For more information and detailed descriptions, please click the SoundCloud links below.

Sonic Garden (Generative Live Electronics in Pure Data) (2023)

Sonic Garden was inspired by early electronic music pioneers such as Koenig, Stockhausen, and Knut Wiggen. It uses mostly additive synthesis and ring modulation. This recording is a version for stereo, but the piece is also available in versions for multichannel systems.

The piece progresses randomly through different states, each of which sets specific values for the random generators; some generate less common events (noise/glissando);
some are breaks. The probability of a state depends on the number of selectors (integers) that trigger it. Alternatively, the patch can be played using a midi controller (see midicc subpatch). The piece ends automatically after 5 minutes with a flourish and probability fade-out.

 

Branches (Fixed Media for Wave Field Synthesis (WFS)) (2024)

‘Branches’ (originally for Wavefield Synthesis) explores transformation processes applied to two short sound samples using microsound techniques. The two percussive sounds (each lasting half a second) are extended and transformed multiple times to produce sound families. Transformations can either preserve the identity of a sound while changing only some features or modify the source sound radically, obscuring the relation to the original. As the piece progresses through the branches of the family tree, more and less apparent relations emerge between sounds. When proceeding linearly down the family tree, mostly gradual transformations result. When adjacent sounds are several transformations removed from one another, a complex relation may emerge (cf. Wittgenstein’s notion of family resemblance). In other cases, I chose to present successive generations of sounds simultaneously, creating extreme heterogeneity while using the same basic material.
The transformation techniques make wide use of waveset distortion, alongside spectral processing, granulation, filtering, modulation etc., using CDP, Max and Supercollider.
The form of the piece emerged from the interaction between the transformed sounds in a bottom-up process. The first two sections present the family tree of each sound separately, while the second half of the piece combines the results of the two families.

Thanks to Bjarni Gunnarsson and Kees Tazelaar for their kind mentorship during my year at Sonology.

K23 (Fixed Media, Stereo) (2023)

This piece is the result of following Gottfried Michael Koenig’s 1960’s course. Koenig lays out a series of tasks in which initial simple analog synthesis techniques (mostly using sine waves, noise, ring modulation, filtering, and reverberation) are progressively transformed to create sound families. All the sounds in each of the six sections of the piece is derived from transformations of the same basic material, though this may not be immediately apparent under extreme transformations. For example, extreme use of reverb or playback at different speeds can radically alter the morphology of the sound, creating subtle family resemblances, in which the relation between two sounds is not obvious yet strongly felt.The piece was synthesized entirely in Max/MSP, with the montage made in a DAW.

The model for several aspects of this piece was Kees Tazelaar’s realization of these tasks, K12 (2001). In making my realization, I had access to Kees’ sketches for K12. Kees has also provided kind advice on technical aspects related to the original tape technique and the specific analog equipment used in the original Bilthoven studio. I regard this piece as more of a stylistic exercise, though some sections differ considerably from Koenig and Tazelaar’s models.

Ondiolina (tribute to Sclesi). Fixed Media (2017)

My entry into electronic music was inspired by Scelsi’s improvisations on the Ondiola, an early analog synthesizer. By layering several improvisations on magnetic tape, Sclesi was able to create complex microtonal harmonies, which were then transcribed and further developed as instrumental pieces (see this recording of the tape version of Anahit, for example). I followed a similar process, while also including some concrete sounds.