Sound of Freedom
How does it affect people to hear their favorite nursery rhyme for hours on end? What can noise-torture do to a human being?
Musician and performer Amund Sveen Sjølie investigates the nature of warfare, through music used as weapons, and weapons used as music. Music is one of the strongest ways of engaging people emotionally. In the form of music, sound can be turned into a weapon. In the global war on terror, music has been present both in the battlefield – to build you up – and in the interrogation rooms – to break you down. The ability of music to create ecstasy, to make you «loose yourself», might also make music the perfect tool to literally make you loose yourself – forever.
Music major Hilding Runar of the Norwegian Army:
“Music can change peoples lives.”
Sergeant Mark Hadsell of the US Army:
“If you play heavy metal for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That’s when we come in and talk to you.”
Charles Darwin:
“Musical notes and rhythm were first acquired for the sake of charming the opposite sex.”
Nato-soldiers in Afghanistan:
“To be in combat is worth the three months without sex… it is better than fucking!”
Sound of Freedom is a performance about the physics of sound, the rhetoric of weapon production, acoustic bazookas, the ability of war to create meaning, and children songs used for torture.
Sound of Freedom was nominated for a HEDDA-prize in 2012.
Sound of Freedom
How does it affect people to hear their favorite nursery rhyme for hours on end? What can noise-torture do to a human being?
Musician and performer Amund Sveen Sjølie investigates the nature of warfare, through music used as weapons, and weapons used as music. Music is one of the strongest ways of engaging people emotionally. In the form of music, sound can be turned into a weapon. In the global war on terror, music has been present both in the battlefield – to build you up – and in the interrogation rooms – to break you down. The ability of music to create ecstasy, to make you «loose yourself», might also make music the perfect tool to literally make you loose yourself – forever.
Music major Hilding Runar of the Norwegian Army:
“Music can change peoples lives.”
Sergeant Mark Hadsell of the US Army:
“If you play heavy metal for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That’s when we come in and talk to you.”
Charles Darwin:
“Musical notes and rhythm were first acquired for the sake of charming the opposite sex.”
Nato-soldiers in Afghanistan:
“To be in combat is worth the three months without sex… it is better than fucking!”
Sound of Freedom is a performance about the physics of sound, the rhetoric of weapon production, acoustic bazookas, the ability of war to create meaning, and children songs used for torture.
Sound of Freedom was nominated for a HEDDA-prize in 2012.