Brain training with the sound case

It scrapes and grinds, snorts and stomps, creaks and scratches. Engine noise or workshop noise? Far from it: this is the sound world of Bernese record artist Christoph Hess, alias Strotter Inst. The scene of the action: the "Schrapper" level of the computer game Memoreille.

The memory app for iPad, iPhone or computer (an Android version is to follow) makes it possible to uncover sounds instead of pairs of pictures. Lurking beneath the virtual cards are 316 sound events, grouped into 30 levels and five levels of difficulty. The cards are "uncovered" with a tap of the finger or a click of the mouse, and even the first levels show that the game requires a lot of patience and concentration. The sound snippets are often confusingly similar and challenge even well-trained ears.

The idea for Memoreille was created by Biel composer, pianist and improvising electronic musician Gaudenz Badrutt. Together with programmer and game developer Roman Schmid, he created the sound memory with its uncluttered and simple design as part of a music education project for the Canton of Bern. Badrutt spent two and a half years working on this comparatively expensive app, which costs seven and ten francs respectively. "The price should reflect the value of this artistic product," he explained in the Bieler Tagblatt.

The sound snippets were composed by ten Swiss musicians: In addition to Strotter Inst. and Badrutt himself, they are BigZis, Christian Müller, Hans Koch, Jacques Demierre, Jonas Kocher, Jürg Kienberger, Maru Rieben and Ruedi Häusermann. They have created a variety of sounds that make the game a great listening experience. The levels have titles that sound just like the app itself: Here the imitated wind instruments and yawning sounds of Kienberger ("öhrli in the morning"), there the percussive memory cards of Rieben's "Klangkoffer" or there the humorous speech acrobatics of Franziska Schläfer alias BigZis ("Digidugu").

Up to six players - or as Badrutt calls it "twelve alert ears" - can compete against each other at the same time and for once not primarily train their visual memory, but rather their auditory memory. The players also become composers of new (random) music: at the end of a level, the game moves can be played as a coherent sound file.

This is how Memoreille is not only a challenging brain exercise for young and old, it is also a varied sound journey through Swiss creativity in new and experimental music. If that's not a successful example of music education.

Memoreille. Idea, artistic direction and concept: Gaudenz Badrutt; game development: Roman Schmid. Version for iPhone/iPad: Fr. 7.oo; for Mac/PC: Fr. 10.00; available in the Apple App Store or at: www.memoreille.ch