NEWS - What’s happing in and around NRF Records and Tapes
NRF’s “Sky Etudes” in world’s oldest record shop
Published 041022
D'Amato Records in Valletta, Malta is the world's oldest record outlet having been in the same place since 1885. Now also featuring NRF Records "Sky Etudes" - the first Quadraphonic vinyl made in Europe in 30 years. Here shown with one of the owners - still in the D'Amato family!
D'Amato Records 98/99, Triq San Ġwann, Valletta,
Maltainfo@damato.com.mt
The Fall from Grace
- by “Echoes of Valletta”
Published 280922
The great painter Caravaggio has one of his magnificent works in Malta, inspiring the project. The painting is called «St. Gerome writing», and the saint’s writing could well describe the project content. Reading about his life, we find:
«As a student, Jerome engaged in the superficial escapades and sexual experimentation of students in Rome; he indulged himself quite casually but he suffered terrible bouts of guilt afterwards. To appease his conscience, on Sundays he visited the sepulchers of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. This experience reminded him of the terrors of hell:
Often I would find myself entering those crypts, deep dug in the earth, with their walls on either side lined with the bodies of the dead, where everything was so dark that almost it seemed as though the Psalmist's words were fulfilled, Let them go down quick into Hell.
[Psalm 55:15] Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but filtering down from above through shafts, relieved the horror of the darkness. But again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Virgil, "Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent" -
"On all sides round horror spread wide; the very silence breathed a terror on my soul» - Wikipedia.
What is this about?
The project aims to explore the cultural and social melting pot that is Valletta as a backdrop for a sound-art piece featuring a diverse set of musicians and compositional styles.
Watch this space…
Novel NRF transmission line
- what’s happening in the lab?
Why must speakers look so boring? And cost a ton of money? No reason at all, as we found out after experimenting a bit using heavy duty drain pipes, special damping compounds and a good selection of speaker drive units. And as always, we chose the transmission line layout for an extended bass response. This little critter can rock our studio space all on his lonesome!
Published 280922
Roar Sletteland and Paal Rasmussen (NRF) demonstrated the possibilities that using loudspeakers in works of art opens up in a workshop at BEK, Bergen on the 27 and 30 of September 2021.
Aesthetics, engineering and purpose came together in this course. Theparticipants were given insight into how speakers work, as well as the possibilities and limitations of loudspeakers in an artistic context.
The course was produced by BEK and Lydgalleriet.
NRF speakers for Norwegian sound art gallery
Lydgalleriet
At its most advanced, it consisted of 21 speakers placed below and above the listener for an enveloping experience.
The speakers were the result of a design process that had several
NRF developed a 3D surround sound system for the Norwegian sound art gallery «Lydgalleriet»
dogmatic restrictions making the process both novel and rewarding.
Measuring the completed system in the room, the respons goes from 13Hz to 22kHz, and has a very flat and extended bass region. Using 4 subwoofers enables artists to experiment with «rolling bass» compositions. The design is documented in a PDF document available on request.
NRF Records and Tapes is a part of Norsk Radiofabrikk, Norway