planes (2009)


Sound installation by Gilles Aubry for the Laptopia group exhibition at Bat Yam Museum, Tel Aviv.

Jan 15 - March 15 2009

I’ve spent many hours recording and listening to flying airplanes from the ground. I like to follow the minimal variations in their slow, continuous sounds and how their reflections reveals the architecture, illuminating sonically the topography of the place. Touched by these sounds, I become their object, or perhaps the object of my own contemplation.

The composition planes presents a selection of airplanes sounds recorded from the ground of 3 cities – Berlin, Rome and Tel Aviv. The files have been divided into 8 frequency bands which are played sequentially, slightly overlapping eachother. While each band reveals a specific dimension of the acoustic space that has been recorded, the listener is immersed in sound. The listening process is presented here as as a full-body experience which changes over time according to the frequency variations.

With its very simple structure and its abstract planes of sound, the piece openly refers to the esthetic of minimal art while drawing attention to an everyday listening situation.

isobel map of Berlin Tegel Airport - image by Gilles Aubry

Listen to a sound excerpt of planes