenely warm tangerine glow of the backdrop clashes with the unsettling soundscape emitted by the sculpture. “It plays with contrasts – the sturdy and the fragile, the loud and the silent.” Amongst the palette of its heavily industrial ‘sound ecosystem’ is one of Jason’s personal favorites noises: “a ship’s foghorn, low and rumbling. It’s grounding,” he says.

The impact of BOGEN’s soundscape rests on brief interludes of silence. The incredibly powerful aspect – which could be termed the ‘negative space’ of sound – often goes overlooked in the commercial sound design industry in which Mosche has carved out an artistic niche. “Even when you talk to kids at the table, when someone whispers, they listen even more intently,” Jason reflects. “Quietness and silence are so intriguing, yet there often isn’t space for them in advertising.” Quiet is essential to Jason’s creative process. “I’m a big fan of simplicity. My studio is quite minimal because I don’t want to feel restricted by the equipment around me. It’s like trying to paint a picture when the colours are already chosen for you.”

To him, good sound design is “something you can listen to over and over without it becoming annoying. It should feel comforting, like a caress,” he says. “That’s also the overlap with Ignant – it’s sophisticated, but easy on the eyes and ears.” If Ignant had a sound, how would he describe it? He pauses. “It would be light, warm, ambient. Something you can sink into for an hour or two, without rushing. It’s an analogue sound, sepia-toned and sandy. Like starting and ending with a blank page.”

Punctuating the otherwise blank page of Mosche’s studio, the pitch-black BOGEN towers silently towards the ceiling. Something about its presence suggests its afterlives – sonic, visual, kinetic, and otherwise – haven’t yet reached their limit.