Glenfiddich releases musical whisky experiment footage

Glenfiddich has conducted and recorded a “revolutionary” experiment designed to explore how live music affects single malt in celebration of its 21 Year Old expression.

The experiment was in Cymatics – the study of visible sound waves

The project took 12 months to coordinate, and brought together the Co-Operative Orchestra in Scotland, Caribbean vocalist Calma Carmona, and experts in the science of Cymatics – the study of visible sound waves.

The 21 Year Old expression is produced in Scotland and finished in Glenfiddich’s own rum-infused casks from the Caribbean, so a new interpretation of Franz Ferdinand’s track Love Illumination featuring Scottish orchestration and Carmona’s Caribbean vocal was selected as the experiment’s catalyst.

The artists performed the track in a London warehouse to an “audience” of bespoke devices containing the 21 Year Old liquid, developed by creative laboratory TenHertz.

Each individual device was designed to respond and react to different note ranges and sound frequencies, isolated through a speaker via specially-programmed software.

The Decanter devices produced horizontal pulses and vibrations associated with stringed instruments and Calma’s vocals, while whisky in the Double Helix and Zig Zag devices made air twists and zig zag patterns in response to the double bass and percussion of the orchestra and band.

The Levitron isolated a drop of “levitating” single malt between two ultrasonic transducers in mid-air, created by the notes of the song’s finale.

Felix Thorn, director at TenHertz, said: “This was a first for us, taking months of research and testing of the device prototypes before we built the final installation. Liquid is, by its nature, a fluid medium and we weren’t able to offer any guarantees that these specially-developed techniques would work away from a laboratory environment.

“Isolating sound frequencies in the context of a warehouse full of people, equipment, background noise as well as a 12 piece orchestra also proved a challenge! But the sweat and stress was worth it when we captured that single drop of single malt in blissful isolation. As an image, and as an outcome of more than a year’s work, it was a beautiful thing.”

The full experiment is available to view on Youtube.