Voyage by Georgios Varoutsos is an acousmatic sound piece which developed over the span of a month. The sound sources are an accumulation of roughly eight months of recording which originated by either my recorded voice or colleagues, recording and playing with a broken piano alongside different objects to create sounds with, an analog or hardware synthesizer which is called a Doepfer A-100, and personal sound creations with music software. Recorded sounds were then edited through sound editing software and sound editing tools.
 
The piece is intended to be heard in a five channel speaker setting, which will aid in hearing the movement of sounds around the listeners. 

This piece is an abstract interpretation of traveling within the cockpit of a spaceship accross space, to the deepest darkest corners. Divided into four sections, Launch [0:00-0:40], Cruise [0:40-1:45], Trouble [1:48-2:44], and Darkness [2:47-4:23]. 

In sequence, it is a spaceship launching from home planet, into the wonders of space, before long approaching the troubling unknown areas of space, then passing through a black hole. 

Voyage

Sound sources: Personal recordings of abstract percussive sounds, vibes, hand drums, hand snares, chimes, rain maker, and one Operator FM synth patch personally created. 
Fusion 
My etude on fusion demonstrates fusion of left- and right-channel noise bursts, depending on their independence, fusion by common frequency change, and competition of sequential and simultaneous grouping. The piece exhibits five voices which begin as streamable voices which fuse between [0:20-0:40] until they become streamable once again. They each contain a different technique of fusion. For fusion of left- and right-channel noise bursts, I used “percussive sounds” that all began as Centered sounds, however at [0:23] they all became hard panned to their own speaker. Therefore you can distinguish the uncorrelated “percussive sounds” between both ears because there’s two separate locations. Fusion by common frequency change is my only synthesized voice which is being modulated by LFO in amount and rate. This occurs from [0:03-0:55], which is noticeable because of the initial hard pan of each sound, which then infuse towards the middle of the piece at around [0:20] to make it harder to stream each modulation. They return to their original speaker location starting at [0:40]. Simultaneous grouping occurs when I begin to fuse all the groups into one large sound mass making it quite difficult to separate the voices in the piece, this happens at [0:20-0:40]. 


Fusion- Study Piece

Sound sources: Personal recordings of abstract percussive sounds, vibes, hand drums, hand snares, chimes, rain maker, and one Operator FM synth patch personally created. 
Streaming
My etude on streaming embodies six different techniques which are: pattern recognition, stream segregation based on spectral peak position, repetition on streaming, the effects of stream segregation on the judgment of timing, competition of frequency separations in the control of grouping, and streaming by spatial location. There is nine voices within this piece that follow different streaming techniques from one another. Instances of pattern recognition occur at [0:09-0:34], and [0:42-0:0:59]. This is done by irregular patterns of drum like sounds that keep a familiar range of frequencies during the piece. Stream segregation based on spectral peak position transpires when the loss of lower frequencies produced by the “kick” is removed from certain sections from the piece, such as at [0:00-0:09], [0:33-0:42], and [0:57-0:59]. Therefore this allows for a different focus on other voices to be streamed within the piece. Repetition on streaming is done by the irregular rhythm of “kick” and the delayed “percussive sound” which appears and disappears across the piece, allowing for other voices to appear as the silence between the repetitions. The repetition occurs between [0:09-0:33], and [0:42-0:57]. The effects of stream segregation on the judgment of timing happens with the “kick” and the delayed “percussive sound” which follows the pattern of the “kick”. This ensues at [0:09-0:33], and [0:42-0:57]. Competition of frequency separations in the control of grouping is across the piece in different time stamps because of the frequencies of the drums being segregated and the synth/pad sounds creating their own layer of segregation, however this occurs along the entire piece from start to beginning. There’s a clear separation at the beginning and ending of the piece which are the highlighted elements of the pieces, one sound from the drums, and one from the synth. Later in the piece both groups enhance with the addition of multiple voices that gather in their retrospective groups. Streaming by spatial location is with the use of the “percussive sound 2” that’s introduced at the beginning of the piece being Centered with A and B rhythms occurring, [0:00-0:09], then from [0:09-0:39] it begins to separate into hard pan Left and Right with each set of rhythm only occurring in their proper speaker location. It reoccurs at [0:42-0:47], and for the last time at [0:53-0:59]. 


Streaming- Study Piece

Piece for 60x60 performances. 

Sounds from personal instrument recordings. 

The Eight Out Of 56

Built my own personal performance patch, and this is the composition I've made with it.

Enjoy!

Max MSP - WeAreLive performance patch

Elongation by Georgios Varoutsos is an exploration piece based on the recordings of fifty-six different types of instruments. Each of the instruments was recorded with traditional and non-traditional forms of playing styles to capture alternative sonic characteristics of the instrument. The piece is also subjected to two different compositional rules; (1) each sound must either be stretched or shortened (2) each sound must be pitched up or down from original recording. The conceptualization of this piece was to begin exploring alternate resources for sound material by straying away from digital sources and capturing my personal attempt at playing an arrange of instruments.

Elongation [5.1 Mixed Into Stereo]

Reflection by Georgios Varoutsos is an accumulation of digital and field recordings gathered over the months of January until March 2016. The piece is built around abstraction in which 'Reflection' tries to increase the dynamic between audience and author by objectifying emotions and investigating the duality that develops through different interpretations. The ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, makes the piece deal with the documentation of events and then questions how they can be presented.

Reflection [5.1 Mixed Into Stereo]

Astir by Georgios Varoutsos is influenced by Aleatory (chance) music, in which manipulated field recordings create moments of inconsistent movement. Motion and sound rely on one another to formulate relationships of sequences. The piece is a conscious understanding of randomness with the intent to disrupt formal structure of movement while playing in a space.

Astir [60x60 2017]

Studying Electroacoustics at Concordia University. 

Postings vary from projects and personal productions. 

More to come!

Georgios Varoutsos

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