The Phlegraean Fields, are a wide caldera situated in the west of Naples, where many archaeological structures are preserved. Some of these structures had a thermal function, like the Temple of Mercury, built at the beginning of the Augustus era (about 31 b.C.). This structure is still undamaged nowadays. Known as “The Echo Temple” for its several acoustic reflections caused by a dome vault and by water on the floor; in some points the ground emerges and forms a little dry isle.
I studied this temple, making some field recordings, and then researching the impulse response. Finally, I arranged to make a number of on-site musical recordings, providing the materials for a multitrack acousmatic work, “…in the Temple of Mercury”. This work results from listening-to the place, and interacting with its environment.
There is a precise relation with the environment, which becomes a composing parameter: re-tracing, by means of the music, the visitor’s experience as s/he enters the Temple and behaves in ways strictly linked to its sounding environment. This behavior often manifests itself in “active” listening, in the production of sounds and noises, in musical interaction with the environment.
In order to stimulate the environment several performances have been realized with one instrument that, if it’s played in many ways, produces flute-like or pulsed sound materials, and finally with a little electroacoustic modification, feedback sounds. This instrument is made of a plastic corrugated pipe with which I started a personal research project (“Spare Parts Sound Project”) that aims to the recycling of common objects into a musical instruments.
