Quantum Sound Album Launch

In the frame of a year-long artistic residency at the Yale Quantum Institute in 2019, artist and technologist Spencer Topel and quantum physicists Kyle Serniak and Luke Burkhart collaborated to create Quantum Sound, the first-ever music created and performed directly from measurements of superconducting quantum devices. Using analog- and digital-signal-processing sonification techniques, the team transformed GHz-frequency signals from experiments inside dilution refrigerators into audible sounds. The project, produced by Florian Carle, was performed live at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut on June 14, 2019 as a structured improvisation using the synthesis methods. At the interface between research and art, Quantum Sound represents an earnest attempt to produce a sonic reflection of the quantum realm.

To celebrate the launch of the album, Florian Carle created and performed a sound and light show on the facade of the Yale Quantum Institute. In front of hundreds of attendees, the brutalist facade became the canvas for Quantum Sound to not only resonate but also lit up the menacing skies of New Haven. The light paterns highlighted the drones, grubble, and bells of the sonified quantum data. Near the end of the performance, a rain storm hit New Haven, adding lighting and thunders to the performance, for a perfect finale!

At the end of the performance, the album became available on digital platforms and vinyls were given away to attendees.