This weekend, Sonos is celebrating the much lauded arrival of the Google Assistant on its wireless music systems with The Brilliant Sound Experience: an immersive, multi-sensory installation in London's Soho. Also highlighting new music from The National and slowthai, the installation is set to uncover the key elements that make up Sonos' signature sound – inviting you to hear, and unusually, see it, first-hand.
Sonos' mission statement focusses on inspiring the world to ‘listen better', and as such, the exhibition will visually deconstruct the sonic experience, exploring how sound works, how it layers into music, and why it resonates with us on an emotional level. Guests will see real-time visualisations of their brain's reaction to the music, allowing them to physically step inside the sound.
The installation reads interestingly in relation to the one Google presented with Johns Hopkins University’s Arts + Mind Lab earlier this year at Salone del Mobile in Milan, which explored the ways in which design, lighting and interior architecture directly impacts on our inner calm.
Real-time visualisations of musical reactions, at Sonos’ The Brilliant Sound Experience
In Milan, guests donned reactive Google-made wrist bands, which monitored heart rate, body temperature and moisture to track emotional response. At the London showcase, EEG headbands provide the scientific analysis, tracing the interrelation between brainwaves and soundwaves. To a backdrop of evocative songs from the Beggars Group labels – specifically chosen for their ability to spark reaction – guests can better understand their brain’s emotional responses through attractive visual maps, that look like fireworks of colourful neurons.
The second of two rooms asks: ‘When does sound become music?', illustrated by a dynamic composition by American band The National. The song layers the track ‘Rylan’ from new album I Am Easy To Find, and British rapper slowthai’s new single ‘Toaster’ from his debut album There’s Nothing Great About Britain. Visitors can expect to be immersed ‘both audibly and visually', explains The National's Scott Devendorf. Watch – and listen to – this space.
INFORMATION
The Brilliant Sound Experience, 2-4 August 2019. google.com; sonos.com
ADDRESS
Phonica
51 Poland Street
London, W1
-
The don’t-miss Swiss art museums for your next cultural flitMap these 11 Swiss art museums, worthy pitstops for the culturally curious, from Basel to Zürich and beyond
-
Discover Casa Roja, a red spatial exploration of a house in MexicoCasa Roja, a red house in Mexico by architect Angel Garcia, is a spatial exploration of indoor and outdoor relationships with a deeply site-specific approach
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
The Fender American Ultra II combine made-in-the-US quality with contemporary techA deluge of new products from Fender shows the iconic guitar manufacturer still knows how to innovate and entice
-
Is the new Google Pixel 9 Fold Pro the ultimate do-it-all device?Google's Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Fold Pro go head to head in our hands-on test of the latest generation of AI-infused smartphones
-
New earbuds for audio and AI interaction, courtesy of Google, Denon, and moreThe age of AI comes to your earbuds with the arrival of the new Google Pixel Buds Pro 2. We explore these and seven more of the newest and best-designed wireless earbuds as alternative choices
-
We meet Google’s head of phone design Claude Zellweger to explore the new Pixel 9 seriesGoogle’s annual drop of new mobile devices is here. We get hands on with the Pixel 9 family and discuss design, AI and smartphone longevity with Google’s Claude Zellweger
-
Folding Motorola razr 50 and 50 ultra enter the smartphone arena – plus the latest competitionMotorola and Samsung unveil cutting-edge new folding phones, while Honor’s photography-focused device proposes portraiture as the new hotness
-
Moog’s mood-altering Labyrinth and five more new synthesizers and sound toolsExplore soundscapes and ambient realms with these new synthesizers and other desktop composition tools for shaping all forms of audio
-
Is Google’s Gemini AI the best way of getting the most out of our machines?From summaries to lists of suntan lotion and swimsuits, Google reckons Gemini can save us all time and effort. We dig into new uses for AI
-
From Tangerine Dream to cult PlayStation hits, eight books chronicling the art of noise and playWe explore eight titles that get under the skin of music history, technological evolution and the art and experience of digital culture
