5CD – Macro

Sound waves that transport us on a journey without a destination, a continuous exploration of reverberation as an expressive medium, primary material used in a range of combinations, divided into 5 CDs, each lasting an hour. On Expanse, Stefan Goldmann’s fifteenth studio album, each of the five parts presented has a distinct psychoacoustic imprint, an incorporeal spatial structure that presents different states of mind, modeled in evanescent and dilated architectures in which the listener can find refuge. Sound then becomes the fixed element, and it is perception that becomes dynamic in the absence of a linear development. It is only the persistence of resonance through stasis that makes the experience come alive, and this shifts the entire design of the work more towards installation art and architecture, shunning any classical musical form. Goldmann is no stranger to such frontier explorations. In Call and Response, released in 2024 on Ash International, he also used artificial reverbs, both vintage and current, hardware and software. With Expanse, however, the next step is that of complete immersion: an intentional abolition of rhythmic, harmonic or narrative events in favor of prolonged exposure to pure acoustic phenomena, which behave more like atmospheric conditions than musical structures. The listener is thus encouraged to take an active role in the construction of meaning: there is no pre-established direction, no point of arrival, only a boundless sound field in which to orient oneself or get lost. Even the choice of format is certainly not arbitrary but emphasises the modular and autonomous nature of each sound environment, suggesting an overall vision, like connected rooms of an invisible building, designed according to purely auditory logic. The technical characteristics of the carefully modeled reverbs determine parameters such as density, decay, virtual dimension, spectral filtering – all elements that shape the perceptive behavior of sound and construct the sensation of a space that does not exist, except in the mind of the listener. Each part of the work can thus be experienced as an environment in itself, but also as a segment of a larger continuum, in which time seems to expand to the point of losing recognisable contours. The listening experience becomes meditative, almost ritual, inviting a form of total presence, free of distractions: not only a sound work, but a sensorial device designed to amplify listening itself.

 

Stefan Goldmann – Expanse