This article was taken from the May 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Nik Nowak's Panzer is no ordinary tank: its 13 huge speakers can be raised hydraulically for an ear-splitting sound display. It's a massive, 40,000-watt mobile sound system -- but it doesn't play club music. "People see the tank and expect techno," says Nowak, a 30-year-old sound artist. "But what they get is a pretty rough, primal soundscape. It's like an abstract poem, but more violent."
Nowak composes the music himself, using sub-bass frequencies that -- at 25hz -- are bordering on the fringes of human hearing, particularly for adults. His aim is to recreate the intense, physical reverberations one experiences inside a club, if not the tunes themselves. "I'm someone who went clubbing often," he explains, "and those low frequencies affect your body in a very extreme way. The kick-bass -- it really feels like your ass is being hit."
Berlin-based Nowak says he first became intrigued by sub-frequencies aged 14, when a gun went off beside his right ear. The hearing in that ear was damaged, and ever since he has found it irritating to listen to any high-pitched noise. "But when I'm in the studio, I'm working with bass frequencies that have a clear separation from higher sounds -- and so I don't get that irritation. So that's why I'm interested."
Nowak has performed with the Panzer in his art studio, a gallery, an outdoor music festival and even a TEDx conference in Berlin. He likes the idea that he has transported these violent sounds from their usual club context and into external society. "A club is like a temporary anarchistic zone," he says. "Through extreme acoustics, a club changes the way you perceive things. And to build this tank was to bring that experience into the world outside."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
