Jan Jelinek Turned Captain Ahab's Voice into a Mysterious Instrument
Jan Jelinek's soundtrack for audiovisual software SEASCAPE – polyptych is a mesmerizing and haunting musical journey that transforms the voice of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick into an otherworldly instrument. Working in collaboration with Canadian new media artist Clive Holden, Jelinek based his compositions on image and acoustic source material from the classic film.
On ten eerie and sinister abstract soundscapes Ahab's voice is used to control various parameters in a synthesizer system. Its mysterious sounds creep in, boiling, bubbling and whispering in a million alien voices. But in the end it's always one voice – Captain Ahab pulling the sonic strings behind the curtain.
Read on for Jan's comment about the genesis of the album's idea.
On ten eerie and sinister abstract soundscapes Ahab's voice is used to control various parameters in a synthesizer system. Its mysterious sounds creep in, boiling, bubbling and whispering in a million alien voices. But in the end it's always one voice – Captain Ahab pulling the sonic strings behind the curtain.
Read on for Jan's comment about the genesis of the album's idea.
Jan Jelinek
In the first half of John Huston's film Moby Dick, captain Ahab is invisible – he is an abstract sonic event, transmitted by his wooden prosthesis, which produces a threatening knocking when Ahab walks alone across the deck. SEASCAPE takes up this idea: Only an abstract sound indicates the captain's presence.
