The Empress cicada starts calling as the sun sets, just as daytime birds are winding down their calls and nighttime creatures are waking up. You first hear distant ones, and it almost sounds like some industrial metal cutting process. Long version at https://youtu.be/6ZPDYlvj7MM

The weird sound of the Empress cicada

Jesse Ronneau: Carthage (2018)

Jack Adler-McKean (solo tuba)

Recorded in Schildau, Germany in July 2021

https://www.editiongravis.de/verlag/product_info.php?language=en&info=p2386_Carthage.html

Jesse Ronneau: Carthage (2018)

Close your eyes, put your headphones on and enjoy a few moments in the Amazon rainforest with this soundscape.

Amongst the plethora of birds (not to mention those pesky mosquitos) listen to members of the Yanomami tribe carrying out their daily lives in the heart of the rainforest.

But the Yanomami's lands and lives are now being destroyed by illegal gold mining.  Please support their fight for survival by emailing the Brazilian authorities: www.svlint.org/YanoSounds

Sounds of the Rainforest – the Yanomami

sound design and programming by Matthew Olden,  as part of the installation '... of which we are part...' by Kathy Hinde, in collaboration with marigold plants.

Marigolds in the act of phytoremediation

Commissioned and premiered by Ensemble for New Music Tallinn.
Premiere 21.11.2024 at Festival Sound Plasma, Genezarethkirche, Berlin.

“This is. And thou art. There is no safety. There is no end. The word must be heard in silence. There must be darkness to see the stars. The dance is always danced above the hollow place, above the terrible abyss.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin

the dance above the abyss (2024) for sextet and electronics

The Word Catalogue 

Matthew Lee Knowles
[2015]

33,450 seconds of words by letter length; from the alphabet to that thirty-three letter Mary Poppin's word.  Naturally, even though this list is quite exhaustive, it isn't complete, so apologies if your favourite word [the full chemical name of Titin for example] is missing: please send a postcard to my mum, she'll know what not to do with it.

Also, there are absurdities + glitches along the way - the software I used doesn't know how to pronounce every word + it often has to choose between several varieties, sometimes giving up, just spelling out the word.  You will hear the two letter word 'mm' pronounced not as a luscious resonance but as 'millimetres' because that is much more commonly used.  

I have chosen a recitation speed that intentionally dances a fine line between clarity and drunken slurring.



Section timings in hours, minutes + seconds

PART I

1: 0'00'00'' [The alphabet]
2: 0'00'11'' [Two letter words etc.]
3: 0'00'53''
4: 0'06'28''
5: 0'34'01''
6: 1'55'42''
7: 2'35'18''
8: 3'33'40'' 
9: 4'42'27''

The Word Catalogue [PART I, 2015]

Performed by Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki a.k.a RAGE THORMBONES 
https://soundcloud.com/rage-thormbones
http://www.ragethormbones.rocks/

Recorded on the CCRMA Stage, Stanford University, CA, USA

Charlie Sdraulig, alike and apart (2016) for two performers
www.charliesdraulig.com/

N.B. This work is sometimes extremely soft. Where possible, try to listen to this piece in a quiet environment on a good set of speakers or with headphones.

alike and apart (2016) excerpt - performed by Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki

Composer // Richard Bullen 
Scientist // Dr. Leigh Fletcher
Planet // Jupiter

Richard Bullen creates a sound world inspired by time-lapse videos of the auroras in Jupiter’s atmosphere, as well as images of the swirling clouds and rushing winds. To begin with he looked at the orbital resonance of the Galilean Moons around Jupiter (1:2:4:9.4) and explored this ratio both rhythmically and harmonically. In the piece at certain points, Violin I represents volcanic Io, Violin II smooth Europa, Viola cratered Callisto and Cello the icy underground lake of Ganymede.

Richard Bullen studied at the Royal Academy of Music with David Sawer, graduating with a PhD in 2015. He has worked with several leading new music ensembles and orchestras including LSO, London Sinfonietta, BCMG, Orkest de Ereprijs and Psappha. His music has been performed across three continents from New York to Tokyo, and broadcast on BBC radio. He is a visiting lecturer in composition at the junior departments of Trinity Laban and the Royal College of Music. His awards include a 2011 BASCA British Composer Award. www.composersedition.com

Dr. Leigh Fletcher mentored Richard on Jupiter. He is a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF) and Associate Professor in Planetary Sciences at the University of Leicester specialising in the exploration of planetary weather and climate using Earth-based observatories and visiting spacecraft. He is a co-investigator on the Cassini mission to Saturn, the JUICE mission to Jupiter, and a passionate advocate for future exploration of the distance Ice Giants. He currently leads a planetary atmospheres team at the University of Leicester, funded by the Royal Society, STFC, and the European Research Council. planetaryweather.blogspot.co.uk

Richard Bullen - 01 Jupiter, The Planets 2018

Piece for prepared solo piano written as a tribute to John Cage, in 2012
The idea was to describe an imaginary sculpture, a big mechanical mobile and its movements. Musical automaton.

Michelle Agnes, piano


Recording and mix Ulrich Schneider

Mobile for solo piano (2013)

This electroacoustic piece was composed of sounds recorded with experimental clay instruments made by María Korol (see the picture). Parts of the instruments consisted of simple materials, such as fishing lines, rubber bands, wooden sticks and bells. Big "eggs" produced a drum-like sound when covering/uncovering the holes. The "scalp" with fishing lines opened a possibility for plucking the strings, while changing the pitch by applying different pressure affecting the tension, and so did the rubber bands attached to another art object.

The first version of the piece was presented at Box Gallery in Knox College, Illinois, USA in 2017. This is the second, revised version of the piece (2020).

The final look of the instruments you can find by this link:
https://www.mariakorol.com/interdisciplinary

Elena Rykova - Night Hunter [headphone mix]

composer-improviser of Estonian origin currently based in Berlin; also appears as Zebra @ kakaduu.art 
https://tinyurl.com/masingworks

the dance above the abyss (2024) for sextet and electronics

Elo Masing

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