Between Two Suns

BACKGROUND Among the expansive variety of soundtracks that accompany much of contemporary artists’ cinema, electroacoustic scores have in recent years become a realm of focus and production. Electroacoustic composition has the possibility to include all sounds relating to a given film’s world as part of the compositional work (unlike music, Foley or FX), thereby expanding the temporal forces of the sound in relation to image (Anderson, 2010). Although many filmmakers and artists have experimented with electroacoustic soundtrack composition for its powerful rendering of environments, rarely has pure phonography been engaged with as the primary basis of a soundtrack. CONTRIBUTION Between Two Suns is a 17-minute single-screen work with a soundtrack that specifically uses an array of contact, parabolic and geo microphones to map the abandoned military island of Vallisaari in southern Finland. The work builds on and extends the field of electroacoustic sound composition in artist moving image work by specifically composing with field recordings to detail and reveal Finland’s most bio-diverse environment. SIGNIFICANCE Between Two Suns was created during a 3-month residency at the Helsinki International Artists Program (HIAP) and was funded by the Australia Council of the Arts’ studio residency program ($10,000). The work was commissioned by the Bogong Centre for Sound Culture and was included in the electroacoustic sound-cinema program The Ecology of Place, which was presented at RMIT's SAB Cinema in 2017. The screening program ran over three days and was funded by the City of Melbourne and RMIT's School of Art. It also included an artist’s booklet and CD that was produced by Melbourne design studio Public Office.