Kamran Sadeghi - Loss Less (2020)

About Satsop:
In the late 1970’s, the U.S. was more than 20 years into its nuclear power program. In Washington State, a consortium of public utilities began what was to be the largest single nuclear power project in the country’s history. Five reactors, divided between sites located near the cities of Hanford and Satsop were intended to be a solution to projected energy demands of the rapidly growing region.

The construction was suspended shortly before the facility was completed and what remains is a structure 129 meters across at the base, and rising to a height of nearly 152 meters with an uncanny acoustic quality. From 2004-08 a small team worked to open the space to artistic interpretation, recognizing within the space the interplay of site-specific sound, weathered industrial architecture and the natural environment.


About Loss Less:
In 2008 Kamran Sadeghi was selected resident artist at Satsop. Inspired by Alvin Lucier’s “I am Sitting In A Room” (1970)—Sadeghi amplified an original electronic music passage with a length of 2 minutes into the open aired structure and recorded the outcome of the tower's acoustic response. This recording was then re-amplified back into the structure and re-recorded. The process was repeated ten times, and with each cycle the natural acoustics of the tower began to reshape the original passage until it disappeared entirely. This approach captured the architectural integrity and holistic immediacy of the nuclear cooling tower while symbolically removing it’s entire existence.

The result is a unique 25 minute sonic experience full of audible artifacts that document space, time and our environment. The composition was created on location and in real-time, allowing all natural elements such as wind, rain, wildlife, resonance and feedback-distortion to be a part in the process and therefore the end result. No post production effects were used.

The ‘Rework’ version is a studio interpretation recorded live using samples of the original composition, processed through effects and used as a guide for added atmospheric electronic tones as counterpoint. The large throbbing bass drum pattern emphasizes the weight and physicality of the cooling tower, while recalling a sacred ceremonial chants or drums used to converse with or drive away destructive spirits.

The title ‘Loss Less’ is a play on the term lossless compression—a type of process that allows for the preservation and and perfect reconstruction of data (audio). In this case the audio was not preserved, but intentionally degraded. The title also taps into the reality of catastrophic loss and destruction caused by nuclear energy, and the call for less.