ClapaChimBala | for fixed media with algorithmic spatialisation

This short study tries to explore a methodology for presenting electronic music by incorporating algorithmic processes -within the SuperCollider programming language- for the spatialisation of sounds in real-time using a large number of loudspeakers.

ClapaChimBala

HeartBit | for human heartbeat, bandoneon and live electronics (2022)
laptop: Orestis Karamanlis | bandoneon: Kostas Zigeridis

A human heart is amplified and sent to a computer running a programming language; this delicate "instrument" is responsible for triggering the audio processes in real-time and for controlling the musical flow. The performer becomes a listener to his own internal rhythm and attempts to adjust the unfolding of the music psychosomatically, thus engaging in a constant loop between his own sounding body and mental state.

HeartBit - Excerpt

Excerpt from "Breathe", for Violoncello, Live Electronics & 8-Channel Surround Sound running in the SuperCollider programming language. 

Violoncello: Sofia Efklidou | Laptop: Orestis Karamanlis
Premiere: National Observatory of Athens, Greece, 20 July 2016



Breathe Excerpt

A track written for the 2006 theater performance of "The Line".
Commission: Small Scene of the Contemporary Theater of Athens.

Music Without Trees

This is a work for beatboxer and live electronics running in the SuperCollider programming language. It makes use of audio event analysis and algorithmic beat manipulation in an effort to create a unified soundworld between the human beatboxer and his mechanical counterpart.

Beatboxing: Giorgos Gargalas | Laptop: Orestis Karamanlis

BitVox Excerpt

Here's a stereo reduction of the original 24-channel surround piece.

In this work most of the sounds originate from toys' recordings and any treatment has been accomplished by means of a programming language named SuperCollider. I have tried to come up with a piece that would rely more on an internal pulse than on the transformation of sonic material. I somewhat got tired with the kind of pre-recorded music which is characterised by the desire to explore timbre and space above all, often at the expense of other qualities. "Toys" has been constructed by making use of rhythmic patterns. Starting from large collections of soundfiles I work within a programming language in order to describe a higher-level representation of musical structure and then become a listener to the result. In a way I am more interested in the aggregate sonic outcome than in isolated musical gestures.

The piece was commissioned by ZKM | Institute for Music & Acoustics (Germany). Within 2012 it received the "Prix du Public at Metamorphoses Acousmatic Competition" (Belgium), "First Prize at Musica Nova Electroacoustic Competition" (Czech Republic) and an “Honorable Mention at Città di Udine Composition Competition" (Italy).

Toys

Here's a stereo reduction of the original 8.0 surround work.

This piece reflects my emotions about a small coastal village somewhere in the Aegean Sea. It encloses my memories for the place and its people, developing linearly by combining ambient recordings and spoken stories from the village with folk music and abstract elements. Here, I am primarily interested in the dramaturgical structure in the long scale; the primary concern being to move away from a non-differential abstract soundworld and to retain a cultural identity by guiding the listener through a journey of experiences to catharsis, though without having any extraterrestrial allusions.
credits

> Giga-Hertz Award for Electronic Music (2010), Institut für Musik und Akustik, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Sterfos

The piece was written in Athens during the global lock-down of the 2020 pandemic. It is aimed to be performed by an amateur pianist, last in a concert of contemporary music to act as a "recover". All signal processing takes place in real-time; the computer simply freezes the piano's spectrum.

BitVox Excerpt

Orestis Karamanlis

Related tracks