Finn Borath & Boris de Klerk create work which straddles the boundaries between sound art, performance, and light installation. From a musical piece for the grid in an empty theatre hall to improvised concerts using only fluorescent lightbulbs as instruments, often starting from the idea of the ‘empty’, unremarkable, or taken-for-granted space, their work is an amplification of the senses and the world around us. They utilize various techniques from media art, musique concrète, theatre, performance, electro-acoustic, and improvised music.
For the Gaudeamus Festival 2026, they broaden their focus on fluorescent light by amplifying it with rotating Leslie speakers, which are typically used for Hammond organs. The old-fashioned fluorescent lamp, which is increasingly disappearing from daily life, generates a light that is always in motion, never stands still, but gently vibrates and pulsates. The rotating speakers amplify this effect by continuously moving the sound through the space. A composition in constant flux; fading, sputtering, flaring up, and humming to the rhythm of the speakers, the space, and the light.
This work is commissioned by Gaudeamus and financially supported by Fonds Podiumkunsten.
Photo © Kate Hummel