Since the early 1970s, Bill Fontana has made art from the amplified sound of chosen objects and places, interweaving discreet sounds into subtle acoustic landscapes. Following the disastrous fire on 15 April 2019 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, he designed a live sound sculpture across multiple audio channels at the IRCAM studios, using seismic accelerators attached to ten of the cathedral’s bells. Reduced to silence during the restoration works to the building, these bells nevertheless remained extraordinary recesses of sound. Each one responds through its tonality to the noises of the restoration worksite, the wind and the murmurs of the city. These complex sounds are then mixed into an ensemble relayed through loudspeakers into the stone-vaulted, perfect octagon of Wells Cathedral’s Undercroft. 

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Through this installation, Wells, England joins Paris, France for a shared communion of sound and hope.

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Silent Echoes is a co-production by IRCAM and the Centre Pompidou, in partnership with the public body overseeing the preservation and restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, which granted access to the worksite. It has been brought to Wells by Project Factory.