Osaka Congress Hall (EXPO 70)

For the EXPO World Exhibition in Osaka in 1970, Arne Nordheim composed to commission the music for the Scandinavian pavilion. That was the multimedia installation Poly-Poly – a combination of art, architecture and music. In this project, Nordheim continued the experimentation he had begun with his sound material for Arnold Haukeland’s aural sculpture at the Institute for the Blind in Skjeberg. This time, he prepared six tapes of varying length with different electroacoustic material joined in a loop. He calculated that if the tapes were played continuously, the combination of sounds would only be repeated 102 years later. Poly-Poly was played in Osaka for six months, between March and September, and over that period the set of sounds never repeated.

Nordheim later produced new versions for concert and for disc. The concert version was entitled Lux et tenebrae (1971) and lasted 21:48. Fem Osaka-biter [Five Osaka fragments], 1973) for disc lasts 17:06. In 2007, Nordheim and Mats Claesson also produced a seven-channel version lasting 12:05, titled Die alte Duft [The old scent]. (jc)