Spy Numbers Stations are shortwave radio stations that are speculated to have been broadcasting since World War I. The true origin and purpose of them are unknown. 

They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually women's, though sometimes men's or children's voices are used. (Wikipedia) 

Performance from the U10 gallery, Belgrade, December 2012
Ana Gnjatović (voice), Karolina Baeter (bass recorder), Milana Zarić (toys, cymbal), Woo (el.guitar), Milena Pavlović (computer keyboard), Svetlana Maraš (electronics). 

Another performance of this piece: https://soundcloud.com/svetlanamaras/its-about-spy-stations
www.svetlanamaras.com

It's about spy stations

Live performance for EMS Synthi 100, magnetic tape and computer setup. Performed and recorded at Electronic Studio-Radio Belgrade in 2021.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/x-j0nUvlogQ
More info: https://www.svetlanamaras.com/radioconcerts.html

Svetlana Maraš©SOKOJ
All rights reserved

Radio Concert No.2

micro cut-ups of sound poetry, vocal compositions and vocal improvisations


Tracklist:

Cappa (Five man singing) - Jaap Blonk, Koichi Makagami, Paul Dutton, Phil Minton, David Mos
Quiet neighbors moaning (Five man singing) - Jaap Blonk, Koichi Makagami, Paul Dutton, Phil Minton, David Moss
= - Amanda Stewart 
Body - Ania Walwicz
Public announcement - Chris Cheek
Emmu - Ide Hintze
Object / subject - Lily Greenham
Underground - Lily Greenham
Advert - Phil Minton
Qzah II - Schipper Elke
Oslo 1 (Improvisers) - Maja Ratkje & Jaap Blonk
Sequenza for voice - Luciano Berio
Nouvelles Aventures - Gyorgy Ligeti
Kassandra (Orestia) - Iannis Xenakis
O superman  - Laurie Anderson
Dolmen music - Overture - Meredith Monk
It's been a honeymoon (City life) - Steve Reich
Tell it like it is - Christopher Knowles
Vocalise - Trevor Wishart
Atomic alphabet - Chris Burden
Interview with Cathy Berberian (Ode to gravity)
Stripsody - Cathy Berberian


Poetica micromix

L'ampleur du souffle (2020)

To breathe, is to activate a certain space. Short breaths, deep breaths, dying breaths or sensual ones - they evoke variety of features and peculiarities that the breath embodies. Breath is also a precondition of voice, and further, of a spoken word. Paving the path for every physiological and philosophical activity, breath is essential to all we do and all that we are. 
Auditory situations in this piece are fluidly changing from one to another in a constant fluctuation and transfiguration of the musical material. Acoustic spaces inside of which the music is being situated, give room for the sounds to appear, to change and disappear, develop and transform, and inside of these spaces, the ear can swift freely from one sound object to another in a spatial and non-linear listening experience.

Commissioned for the Tingles & Clicks project by the Musikprotokoll 2020 and supported by the program "Creative Europe" of the European Union and SHAPE platform.

The work was presented in ambisonics, binaural and stereo formats. It was composed for an interactive environment, and the sections (structure, duration) were open. This is one of its renderings (structure and format-wise), made for the presentation at Radio Belgrade in 2020.

Presented at Musikprotokoll, Graz, at Radio Belgrade 3, CYNETART festival and Ö1 radio (Zeit-Ton radio show).

L'ampleur du souffle

For ensemble and multichannel, asymmetrical sound (excerpt)

Premiered by Black Page Orchestra at Wien Modern, 2022
Christina Bauer: Klangregie
Yalda Zamani: Conductor

Recording produced by ORF/Radio Österreich

Wigmaker - Black Page Orchestra, Wien Modern (2022)

For orchestra and recordings of children's improvisations, multichannel (2023)

Defiance of the Glorious Children is a piece dedicated to and inspired by the adventurous, fresh, boundless musicianship of children and their freedom in experimentation and improvisation.

The set of short pieces (improvisations), made by children, was the basis for my work. I have interpreted orchestra as part of this ensemble, by taking as a central point, the idea that all the music revolves around the structure of the children’s recordings. 
Fragmentation of form (and sound), and principle of collage, are defining the work in many ways. Non-standard multichannel speaker placement, division of orchestra into smaller groups, and breaking of the clear boundary between audience and sound (audience and orchestra), support the wish to come closer to the music - to all the crackling, squeaking, humming nuances of sound that reflect its simplicity and instinctivness which is preserved in the recordings that are being played over loudspeakers. 

Performed by the 
RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Steven Loy

In cooperation with the Children's Improvisation Ensemble of the Basel Music Academy, "ImproNext" with:

THAINA DE SA, flute
REEM AKRA, violin
MERLE AREND-HEIDBRINCK, cello
CONSTANTIN GIGER, percussion
MAXIM KRÄUCHI, percussion

under direction of Sylwia Zytynska

Recorded by RTV Slovenia

More info at: https://www.svetlanamaras.com/works.html

Defiance of the Glorious Children - RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra (excerpts)

Five String Sculpture is a composition/sound sculpture exploring the disposition of two different acoustic formations - one long, straight and slightly angled and another smaller one in a convex shape. Each structure is built from the combination of electronic and acoustic sound that spreads between loudspeaker at one end, and acoustic sound of the instrument at another end. To explore the idea of an electro-acoustic piece in which sound can propagate into various directions and can be localised in a couple of fixed
configurations, I have defined 5 “strings” of sound each between one instrument and one loudspeaker, and I have used this to delineate the acoustic space of the work. “String" is therefore the main structural unit of the piece and their activation and
musical treatment, shape the overall form of the work.

Premiered by the Vortex ensemble, Geneva, May 2024

5 String Sculpture

For trio, electronic sounds and custom-made instruments

Premiered by Funkloch:
Lara Stanic, Flöte, Elektronik
Petra Ronner, Klavier, Elektronik
Sebastian Hofmann, Perkussion, Elektronik
Zurich, January 2024

Video: https://www.youtube.com/live/GU6UWonCwKw?si=FA2wPx0fTYg4IMne&t=3701

Things are changing properties

Desire was made in dialogue with African, European and pop artists from around the world for Norient Sounds exhibition «Seismographic Sounds – Visions of a New World». The exhibition was hosted by museums and festivals in Germany, Switzerland and the UK (ZKM Karlsruhe, CTM Berlin among other places)

VIMEO: https://vimeo.com/137019344

DESIRE

Flute, recorders, harp, cello, piano, accordion, percussion and electronics

Commissioned by the Swiss Music Days festival and dedicated to ensembles Phoenix Basel and Ensemble Studio 6

Performed on September 18 2015 in Rex, Belgrade

*3rd place among recommended works at the 63rd International Rostrum of Composers, Wroclaw 2016

http://www.studio6.st
http://ensemble-phoenix.ch/en

Dirty thoughts

*Prix Italia 2017 nomination (radio music)

Језик (in Serbian) meaning “tongue”, but also "language", is a composition made of 11 short pieces, each being centered around the theme of human speech. These are short studies in language articulation, utilized by musical means. From appreciation of spoken words in all their acoustic subtleties, to artificial and enforced musical (rhythmical) structures that are not inherent to speech, I was testing the elasticity of language, stretching the boundaries of its musicality to the point of rupture. For me, within these ruptures, new (musical) meanings arise.

Commissioned by the Ö1 Kunstradio, co-production with  Radio Belgrade

*All vocal materials are cut-ups from number of radio shows found in the archives of the Radio Belgrade and the recordings were kindly provided by them.

http://www.kunstradio.at/2016A/27_03_16en.html

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Jezik - Excerpts

Intro to radio and TV show

Radio Beograd III, Radio Televizija Srbije
Koncert u Studiju 6

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-XKF_KoCoL1ynqOMVew0h4oCeO7yGaNs

Studio 6

Cut-up mix 

Radio Beograd III
Audio-book

Music excerpt: Lennie Tristano - Turkish mambo

Audio-book

Radio Beograd III
Emisija Noćne promenade

Nocne Promenade

Signal 1

Signal 2

From the installation MATTER OF FACT that consists of 5 audio-visual 
compositions:

1. Myself
2. People
3. Society
4. Depression
5. Differences

Commissioned by Norient and CTM for «Seismographic Sounds» exhibition at the CTM Festival 2016 Berlin.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/153378029

All vocal cut-ups are from the interviews with various artists, provided by Norient 

Read the interview: http://gatomonodesign.de/wordpress/svetlana-maras-on-her-video-istallation-matter-of-fact/

More info: https://www.svetlanamaras.com/matteroffact.html

All rights reserved. Copying and distribution strictly forbidden without permission.

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Matter of fact - MYSELF

Radio Belgrade III
Emisija Imaginarni pejzaži

(electronic and experimental music show by Ksenija Stevanovic)

Imaginarni pejzazi

This piece was made for the opening of the Radio Belgrade Electronic Studio on March 2 2018. 

This is my 1st recording of the real-time improvisation with EMS Synthi 100 + my computer setup.

Computer setup was based on the TouchOSC interface, Pure data patch and Ableton live. Improvisational dialogues between Synthi and computer were done through a dynamic interactive interface on my tablet and tweaking of the Synthi sounds live and playing with their parameters. I haven't used Synthi's sequencer (or a computer sequencer), but rather variety of key triggers, joysticks and envelope shaper trapezoids.

Due to a wide frequency range, it's not advisable to listen to this recording through a laptop speaker or similar.

This is my first use of the modular synthesizer in live performance and/or composition.

TV recording of the whole event: https://youtu.be/9tUwHGweUxY
(simultaneous performance in 2 studios of the Radio Belgrade with audience, live TV and radio broadcast)

Radio Concert No.1

Organized by the Center for the Promotion of Science, Serbia
Exhibition - Life cycles of Milutin Milankovic
Gallery of Science and Technology - Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art 
​May 2019
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More info: https://m3.cpn.rs/
https://www.cpn.rs/aktivnosti/izlozba-o-milankovicu/

Milutin Milanković - Exhibition Soundtrack

This is an audio mix of the 4 elements from my sound installation/sculpture "Il tempo insassato che pur scorre" from 2020.

Background sound is played through the floor monitors, stereo, and they are placed on your left and right as you enter the room. This sound fills up the space like the light and opens it up beyond the walls of the gallery space, implying a reverberant, large, empty room/hall. The sound is composed by layering the multitude of oscillators coming from the EMS Synthi 100, covering each part of the spectra. 
The sound played through the speakers in front (which are covered by the cloth), are scattered sonic artefacts in low and mid registers, that should appear to be almost tangible and "real", as if something is moving beneath the cloth.
Devices hanging on the left and right wall are winding and unwinding the tape. They are sonified from within the box by the ready-made loops that consist of material produced by sampling the working procedures of the reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Durations of the tracks in the installation, differ from the ones in this mix which is made as an audio preview.

Installation was premiered at the gallery Weisser Elephant on January 2020 in Berlin, alongside the works by Alva Noto,  Robert Lippok, Katharina Bevand, Cecile Dupaquier, Anne Gathmann, Harriet Gross and Elliane Radiue, to whom this event was dedicated, celebrating her work in electro-acoustic music and her birthday.

Download

Il tempo insassato che pur scorre (sound part)

Accordion and electronics - Branko Džinović
Violoncello - Aleksandar Latković
Composition - Score, Interaction design (electronics) - Svetlana Maraš

Premiered and recorded at Belgrade Philharmonic Hall in March 2020.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCWx1RZaj3A&fbclid=IwAR20g4dJCQmcjUcjXXM3tqmQouWZ6eMM1xPrDh69dMiqO9h2SjRYgZRs1nc

Chamber music - for accordion with electronics and violoncello

This is one of 3 tracks that were made solely by using the analogue synthesizer EMS Synthi 100. For each track, there was a single patch and the material was recorded live in one go. Rhythmical synchronization of the material was done by using the Synthi's sequencer. Simple live manipulations included putting a pin or two in and out and switching on and off the mixer channels. Additional panning of each individual channel was done on a computer. These tracks demonstrate the effect of extremely simplified musical material produced by using the not-so-simple sound tool (for the reference, try figuring out and programming a Synthi 100 sequencer:)). Tracks are named by the number of sequencer steps used in that piece. Recorded live at Electronic Studio - Radio Belgrade.

2019

From the album STEPS: https://svetlanamaras.bandcamp.com/album/steps

Svetlana Maraš©All rights reserved
©SOKOJ

Part of the piece - 2 Kinetic studies, made during the residency at the Spatial Sound Institute in Budapest in 2016: https://soundcloud.com/svetlanamaras/sets/2-kinetic-studies

Study no.1 is guided by the principle of symmetry. The central spot of the composition is in the middle of the room - half the way on both horizontal X- and Z-axis. Each object always moves through both halves of at least one of the X- or Z-planes. The element which is being doubled, is followed by the same-pace movement of the element on the opposite side of the axis, but the movement is being reversed: element no.6 positioned on Z-4 goes from X-5 to X+5 while at the same time in the same speed element no.7 at Z+4 goes from X+5 to X-5. 
There are three elements which are the musical nucleus of the composition (1, 2, 3). These sounds are airy (noisy) but they have a recognisable pitch and form a minor triad. All other elements are tuned to these three elements which define the tonal center of the piece. This kind of interpretation of the harmonic aspect of the composition, parallels the interpretation of ‘symmetrical’ in spatial domain. 

This is a stereo mixdown of the piece.

VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/210260544

Study No.1

Part of the piece - 2 Kinetic studies, made during the residency at the Spatial Sound Institute in Budapest in 2016: https://soundcloud.com/svetlanamaras/sets/2-kinetic-studies

Study no.2 is based on the rotational movement of majority of elements, and this is also the only movement being applied globally to all elements at once, at one point in the composition. Being rotated, the objects’ acoustic characteristics change and the overall soundscape of the piece is in a state of flux all the time. I worked with sinusoid electronic sounds and the vertical aspect of the piece could be interpreted through a division of the frequency spectrum. Some elements covered the higher frequencies, some middle ones and a single element covers the (sub-)bass range. In this composition, the movement on the Y-plane has been used less statically than in the Study no.1. Except programming each individual movement and behaviour of the object, I decided on four modes of each composition. Each mode consist of the specific combination of the elements, times of their activation and de-activation. These provisional decisions could be replaced by the audience’s own choice and different constellations could be made. My ‘studies’ - just like some of the sculptures by Jean Tinguely - are continuously working, repetitive machines, so which cannot be heard in their entirety, but are becoming audible segmentally, as one object sets the next one in motion.

This is a binaural recording made in the 4DSOUND studio.

VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/210260874

Study No.2

Radiophonic work in 10 parts, duration - 30min.
Production: Radio Television Serbia - Radio Belgrade 3
Produced partly in Electronic Studio Radio Belgrade using EMS Synthi 100
Premiere: May 30, 11:10PM, Radio Belgrade 3
Artwork (sculpture): Goran Stojčetović - Art Brut Serbia
Photo: Milan Milutinovic - Black Sheep Produkcija
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/7bu6HcFKI1k
*Winner of the Serbian most prestigious composition prize "Mokranjac" for 2020

Post-excavation activities (teaser)

Composition made for the split release "Angry Ambient Artists Vol.2" published on Forwind label in 2017. It's a part of a diptych with the piece called Habitat. 

https://boomkat.com/products/angry-ambient-artists-vol-2

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AFTERMATH

Originally a quadrophonic piece, this is a stereo excerpt from a work commissioned by the Sonica festival, Ljubljana

𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎
𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍
𝐕𝐑𝐓, 𝐊𝐈 𝐆𝐀 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐉𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐉
22. - 26. september 2020

VRT (excerpt)

Mix for the Intermission Studio by Unsound festival, premiered at Radio Kapital 02/09/2020

https://radiokapital.pl/shows/intermission-studio/svetlana-maras

Tracklist:
Laurie Spiegel - Patchwork (The Expanding Universe)
Hildegard Westerkamp - Kits Beach Soundwalk
Valerio Tricoli - Angolazioni Inusuali Della Tua Camera Da Letto
Rashad Becker - Dances V (Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. II)
Nicola Ratti - L6 (The Collection)
Toshimaru Nakamura - Nimb 2 (No-Input Mixing Board)
Neo Hülcker - ASMR
Ana Gnjatović - Speak low 1
Glenn Gould - The Solitude Trilogy (excerpt)
Beatrice Dillon and Rupert Clervaux - The Same River Twice (Two Changes)
Glenn Gould - The Solitude Trilogy (excerpt)
Robert Lippok, Soojin Anjou, Askat Jetigen,- Winter into Spring (Gletschermusik)
Manja Ristić - South Porat - Throwing rocks, Boat (Silba Soundmap)
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Rain Dance - Rain Mix (Wet Land)

Unsound

Recording of the live performance from the Ear we are festival in Biel Switzerland, February 3, 2017

https://svetlanamaras.bandcamp.com/album/ear-i-am

All music by Svetlana Maraš
Published by CHINCH - Initiative for Contemporary Music 
All rights protected by SOKOJ
2020

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Ear I Am

Composer and sound artist. Professor of Creative Music Technology and Co-head of Electronic Studio - Basel. Ex Head of Radio Belgrade's Electronic Studio
www.svetlanamaras.com
marasoffice@gmail.com
*********************************
Maraš has presented her work internationally, at venues, festivals and events such as  Ruhr Triennial, CTM (Berlin), Ars Electronica (Linz), House of Electronic Arts (Basel), Ruhr Triennial, Espace Multimedia Gantner (Bourogne), Musikprotokoll (Graz), Heroines of Sound (Berlin), Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), Ausland (Berlin), Izlog Suvremenog Zvuka (Zagreb), ICMC (New York), International Rostrum of Composers (Wroclaw), ISEA (Dubai), International Music Institute (Darmstadt), Orpheus Institute (Ghent) and many other places. Her music was used in theatre plays, experimental and documentary films, presented at places like MOMA (New York), Aubagne International Film Festival and Bitef theatre (Belgrade).
​
Svetlana Maraš was SHAPE artist for 2020, and co-curator of 4fakultät concert series in Hamburg.

Svetlana Maraš

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