Name: Sleepless by Nikolai Galen
Duration: 4 min 10 s
Description: A track from the draft version of the Raining Spiderling album Hell Canto. The whole work in progress can be heard here: soundcloud.com/nikolaigalen/sets/hell-canto.

Performed by Wavefield Ensemble:

Nicholas DeMaison, conductor
Roberta Michel, flutes
Madison Greenstone, bass clarinet
John Gattis, horn
Jen Baker, trombone & 3D-printed vocal tract tube
Dennis Sullivan, percussion
Erica Dicker, violin
Carrie Frey, viola
Iva Casián-Lakoš, cello
Tristan Kasten-Krause, bass

Recorded by David Adamcyk
Mastered by Murat Çolak http://www.muratcolakmusic.com/geryon-sound.html
Filmed by Michael Sinicropi
Edited by Stuart Breczinski
DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, March 2023

Program Notes:

The term "disembodied voice," much like Alice's "grin without a cat," poses an inherent ontological problem. The voice, which is typically produced as a result of purely material processes, now exists detached from its physical source and becomes the sole manifestation of our human essence. Despite the present impossibility, however, our psyche seems to be able to close this gap rather easily.

Being our primary medium for language and expression, the voice can readily function as a portal between our corporeal existence and whatever we might choose to call the rest: a soul, a consciousness, or a persona. The voice can be a placeholder for all the latter, as made apparent in phrases such as “one’s inner voice,” “the artist’s voice,” or “making one’s voice heard.” It is for this reason that disembodied voices have commonly been used to represent human-like entities in many works of fiction, ranging anywhere between ghostly presences to super-intelligent AIs.

“This Person Does Not Exist” was titled after the website with the same name[1], through which Nvidia’s neural network StyleGAN can be used to generate human faces. While the original website reproduces artificiality through AI generated images, I wanted to approach the same uncanny possibility by creating the semblance of a disembodied voice. For this purpose, I designed and 3D printed a small instrument that models the human vocal tract with a trombone mouthpiece attachment. The trombonist, who remains concealed behind the suspended frame drum at the center of the stage, performs this instrument to produce human-like sounds ranging from soft moans to loud, distorted screams. With the use of both pre-recorded and live performances of this instrument, I wish to elicit the presence of a disembodied, artificial voice, and thus underline the reproducible nature of our own human essence.

[1] http://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com

Art: Yugo Kohrogi

This Person Does Not Exist (2023)

Carnet De Routes - Annobon - Aldo Romano, Louis Sclavis, Henri Texier

A track from the draft version of the Raining Spiderling album Hell Canto. The whole work in progress can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/nikolaigalen/sets/hell-canto.

Weeping

This textural study for voice is a small musical excerpt sang, played and produced by the composer for the dance performance:
"Siinsamas silmade taga"/"Right Behind Your Eyes" by Fine 5 Dance Theatre Company,
premiere 09.11.2024 Sakala Theatre
(snapshot taken from Antonioni's Zabriskie Point)

2nd excerpt from "Right Behind Your Eyes" by Fine 5 Dance Theatre

A track from the draft version of the Raining Spiderling album Hell Canto. The whole work in progress can be heard here: soundcloud.com/nikolaigalen/sets/hell-canto.

Sleepless

Performed by Ensemble X:

Ellen Jewett - Violin
Elizabeth Simkin - Violoncello
Xak Bjerken - Piano

Turkish Premiere - August 2018, Cappadocia.

Art: Max Ernst

Leaked Tape from the Sacred Mysteries (2018) for piano trio

Stockholm Saxophone Quartet:
Mathias Björnstad
Jörgen Pettersson
Anna Magnusson
Linn Persson

Livestream: Johan E.Andersson
The concert was presnted by Estonian Music Days 2020

As I studied the recordings of various wolf howls I quickly learned that sensing each other’s presence through songs or voices, and the power or intimacy such a common experience creates is familiar both to people and the loneliest wolf cub. I viewed the spectral track of two different wolf packs and found fascinating musical references in the howling ensembles of the pack members. For example, in one of my recordings, the alpha established a specific pitch, the next wolf joined by sliding downwards, the third by sliding upwards and together they reached a pulsating unison that resounded throughout the woods. This pitch was also picked up on the other side of the forest and so they kept answering each other in this multi-choral manner for three minutes. While the pulsating unison might amplify the sound and give the impression that the number of wolves is greater, without the purpose of claiming territory the wolves’ bodies release happiness hormones and strengthen the ties within the pack.
In these 3 pieces similarly to wolves, the saxophones interact with each other in a temporally flexible manner, choosing and synchronising entrances and listening to the delicate microtonal shades of the unison.

Us... and Them... (2020) for saxophone quartet and wolves

Nikolai Galen is a performer and writer living in Istanbul

Sleepless

Nikolai Galen

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