Hemmelig Tempo

Hemmelig Tempo is a quasi-scientific, improvisational and partly satirical Norwegian sound experiment group notable for performances, concerts, installations, satirical video productions, album releases and a number of collaborations with artists and ensembles in other fields. Characteristically dressed in laboratory-coats, their output has been described as a "strong commentary to our technological existence".

Biography

Hemmelig Tempo made their first public appearance dressed in white laboratory coats in Bergen, Norway in 2007. Combining a quasi-scientific approach with performance, improvisation and avant-garde electronical sound art, the group became known for their satirical role-play and "live research" performances featuring a vast number of diy electronical gadgets, synthesizers, transistor radios, household objects and machines.

During the Bergen Electronic Music & Art Festival in 2008, the group contributed with an installation in which the group replaced themselves with three toy robots producing random Aleatoric music. Reflecting the group's sense of satire, the installation was called Do we really need musicians?. The same year, the group also collaborated with the Norwegian contemporary dance ensemble Molitrix for a series of dance performances called Skin. Across the following years, the group produced a series of YouTube videos with titles such as 6 Unlikely Duos, 4 Unlikely Trios, and Bicycle Mixing Session. The latter experiment in Spatial music, described as a combination of a public health initiative and sound-engineering, consisted of three bicycles equipped with an amplifier and speaker which transmitted the sound of pre-recorded musical instruments. By placing microphones at each extreme side of a large-sized hall and manoeuvering the bicycles around the hall, a giant mixing system was in effect created, "allowing unpredictable volume and panning effects that could not be replicated with a normal mixing board" (op.cit).