BLACK SQUARE
a wind-dynamic Pipe Organ built by Tony Decap for gamut inc
BLACK SQUARE is a wind-dynamic pipe organ built by Tony Decap for gamut inc, premiered in 2025. With 128 stopped pipes across two modules, it enables stereophony, microtonal tuning, and individual wind pressure control per pipe via Decap’s SmartValve technology. This wind-dynamic pipe organ represents a new approach to computer-controlled instrument design.
Inaugurated with the premiere of ‘Dialogue de l’orgue double’, a joint commission by Deutschlandfunk Kultur, SWR Kultur, and CTM Festival.
The two identical organ modules with 64 stopped pipes each are capable of creating stereophony or can be detuned easily, allowing ¼ tone or any other microtuning. Of course, by precisely changing the wind pressure you can achieve microtuning as well, as Decap’s SmartValve allows for the wind pressure of each pipe to be changed individually within millisecond
All pipes were manufactured by a CNC milling machine, allowing for ranks that start at the top as stopped flute and gradually taper to gamba towards the bottom. The first module was then voiced by hand, and this voicing was copied to the second module.
As for the arrangement of the pipes, we oriented the design based on audio diffusers, left space between the pipes for microphone recordings, and continuously refined the permutations of the pipes through AI algorithms until this combination remained.
This organ has many contributors to whom we are very grateful: First and foremost, of course, Tony Decap, Seppe Verbist and their team, who – among other things – are about to revolutionize organ building with the SmartValve and their other inventions. Yves Rechsteiner, whose “L’Explorateur” is the prototype of a wind-dynamic organ by Decap and who has always advised us during development. Godfried-Willem Raes, whose quarter-tone organ <Qt> inspired us to build two ranks of stopped pipes in quartertone distance. And last but not least Hans Fidom, with whom we discussed many acoustic aspects and who inspired us to go for the morphing stop.
BLACK SQUARE was built for AGGREGATE 2025
You can listen to the live recording of “dialogue de l’orgue double” from Art’s Birthday 2026, at the E-Werk in Freiburg on Deutschlandfunk Kultur
