Arvo Pärt-Inspired Sound Art in New York

Text Timo Raussi

Photo Four Freedoms Park Conservancy

Finnish artist Hans Rosenström’s site-specific sound installation “Out of Silence” has its public premiere today, 29 April, in Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York. Inspired by the music of Arvo Pärt and marking the composer’s 90th birthday, the work has been created in collaboration with the internationally acclaimed and Grammy-award-winning Estonian ensemble Vox Clamantis choir.

“Out of Silence” is an immersive sound journey in which sound moves across the park designed by world-renowned architect Louis Kahn through speakers hidden from visitors. The work combines the human voice, silence, and a strong sense of presence—elements that are also central to Pärt’s music. The sounds guide visitors through the park over approximately 15 minutes at a pace set by Rosenström and the choir.

The audio materials were recorded by Vox Clamantis last autumn at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa near Tallinn. According to Jaan-Eik Tulve, the choir’s artistic director, the work was created in an unusual way—through improvisation: “Hans only described his vision to us verbally, and from there we began building the whole piece. Since modal harmony is central to Pärt’s music, we decided to respect it and stay within its framework.”

Journalist Mariana Martinez-Pazzi writes in The Architect’s Newspaper that the Finnish–Estonian sound work is striking and thought-provoking. According to her, “after 15 minutes the park looks the same as before, but the silence it carries feels different—deeper, as if newly earned. Kahn once built a space for silence, but Rosenström has now given that silence a voice. His work reveals in a radical way what has always been present in space.”

The sound installation “Out of Silence” will remain on display in New York until 21 June, and is presented daily at hourly intervals. In Finland, Rosenström’s works are included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki and EMMA, the Espoo Museum of Modern Art. Born in Lohja in 1978, the artist also took part in Tartu’s cultural capital year two years ago by creating a sound installation for the catalogue room of the Estonian Literary Museum, which he described as beautiful.

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Arvo Pärt Hans Rosenström Laulasmaa New York sound art Tartu