Whether it’s at home, in a practice room or in a recording studio, unwanted room reverberation can reduce the listening pleasure of any instrument. This is especially true for an acoustic piano with its complex spectrum of sound which can easily highlight unwanted resonances across the whole of the audible spectrum.
Even at the Piano Shop in Bath with its nine intimate showrooms, we are keenly aware of reflective wall surfaces that can detract the musician from hearing the clear bell tones and deep resonances from a Steinway’s perfected sound.
At home, soft furnishing, curtains, sofas and carpets all counter the rooms reflections to deaden the unwanted reverberation, while in the studio a great deal of expense is often incurred providing acoustic panels or anechoic absorbers.
Acoustic Art Panels from Anna Spakowska
We’re excited to share with you our recent Art Collaboration in The Piano Shop Bath.
Polish artist and designer, Anna Spakowska, creates artworks which are truly one of a kind.
Acoustic Art Panels can enhance a space by adding beautiful designs while improving the acoustics of a room. It’s a great solution for spaces where aesthetics and sound quality matters – a perfect match for us, as we love great design and great sounding instruments.
Custom made Art Panels honour our piano teaching environment
In our teaching studio we have over 4.5 square metres made from 9 small panels combined seamlessly into one homogeneous sound-absorbing surface. The chosen pattern is called ‘Gem’ and the colour is ‘Elephant White’. We really appreciate how the panel improves the teaching environment for our students as well as simply how much more we enjoy the space with this beautiful Art Piece to look at every time we visit it.
There are many reasons why we love this piece of art:
Firstly: The Panel is simply gorgeous looking. It’s beautiful, three-dimensional and therefore adds unique texture to the interior.
Secondly: It works! The curvy surface as well as the material itself, makes it a sophisticated and very effective acoustic absorber.
Finally: All is handmade with high quality materials of innate elegance which can be customised to fit any size of room.
As Anna Spakowska the artist describes it:
“One of the factors that make an exquisite space is the acoustics: When the room has the right amount of unwanted sound attenuated and integrated into the interior design, all the music being played, movies being watched and conversations held are so much more enjoyable”.
We are aware that in recording studios sound engineers like control the amount of reverberation on in a recording, the first thing they need is a ‘dry’ recording with no sound reflections. Later they will most likely add (digitally) their preferred ‘chamber’ dynamics.
To find more information please check the artist’s website www.annaspakowska.com
You can also contact Anna directly by email: anka@annaspakowska.com
To demonstrate the wide variety of colours, textures and finishes available we have compiled a short video presentation below which showcases some examples of their decorative application and assembly techniques. To make it more enjoyable we have accompanied the video with some original music composed and arranged by The Piano Shop Bath’s own Robb Lawton.
We hope you enjoyed this newsletter as much as we enjoy our Acoustic Art Panel and we are looking forward to see you in our Bath Showroom!
Yours, The Piano Shop Bath Team