Knock on Wood is a collaboration between composer Tom Johnson and artist Martin Riches. Control system and software are by Dipl.Ing. Manfred Fox. It was shown for the first time at Circuit, centre d'art contemporain, Lausanne, for 6 weeks from 9th Feb. 2019, then at Tabakalera, San Sebastian 2019, at Meinblau, Berlin 2020, and at the Centro de Arte José Guerrero, Granada 2023-24.
The installation features ready-made wooden percussion instruments that were chosen by Tom Johnson, who lives in Paris, and sent to me in Berlin. They play complex rhythms automatically that would be difficult - but not impossible - to play accurately by hand. Each group of instruments is made from a different kind of wood, each with its own defining timbre.
The installation consists of five different groups of instruments, each playing in a cycle ranging from approximately 20 minutes to one hour. Each group plays its own melody independently of the others, and is followed by a silence:-
This results in drifting layers of sound with one, two or more groups playing at the same time punctuated by occasional periods of silence.
The five groups of instruments
Solution 571 This is one of the 572 sets of nine-beat rhythms in measures of 18 beats, calculated by the mathematician Franck Jedrzejewski. It is played on a woodblock with a high-pitched incisive sound.
Call and Response A trapezoid woodblock plays the Calls. The Responses are produced by a frog-like instrument played by a scraper mechanism.
Three Tempos In the recording the three instruments were played standing side by side but in an installation they can be spaced out 20 meters apart.
Quartet Played very fast on a log drum: four different pitches from one piece of wood. Quite difficult for a live player; the four notes are not lined up like they are on a marimba.
Deep Rhythms It combines a Latin salsa instrument, the cajón, and five Chinese temple blocks. The cajón keeps the beat and the temple blocks produce the deep rhythms according to rules laid down in The Geometry of Musical Rhythm by mathematician Godfried Toussaint.
The murals, the ovals in the exhibition layouts below, are enlargements of the diagrams drawn by Tom Johnson to explain his compositions. They were projected onto the walls with a beamer and skillfully traced with an acrylic felt-tip pen.
Knock on Wood at Circuit, Lausanne, 2019
Deep Rhythms is on a low platform - 5. The other instruments are mounted on open-backed pedestals made of brown MDF that contain the control systems.
Knock on Wood at Meinblau, Berlin, 2020
with Singuhr Projekte, Berlin
Knock on Wood, Centro de Arte José Guerrero, Granada, 2023
This was intended to be a low budget project but it was set in an exquisite space. To save transport costs I suggested using locally available pedestals, as in Tabakalera, but with some of the instruments on the floor protected by kerbs. The kerbs are cheap but chic 9cm. black-anodised aluminium air hose, containing ballast to keep them flat on the floor. They play a game with the elegant black cast-iron stanchions in the gallery.
It was inspired by a sketch by Tom Johnson, in our discussions at the start of the project.
However, the gallery did not approve and wanted on the original pedestals, to be transported from Berlin, assembled by myself and assistants and, after the exhibition, taken apart and returned to Berlin. I met the curator Eduard Escoffet - poet, sound artist and friend of Tom Johnson. In 10 minutes we agreed on a layout.
The side between the two doors is left completely clear as a circulation space and pedestals were distributed around the other three walls with framed diagrams and traced murals.
There was just one difficulty: the latest brand of Tesa "removable" adhesive tape was not as strong as the previous version that I had been using. Fortunately Domingo Zorrilla, artist and the master craftsman of the gallery, immediately solved the problem by improvising wood blocks screwed to the inside corners of the pedestals. These worked perfectly! This suggested a better method of assembling pedestals in the future.
I am also interested in trying a combination of concealed steel pins and magnets, inspired by the removable panels on some splendid computer cabinets that were made for me for an exhibition at Gallery Nord in Berlin.
Construction
The instruments were bought by Tom Johnson in Paris and sent to me in Berlin.
Each group of instruments looked different but I wanted the installation as a whole to look unified. This was done by making all the holders for the instruments and beaters from the same material and with standardised dimensions. I ordered eight strips of 20 mm black MDF, cut to size for me by my wood shop: each strip 10cm wide and 2 metres long.
I cut the 2 meter MDF strips to size with a fine-bladed Japanese saw, using a specially-made guide locked onto the strip to keep the saw blade dead straight. (This could easily have been done with a circular saw but I didn't fancy the black MDF sawdust.)
The undersides of the bases
were drilled out with Forstner
bits to accomodate the clamps
and Wago connectors.
All the glued joints between
adjacent MDF strips were
reinforced by concealed
6mm dowels.
The wood blocks rest on soft rubber strips and are held in place by soft rubber straps. The flexible hinges for the drumsticks were made of 10cm wide strips of 20 mm sorbo rubber; the same dimensions and colour as the black MDF - but bendy! Holes were cut in the sorbo rubber with a DIY 10mm. tubular drill to take the shafts of the drumsticks. The drum sticks are powered by a bolt fired upwards from a solenoid. These rugged solenoids are spare parts, ordered from a pin-ball machine supplier. The connections to the solenoids are protected by black vacuum-formed plastic covers.
Electronic control system by Dipl. Ing. Manfred Fox
Each group of instruments has its own independent Raspberry Pi controller. The data for each group was extracted from the MIDI files generated by Tom's Finale score and stored on an SD card. Each controller, with its SD card-holder, its power supplies, twist-lock output sockets, on/off switch and mains cable connection is housed in an aluminium case, and placed inside one of the MDF pedestals. The pedestals have open backs and stand 10 cm from the wall. Each controller is connected to the instruments in its group by heavy-gauge rubber cables - a type that naturally lies flat on the floor. The cables run along the walls of the gallery. However, the six Deep Rhythms instruments all sit on a single low platform; their controller and their connecting cables are underneath the platform.
Other projects by Tom Johnson and Martin Riches
1983 The Reversibles / Flute Playing Machine / DAAD Galerie, Berlin
1990 The Chord Catalogue / Sound Machine / Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin
1993 Theme music: Atelier de création radiophonique / Sound Machine / Paris
1994 Linear Percussion / 24 Piece Percussion Installation / Akdemie der Künste, Berlin
2000 8 Pieces / 24 Piece Percussion Installation / Parochialkirche, Berlin Do it yourself / Installation / Parochialkirche (the first of Tom's tilework series)
