Excerpts from Black Hole Symphony by David Ibbett

Black Hole Symphony 4th Movement "Dance Of The Merging Black Holes" By David Ibbett, Excerpt

Black Hole Symphony 1st Movement "Blazar" By David Ibbett, Excerpt

A live recording of Islands for solo 'cello and electronics from the 2014 BEAST concert series at Birmingham University with 'cellist Gregor Riddell. 

Islands is a ‘musical drama’, a story told through a fusion of styles. The concerto, symphony, acousmatic music and the song all have their part to play. Though abstract, many of the piece’s themes explore the different aspects of love - a lonely ‘needing, longing’ kind (no man is an island) becoming gradually destructive and giving way to something new, something thankful, a sense of togetherness, completeness.

Gregor and I have worked together for a number of years, presenting pieces at the Aldeburgh Festival and Faster Than Sound. For each collaboration, we have worked to build bridges between the acoustic and the electronic by always beginning with the sound of the ‘cello. By sampling a multitude of sounds from this most versatile instrument, we can construct unique electroacoustic sound-worlds for the music to inhabit, explore and transform as the piece unfolds.


Islands - solo cello and electronics, live recording

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a faint thermal signal, detectable only by radio telescope, which originates from the very early universe, over 13.7 billion years ago.  At that time, the universe was small in size and extremely hot – filled with light and plasma like the core of our sun. As the universe cooled, the conditions became right for atoms to form, and this early light was free to propagate throughout the expanding space.  This is what we observe as the CMB, only now, due to the stretching of its wavelength, we observe it not as light, but as thermal radiation. The signal is almost, but not quite, uniform – the most perfect noise source found in nature, averaging at 2.725° above absolute zero.  

Physicists are working to analyze the signal, as its subtle variations may hide clues to the origin of the universe, dark matter, the existence of multiverses and cosmic bubble collisions. One method of analysis is to compute the power spectrum of the signal across the entire sky, comparing temperature fluctuations from point to point to discern patterns and wave-like functions.  This analysis reveals a series of harmonically related peaks between distances of 0° to 2°, indicative of waves in the original hot plasma. 

In order to experience these patterns, Dr. Matthew Kleban of NYU Physics and I have collaborated to produce sonifications of this data, collected by NASA’s WMAP probe. By mapping the parameters to frequency and amplitude, a musical chord can be produced which reveals the underlying harmonic relationships. The sonifications simulate the gradual emergence of this chord from total noise, a journey from the early universe to the present day, and go on to increase the intensity of the peaks to allow the universal harmonies to shine out.

Fantasy on a Cosmic Microwave Sonification

Composed as a collaboration with choreographer Jacob Hobbs for performances at the Robin Howard Dance Theatre 2009: Re: Noir is scored for tenor saxphone and electronics.

Performed by Ellie Steemson

Re: Noir - tenor saxophone and electronics

Sonification: HATP 1-b

Sonification: Methane

Sonification: Carbon Dioxide

Sonification: Ammonia

The music of David Ibbett, Boston based composer and electronic artist.

david@davidibbett.com

David Ibbett

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