Bits & Neurons, for fixed media 

"Bits & Neurons" was written with the concept of causality in mind, as well as the activity and interactions that occur among multiple neurons in the brain. Spatial concepts are focused on within the piece in hope of creating an awareness of the space between elements.  

Audio was created using Symbolic Sound's Kyma. 

This piece is dedicated to Anne Dhu McLucas. It was her spirit of recognizing and supporting the creation of new works by women composers that caused the inspiration behind this piece, and it was the memory of her warm, generous, and energetic nature that kept the creative process going. 

Note: If you're interested in a more immersive experience, try listening to the piece through a multichannel surround sound setup! 

Sound Art: Bits & Neurons, 2012

Recorded at night, in Eugene, Oregon. 
A captured soundscape of frogs interspersed between train and traffic sounds. Unprocessed. 


Field Recording: frogs, train, and traffic soundscape

would it have been, for trumpet and electronics

To trap a moment missed: that is what this short piece for trumpet and electronics meditates on. Its making is of subtle complexities, and is intimate in nature, calling for a more sensitive listening.

Performer: Jacob Walls on trumpet

Electro-acoustic work: would it have been, 2014

"subtleties" was a site-specific and interactive installation that took place on May 4, 2014, at the University of Oregon. The installation allowed visitors to experience delicate and humble sounds, capturing glimpses of the Oregon outdoors, as well as the soundscapes that resonance evokes.

Visitors would walk into a room and be presented with whispers of sounds from afar.  Discovery would lead them to be surrounded by multiple resonant jars that were populated by their own speaker. Visitors were able to walk to the individual jars, bring their ear closer to them, and listen to the soundworld within, like you would listen to a seashell. Each soundworld was characterized by the resonant qualities of the individual jars. Walking around the space allowed visitors to compose their very own sound journey by listening to the differing soundworlds at each location in the space. An interactive component allowed for personal interaction with the installation.


Sound Installation: subtleties (excerpt), 2014

Five Scenes, for ensemble, field recordings, and sound art
	I. Prelude
	II. Mourning coo
	III. Fabrics of cottonwood
	IV. Aqueous blue-grey
	V. Shades of green

This soundscape composition was commissioned by Third Angle New Music ensemble as part of an acoustic ecology awareness concert in Portland, Oregon. The piece is inspired by nature and the study of ecosystems in the field of soundscape ecology. It incorporates field recordings mixed with sound art.

Performers: Third Angle New Music Ensemble (http://thirdangle.org/)

Note: the piece has some delicate moments. Try it out through headphones or powerful speakers!

Electro-acoustic work: Five Scenes, 2014

Recorded at dusk. Madison, WI.
A captured soundscape of frogs at UW-Madison’s Arboretum Teal pond. I'll never forget that night walk.


Field recording: frogs at the arboretum

Recorded at dawn, on the isthmus near lake Mendota. Madison, WI.
Mourning dove coo and cardinal song focus beginning at around 01:20
American robin song focus beginning at around 03:45

Your bird songs, seasonal flowers, scenic lakes, little ducklings, wild rabbits, and sea of fireflies in the dark — Madison in the springtime, I’ll miss you dearly.

Aldo Leopold's journal entry is a most fitting description:
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"At 3:30 am, with such dignity as I can muster of  July morning, I step from my cabin door, bearing in either hand my emblems of sovereignty, a pot of coffee and a notebook. I extract a cup from my shirt front, hoping none will notice its informal mode of transport. I get out my watch, pour coffee, and lay notebook on knee. This is the cue for the proclamations to begin.

At 3:35 the nearest field sparrow avows, in a clear tenor chant, that he holds the jackpine copse north to the riverbank, and south to the old wagon track. One by one all the other feld sparrows within earshot recite their respective holdings. There are no disputes at least at this hour, so I just listen, hoping inwardly that their womenfolk acquiesce in this happy accord over the status quo ante. 

Before the field sparrows have quite gone the rounds, the robin in the big elm warbles loudly his claim to the crotch where the ice storm tore off a limb, and all appurtenances pertaining thereto (meaning, in his case, all the angleworms in the not-very-spacious adjacent lawn).

The robin’s insistent caroling awakens the oriole, who now tells the world of orioles that the pendant branch of the elm belongs to him, together with all fiber-bearing milkweed stalks near by, all loose strings in the garden, and the exclusive right to flash like a burst of fire from one of these to another.

My watch says 3:50. The indigo bunting on  the hill asserts title to the dead oak limb left by the 1936 drought, and to divers near-by bugs and bushes. He does not claim, but I think he implies, the right to out-blue all bluebirds, and all spiderworts that have turned their faces to the dawn.

Next the wren - the one who discovered the knothole in the eave of the cabin - explodes into song. Half a dozen other wrens give voice, and now all is bedlam. Grosbeaks, thrashes, yellow warblers, bluebirds, vireos, towhees, cardinals - all are at it. My solemn list of performers, in their order and time of first song, hesitates, wavers, ceases, for my ear can no longer filter out priorities. Besides, the pot is empty and the sun is about to rise. I must inspect my domain before my title runs out.”
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From Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There" 

Springtime dawn chorus in Madison, WI

Sharing some of my sound art, soundscape compositions, and field recordings. 

Nayla Mehdi

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