Marcus Schmickler: Fortuna Ribbon @ Intonal Festival, Malmö

Marcus Schmickler performing ’Fortuna Ribbon’ at Intonal Festival, Malmö, Sweden (2015-04-25) Cologne-based Marcus Schmickler’s quadrophonic performance ’Fortuna Ribbon’ toys with perception. Combination tones and OAEs, acoustic emissions produced by the cochlea, Schmickler’s interest revolves around the brain’s adaptation to auditory stimuli. In his ’Palace of Marvels’ release on Editions Mego, Schmickler explores a new interpretation of the 1960’s “Shepard tone“ discovery. When listening to a Shepard tone, we are faced with the illusion that the pitch is either continuously ascending or descending though it is apparently never reaching a limit. Starting from such phenomena, Schmickler’s multi-channel piece ’Fortuna Ribbon’ twists the fundamentals of musical practice – rhythm, sound, and pitch.