P600: William ‚Bilwa‘ Costa, Klaus Janek, Luca Marini, Nicolas Wiese.
Site specific multi-source music.

The quartet project P600 refers to specific research factors of cognitive science / psycholinguistics as a premise to create conceptual and graphic scores for music/sound.
Consisting of four musicians, including one klangregie (sound director / live sound manipulation), P600 experiments with a range of acoustic, electro-acoustic, and acousmatic sound. Each musician acts as an independent sound source, but also sends an audio signal to a main mixer. The klangregie manipulates and spatializes their sounds, via the mixer and (quadraphonic) loudspeakers, according to a score. This is equally inspired by Dub Reggae producers and avantgarde composers like Stockhausen or Nono, in that the mixer becomes an instrument. The autonomy of each musician, combined with the klangregie’s use of their signals, offers a complex level of sound dynamics: ranging from micro to macro and barely audible to omnipresent. For each performance the quartet spends a period of days in the space, developing ideas which both relate and respond to the space – both sonically and conceptually.
Since the launch of the project in 2013, a ‚modular approach‘ has been established besides the group work: collectively conceived ideas, audio material and scores/concepts have been integrated and re-contextualized in solo and duo efforts – in ongoing studio experiments, published recordings, as well as concerts.

In 2021, P600 has been chosen for the ensemble support grant of Musikfonds (FEB). In an intensive autumn work period, two one-week residencies are taking place in Berlin, including three public ‚work in progress‘ performances: at Liebig12 project space and in the BHROX Bauhaus ReUse glass construction on Ernst-Reuter-Platz. The group’s new musical output will be examined and presented in three different versions: as a low volume version (Liebig12), as a full range version (BHROX) and as an ‚open lab version‘ over the course of six hours (BHROX).

Concert stereo mix (from several room recordings) Werkhalle Wiesenburg, Berlin 2020:

Stereo mix of the very first concert (several room recordings) – Quiet Cue Berlin 2013:

An excerpt from Liebig12, Berlin, Nov. 2013:

The P600 is an event-related potential (ERP), or peak in electrical brain activity measured by electroencephalography (EEG). It is a language-relevant ERP and is thought to be elicited by hearing or reading grammatical errors and other syntactic anomalies. Therefore, it is a common topic of study in neurolinguistic experiments investigating sentences processing in the human brain.