The super high-end Swiss audio brand Goldmund has teamed up with French luxury trunk maker Pinel et Pinel for an update to their iconic Apologue speakers, producing a limited run of 20 unique pairs, each priced at $1.77M USD.
The pair also received assistance from Cyril Kongo, the French street artist often known simply as Kongo, as the third creative collaborator. Kongo’s art is designed on each of the five separate speaker units, with the artist—who has previously collaborated with renowned brands like Hermès and Richard Mille—describing the collaboration as “a multi-sensory work that combines the world of ultimate hi-fi, luxury leather goods, and contemporary art.”
The Apologue speaker is one of Goldmund’s most iconic products, and in 1987, it was recognized by MoMA for its design and placed on public display. Unlike the 1980s version, which was a three-way passive speaker, the new “Apologue Ultimate Pinel et Pinel & Cyril Kongo” edition is an active speaker built with six separate drivers. It features a tweeter dome and a super tweeter dome, as well as dual seven-inch midrange drivers and dual 12-inch woofers.
"We designed these speakers as sculptures," explained Fred Pinel, the founder of Pinel et Pinel. Each of these “sculptures” is wrapped in 52.5 square feet (16 meters) of premium, smooth calfskin leather from Pinel et Pinel's Parisian atelier, divided into 15 pieces per speaker. These leather pieces were individually hand-painted by Kongo, who, according to the brands, had complete artistic freedom in interpreting the brief. And, like most of Goldmund's speakers, each one is fully assembled in Switzerland.
In addition to presenting a new challenge for the artist — who had to paint in reverse due to the way the speaker would be constructed later — the collaboration also allowed Kongo to tap into another one of his interests: music. "When I was young, I experimented a lot with sound systems," he said. "I have a love for music and musicians, but also for artisans like Fred Pinel." He added that the collaboration was an opportunity to "incorporate elements that represent my pictorial style, my artistic vocabulary, and my personality."
The highly limited speakers are now available for purchase through special order at Goldmund. Each speaker weighs 794lbs (360kg) and costs €1.5M EUR / $1.77M USD per pair.
