Often overshadowed by contemporary Pablo Picasso, artist Georges Braque was instrumental in establishing the Cubist art movement, which was highly influential in the early 20th century. The new stereo system just released by the Swedish brand pays tribute to this unsung talent Nocs and industrial designer Daniel Alm.
In Braque’s paintings, collages and prints, the polymath set out to distill bucolic landscapes and rural village scenes as disintegrated and then reassembled geometric compositions. decidedly abstract but still slightly recognizable representations. Through this revolutionary approach, he examined how objects could be depicted from multiple perspectives—multiple light sources—as if rendering superimposed renderings of the same scene at different times of the day.
This ever-refined exploration was not simply a refutation of the established artistic conventions that had preceded it, but a response to the ever-accelerating advancement of technology that defined the era. a mutation of Impressionism—that arose when the camera replaced the need for, or the attempt at, realistic illustration. Cubism, itself, eventually turned into Purism: the ultimate normalization of fundamental, meticulously proportional, form.
The new speaker consists of two seamlessly joined together with slightly contrasting cubes. In a nod to Braque’s mastery of duality, the device is precision-crafted from both plywood and steel, the base in the latter and the main cone housing in the former. The stacked compositions may not reflect the noticeably irregular nature of Cubist configuration and much more the rationalism of, say, a Mies van der Rohe, but the intent is clear, if subtle.
It’s about how and cubes and finishes. While the steel base is cut, welded and brushed by hand – giving each limited-edition Braque system a special patina – the plywood component – assembled in nearby Estonia – gets a more unified matte finish. Both elements are black, but the bottom takes on many more simultaneous dimensions as it refracts light entering from all directions. Here the connection with its namesake applies.
But it is not only aesthetic. The speaker is unabashedly performative. “Braque is about space, physical and sonic,” says Alm. “By working with a larger enclosure and a coaxial driver, we were able to shape a sound that’s natural, open and honest. It reveals what’s in the recording without adding anything of its own, which is the core of our approach to Studio Sound.”
“Brack opens up new possibilities for us,” he adds. By the very nature of its basic box form—but also its weight—the device can be placed on a stand or suspended. It can also be multiplied—not unlike an installation—as part of a larger installation.
To explore product specifications and purchase the device, visit nocsdesign.com.
Photo by Daniel Alm.
