Ganzfeld is Sukandar Kartadinata and Liz Allbee. Together the two musicians comprise a mobile audio spatialization unit featuring hacked & self-built quadraphonic trumpet & quintaphonic bass guitar.
Kartadinata and Allbee radiate their instrumental voices into space through the use of their homemade dispersive audio system, which is integrated into their instrument cases and also consists of adhesive transducer speakers with luminescent panels. This battery-powered system is ‘off-the-grid’ in order to allow them to explore unconventional spaces and locations.
The duo aims to activate the unique resonant architectures and surfaces of each performance-installational space—windows, doors, stairs, walls, chairs, vents, vans, buses, boxes, insides, outsides, ups and downs—to create a full-field, immersive and musically moving sonic environment.
Liz Allbee is an American composer-performer living in Berlin. She performs most often with trumpet, electronics and voice. Her investigations encompass electro-acoustic composition, instrument creation and improvisation. Recurring themes in her work include extensions & embodiments: the human interplay with instruments, objects, and high and low technologies, through which she can reconfigure/reconsider hands and the tools that make them. In addition to solo work, other projects include Splitter Orchester, Pareidolia, Ganzfeld, The Elks, The Liz, AnimalNacht and Mensch Mensch Mensch.
Sukandar Kartadinata studied computer science at FH Karlsruhe but developed most of his skills while working at the music technology institutions ZKM, STEIM, and CNMAT, as well as at the Topophonien project. It was from the latter that he derived his interest in spatialization. The main focus of his work is on interfacing between real and virtual domains, typically via sensors and associated technology. Where projects allow he strives for embedded solutions, seeking to imbue his instruments with a stronger identity untethered from the typical tangle of assorted gear. In his musical practice, Kartadinata combines the above with his electric guitar playing where the emphasis is on improvisation and extended playing techniques.