SOUND ART  acousmatic music

CONTOURS DE L’INOUÏ | flux i - bio-sonification

flux i ° 04.2024 explores the dynamic interplay of action and reaction within a controlled environment where light stimuli are applied to different solanum lycopersicums (tomato plants). Focusing on spatial, temporal, and frequency interactions, the piece translates these plant signals into an audio representation. flux i transforms these signals into a manipulated soundscape, creating a layered sound field that reveals the hidden dialogues within nature. This multichannel piece seeks to give voice to typically unheard communications, articulating the continuous exchange between the organic and the imposed.

Biosonification:
A biosensor records the electrical signals between two points on a plant, capturing the state of the plant as a single complex signal, analogous to how nerves convey information in animals. Plants are continually sensing and responding to environmental changes. One mechanism for transmitting this information is through small electrical signals that result from the movement of ions. Using custom code developed in Python with the Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy libraries, the complex signal is decomposed into approximately 10 simpler signals. Each of these simpler signals represents the amplitude of a specific frequency over time. The code then converts these signals into MIDI data. These MIDI files provide the raw material for translating the electrical signals into an audible form, thus facilitating the bio-sonification process in contemporary music compositions.

Biosensor device and expertise: VIVENT Biosignals
Programming: Zak Greant
Field recording and composition: Nicole Fior-Greant

flux i special Thanks to:
Carrol Plummer & Team for the Plant electrophysiology data and expertise
Zak Greant for the Programming

PERFORMED at 4th edition of the festival PAYSAGES | COMPOSÉS – Écologie sonore · Musiques de recherche  in Grenoble (F); selected by APNÉES - Association pour la PerformaNce, l'Électroacoustique et les Expérimentations Sonores ° 09.2024
PERFORMED at the Koumaria New Media Arts Festival, Sellasia, Laconia (GR) ; selected by Medea Electronique ° 03.2025

 

UN_FORMEN

un_form 3 ° 01.2023 pre-recorded solo piano, voice + electronics
SELECTED for special mention at the Forum Wallis Ars Electronica Selection 2024 in Gems (CH) ° 03.2024
PERFORMED at 4th edition of the festival PAYSAGES | COMPOSÉS – Écologie sonore · Musiques de recherche  in Grenoble (F); selected by APNÉES - Association pour la PerformaNce, l'Électroacoustique et les Expérimentations Sonores ° 09.2024

un_form 2 ° 06.2022 pre-recorded solo piano, voice + electronics
PERFORMED at the Supersonique Festival in Marseille (F) ° 09.2023

un_form 1 ° 04.2022 pre-recorded solo piano, voice + electronics
PERFORMED at 3rd edition of the festival PAYSAGES | COMPOSÉS – Écologie sonore · Musiques de recherche  in Grenoble (F); selected by APNÉES - Association pour la Performance, l'Électroacoustique et les Expérimentations Sonores ° 09.2023

un-Formen are electroacoustic compositions for fixed media. The work series explores the concept of time in nature, where what may appear to us as stillness is actually a slow progression of time. It stands for the shape that is in between the shapes, the form that moves but one needs to look for the movement. These pieces employ iterative and modified recordings of acoustic instruments and voice to symbolize internal motion, juxtaposing the animate with the inanimate. un_Formen extend and repeat its sounds through microtonality, creating a sound field that evolves gradually, aiming to connect the dynamic and the static.
The spoken material in the series is a created and translated haiku into a hybrid language inspired by Arabic, Chakobsa, and Romani.

CHAMBER  selection

  • 10.-11.2023 ° P: DRUCKEREIHALLE BASEL (CH) ° PERFORMED BY: PENDULA ENSEMBLE ° VIMEO

    Continuatio (and STATIO) explores the concept of time (mis)understanding in nature by experiencing an almost unchanging, continuous sound with occasional tonal fluctuations. This reflects the apparent stagnation and simultaneous subtle changes in natural processes over time.

NETZWERK | improvisation

10.-11.2023 ° P: DRUCKEREIHALLE BASEL (CH) ° PERFORMED BY: PENDULA ENSEMBLE

Netzwerk - playing map

VIMEO

Inspired by the network of the tree’s roots. Concept: the melodic material consists of three sequences for each player; every sequence is repeated once throughout the “network”.
Range, duration and dynamics are only partly defined and mostly free for the player to choose (the melodic material is structured so that, similar to the growing of the tree’s roots, the melody is mostly played in the upper range to begin with and evolves in the lower range by the time the network has been played three times)

Add. note: the choreography is completely improvised, following just the mentioned above points and mostly inspired by the current sound



  • 10.-11.2023 ° P: DRUCKEREIHALLE BASEL (CH) ° PERFORMED BY: PENDULA ENSEMBLE ° VIMEO

  • 05.2023 ° FOR PIANO AND 4 INSTRUMENTS ° P : MUSIKAKADEMIE BASEL (CH) °PERFORMED BY : M. EBNER, L. FLORES, E. FALLOWFIELD, L. VAN HELLEMONT, D. SONTÒN-CALFISCHCONDUCTED BY : M. KUHN ° VIMEO

    Continuum Circuli reflects upon the cyclic patterns and evolution of nature. The composition embraces the concept that many phenomena exhibit repetitive cycles, yet constant change occurs within these cycles, shaping the ecosystem over time. Our anthropocentric notion of time often causes us to overlook these continuous transformations in nature.

  • 05.2022 ° 3 PIECES FOR STRING QUINTETT ° P : MUSIKAKADEMIE BASEL (CH) °PERFORMED BY : D. SANTÒN-CALFISCH, I. LADEWIG, P. ACKERMANN, M. RAEMY, I. NESTICCONDUCTED BY : M. KUHN

  • 11.2021 ° DANCE AND SOLO PIANO ° P : MUSIKAKADEMIE BASEL (CH) °
    CHOREOGRAPHY/DANCE : DOROTHEE CAAN, PF : AIMI SUGO ° VIMEO

  • 11.2022 ° SOLO CELLO, AND CELLO + ELECTRONICS ° UA MUSIKAKADEMIE BASEL (CH) ° CL : BENJAMIN COYTE ° VIMEO

    Conus Textile is named for a species of venomous sea snail. The material in the composition is based on a cellular automata that models the patterns in the snail’s shell, while pace and feel are inspired by the snail’s movements and environment. (Cellular automata)

    Most of the electronic sounds are processed pre-recordings of the solo cello parts while a few others are selected samples giving the feeling of water-movement. It was important to articulate the illusion of a vast space that includes movements which might be encountered in deep water: still, slow, echoing, suddenly agitated. Cello and electronics are usually both concerned with motion of time and space. No cello sounds are electronically processed live.

    ▲ About the Cone Snail and the State of its Oceans:

    Cone snails are coming under intensive threat in the wild. Cone snails are intensively exploited for the ornamental trade and research.

    Their natural habitats, such as coral reefs and mangrove forests, are being degraded and destroyed by coastal development, fishery over-exploitation, pollution, disease epidemics, and global climate change. An estimated 26% of the planet’s coral reefs have already been seriously damaged or destroyed and 50% of the world’s mangroves cleared.

CHAMBER audio

WAHI | AVYIL | KHALA 05.2022 ° 3 PIECES FOR STRING QUINTETT ° P : MUSIKAKADEMIE BASEL (CH)

 

CONUS TEXTILE 03.2021 FOR SOLO CELLO, AND CELLO + ELECTRONICS °
RECORDING ALINA MÜLLER-CHEBOTAROVA ° MUSIKAKADEMIE BASEL (CH), 06.2021 ° UA RULE 86/185 KIRCHE LIGERZ, BIEL (CH)

 

NAUTILIDAE SEQUENZE 2020 FOR SOLO PIANO ° RECORDING AIMI SUGO ° BASEL (CH)