Concert

Immersion: Quadraphonic music concert
from the Polish Radio Experimental Studio

LOCATION

Cinema

ADMISSION

Tickets are required

A photo of analog synthesizers on a table with various knobs and cables. In the foreground, a blurred figure holding a camera is visible.

Quadraphonic sound is a four-channel sound transmission system. In the 1970s, it was supposed to enable spatial music listening in private homes. Unfortunately, in the reality of communist Poland, the chances of this happening were marginal. Apart from a few devices designed for consumers, a quadraphonic program was broadcast experimentally from Wrocław for some time.

At that time, the Polish Radio Experimental Studio had a quadraphonic production and listening system, which was facilitated by Oskar Hansen's Black Room plan. "The very arrangement of sound sources (...) has a very significant impact on the impression made by music," wrote Bogusław Schaeffer. Did the Studio's composers dream that their works would be heard in quadraphonic sound in the comfort of their own homes? This did not happen, and most of the quadraphonic versions of the Studio's compositions have been forgotten.

In his research, Antoni Beksiak is gradually tracking down quadraphonic recordings and attempting to bring them back into cultural circulation. On March 9, in the Museum's cinema hall, we will be able to listen to recordings of works from outside the collection of several items that have appeared relatively regularly at concerts over the last half-century.