Paul Panhuysen - A Magic Square Of 5 To Look At • A Magic Square Of 5 To Listen To (Plinkety Plonk, 2004)

Paul Panhuysen is well regarded in sound research circles. Panhuysen and his wife Helène founded Het Apollohuis, a hotbed of new music activity in the Netherland. He is among the many to fall for the allure of the long string's sonorous abilities, channeling his fixation into intricate three dimensional matrices filled with resonating strings. That interest in filling a space with sound stuck with him in a variety of other experiences, among them "A Magic Square Of 5 To Look At • A Magic Square Of 5 To Listen To".

A magic square is a series of numbers arranged in a square grid so that the sum of every row, every column, and both diagonals from corner to corner are the same. Each number used is significant, and in its most general form for a magic square of n x n dimensions, the numbers that fill it will be 1 to n².

Panhuysen's magic square is both a visual and audible one of dimensions 5 x 5. The floor on which the visual component is present is pictured above, as the album cover, in a pattern with rough ties to the Indian Kubera-Kolam. The four measures of the computer generated score are played in a round with a five second displacement from one to the next through a quadraphonic sound system. The source sounds are a series of slowly shifting sine waves. For the listener wandering inside the square, the overall sound is ultimately the same, although the individual components of that sound are different depending on one's location. The cd-r is but one experience of the magic square. Were he to equip each listener with a pair of binaural microphones, he could possess an endless array of different experiences the sum of which would ultimately be the same for each.

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