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Four Voices


Martin Riches adjusting the Four Voices
Tuning the Voices at the Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2016

Following the success of the Singing Machine I started on four similar machines. The voices have smaller blowers than the Singing Machine and at present there are no air pressure regulators - the pressure is regulated by adjustable leaks.

Technology

diagram of the Four Voices, including detail
The music data is stored in a computer. It sends the pitch and vowel instructions, via an I2C network, to 12 microprocessors, 3 for each Voice. that control their motors, blowers and valves. The Voices can be spread out along a 25 meter cable - maybe longer, I haven't tried.

score by Masahiro Miwa
Masahiro Miwa wrote a score and we had a week-long email exchange with my recordings and his corrections. I demonstrated them for three days at KONTAKTE 2017 at the Akademie der Künste where they turned out to be extremely popular.
photo of Four Voices and Singing Machine
KONTAKTE: Biennial for Electro-acoustic Music and Sound Art, 2017
Academy of Arts, Berlin, in collaboration with Singuhr, Berlin

On the right is their prototype, the Singing Machine.

Field Kitchen Academy     31 July - 24th August 2022
Curated by Ece Pazabaşı

Martin Riches demonstrating his Four Voices
Colette Copeland, a resident at the academy writes:
"Martin Riches brought his magical sound machines - sculptural works that produce human speech. This was definitely one of the highlights of the week."


to speaking machines

picture of a spider
a space