a permanent sound installation for Dodekalitten (2018-2026)
View footage of the monument and listen to an excerpt of Solkreds IV
Solkreds (Sun Circle) is a permanent, site-specific sound installation created for the monument Dodekalitten, one of Denmark’s largest works of art. Dodekalith comes from Greek and means twelve stones, just as monolith refers to a single stone. The monument consists of a stone circle 40 meters in diameter with 12 sculptures carved in solid granite, each up to 9 meters tall and weighing up to 50 metric tons. The monument is located on the Danish island of Lolland at a remote site overlooking the sea. The first sculptures were unveiled in 2012 and the work was completed in 2026. It took the Danish sculptor Thomas Kadziola about a year to complete each sculpture. A huge crane rig and oversized truck brought each uncarved stone to Thomas’ outdoor studio at his country home on the island of Lolland, where he worked from a lift with a hammer, chisel and various power tools, day in and day out, carving out the sculptures. Each stone has been specially extracted from stone quarries in Sweden, Norway and Greenland.
From the beginning, the monument was intended to be accompanied by music. In 2017 Wayne Siegel was commissioned to create a permanent sound installation for the monument with financial support from the Municipality of Lolland and The Danish Arts Foundation. Like the monument itself, the sound installation was a work in progress developed over several years.
The music is produced as a continuous ongoing process by a computer program that Wayne has created in the Max/MSP programming environment. The computer, amplifiers and other electronic equipment are all concealed in a specially constructed underground control room near the monument. The computer is online so that Wayne can control and update the system remotely. Solkreds is not a piece of music in the traditional sense, but rather a compositional system that continually creates a music based on rules, or algorithms, developed by the composer.
Solkreds alternates between an active state and a silent state. The music can be described as slowly evolving drones and harmonies that glide and intertwine with each other. Most often the music will be active for a period of 7-20 minutes and silent for a period of 4-7 minutes at a time, but the durations vary and are unpredictable. There are 52 different sections or moods that change every few minutes. A decision-making algorithm allows each section to be followed by several different possible sections. The order is not fixed but not random either. The choice of the next section is made based on which sections are best suited to follow any given section using a mathematical process known as Markov chains. These 52 sections can be anything from relaxed to tense. The idea behind Solkreds was to create a gradually changing sonic backdrop to the monument Dodekalitten, an open work that can be interpreted and experienced in many different ways.
Solkreds consists of four musical elements: drones, bells, water voices and sun songs. The drones were created as the first version of the work – Solkreds I. They are not pre-recorded, but are created continuously by a computer program. Most often, the drones will be active for 7-20 minutes at a time and silent for 4-7 minutes at a time, but the durations are affected by weather data, and are unpredictable and ever changing: like the weather. The drones in Solkreds I consisted of 12 electronic voices distributed between the speakers. The 12 voices each have their own progression, but they also relate to each other and form changing harmonies. There were originally 26 different harmonies or sections. The harmonies develop slowly over time without repetition, and the mood can range from calm to harsh.
Solkreds II contained some new musical events consisting of bell sounds, which occur relatively rarely and form a contrast to the slow drone sounds. The bell sounds are affected by the tide and occur more frequently at high tide than at low tide. They occur at intervals of between 20 and 80 minutes and last 2-5 minutes. The musical structures of the bells are created based on the harmonies that the drone sounds play at any given time and they are only heard when the drone sounds are active. In Solkreds II, the number of drone voices was expanded from 12 to 24, and the number of harmonies expanded from 26 to 52. The order of the 52 sections is not predetermined, but it is also not completely random. Each section can be followed by several other possible sections, and the decision is made by an algorithm when a section is completed.
In Solkreds III, 30 Sun Songs were added. Each day at noon the drones and bells fall silent and a Sun Song is heard. This is a daily event that occurs at solar noon, when the sun is highest in the sky at the local coordinates. The time varies from day to day within the range of 11:58 AM and 12:30 PM local standard time and an hour later during daylight saving time. There are 30 Sun Songs, one for each day of the lunar cycle. Sun Songs that are close to each other in the lunar cycle are musically similar, while Sung Songs that are far from each other are musically different. The Sun Songs are through-composed with a duration of 3–5 minutes each. They provide a contrast to the other, more random elements of Solkreds. Each Sun Song consists of twelve solo voices. The twelve sculptures are heard in a call and response dialogue with each other with some tutti passages, where all twelve voices sing together.
Solkreds IV is the final and permanent version. It was commissioned for the occasion of the completion of the artwork Dodekalitten and began playing, when the twelfth and final sculpture in the stone circle was inaugurated in June, 2026. In this version, the music is influenced by weather data. The computer continuously retrieves local weather data from a weather service, including temperature, wind speed, wind direction, air pressure and humidity. This data affects the composition in different ways. For example, the volume and sound texture are adapted to wind conditions, temperature and humidity, since these weather elements have a significant impact on how the sound installation is experienced at the site. In this version, a new musical element was added, which uses a form of sound synthesis called convolution, where two different sounds are “crossed” or “morphed”. The sounds consist of plucked tones morphed with various recordings of water. These “water voices” are activated at changing time intervals. They play along with the drones and follow the harmonies of the drones. The time intervals are affected by weather data.
Solkreds I was inaugurated in October 2018 and used the site’s original 4-channel sound system. In June 2019 a permanent sound system was installed, consisting of a 6.1 surround system inside the stone circle with six loudspeakers and a subwoofer concealed within specially constructed granite sitting stones to protect them from the weather. A control room was established using a modified water tank buried beneath the site, accessible through a man hole and connected to the speakers with underground wiring. A new version of the piece, Solkreds II, was unveiled on September 22, 2020 at 3:30 PM local time: the exact time of the autumn equinox. In October 2021 the permanent sound system was completed, now with a 12.2 surround system consisting of twelve loudspeakers and two subwoofers concealed within twelve granite sitting stones inside the stone circle, one in front of each sculpture. Solkreds III was inaugurated in April, 2022. Solkreds IV was inaugurated in June, 2026 on the occasion of the unveiling of the twelfth sculpture and the completion of Dodekalitten at an event attended by Her Majesty Queen Mary of Denmark.
Solkreds received financial support from the Dodekalitten Foundation, the Lolland Municipality, the Danish Business Authority’s LAG Pool, KODA Culture, the Augustinus Foundation and the Danish Arts Foundation.