humana|machina

(2024)

acousmatic music; ambisonic sound
duration 38’53’’

humana|machina is an immersive electroacoustic music composition that invites you into a sonic realm where the boundaries of human and machine dissolve. It takes as its starting point the desire to extend human senses and capabilities by means of technology. The piece is composed of sounds that are both organic and mechanical, sounds of machines and technology juxtaposed with the sounds of nature and the human voice. The title itself, a fusion of the Latin terms for ‘human’ and ‘machine,’ becomes a symbolic canvas upon which the narrative of our modern existence unfolds. The composition serves as an exploration of the intricate interplay between the organic and the synthetic, a journey into the evolving relationship that defines our era. “humana|machina” is an abstraction, a reflection, and an invitation. It is a sonic bridge connecting the ancient with the futuristic, the human with the machinic. A loose narrative serves as a guide through the auditory landscapes that echo the complexities of our interconnected world, where boundaries blur, and the essence of human and machine is laid bare.

Text contributions by Chat GPT, Google Bard, and Microsoft Bing AI; voices by Coqui XTTS.

humana|machina was commissioned by Meta.Morf Trondheim Biennale for Art and Technology 2024 with support from The Cultural Fund, Norway. 

Pavor|vacillant

(2022)

acousmatic music; ambisonic sound
duration 16’14’’

Pavor|vacillant portrays the delicate balance between societal stability and unrest as well as the wavering response to changing and unpredictable climatic and social factors. It is based on sound materials of both nature and culture, juxtaposed in order to highlight the inseparable connection between humans and their natural environment as well as the individual's powerlessness and community's inability to act in the face of global crises. The rhythmic and harmonic materials in Pavor|vacillant are derived from frequencies related to brain waves, especially the theta and beta waves that occur during states of deep relaxation and high activity, as references to inaction and action, respectively. Pavor|vacillant is a current and speculative depiction of possible societal consequences of keeping the status quo on the fracturing symbiotic relations to our greater ecological community and Earth’s life-giving systems.

Pavor|vacillant was composed with support from The Cultural Fund, Norway.

Inflow

(2021)

acousmatic music; ambisonic sound
duration 14’24’’

Inflow takes as its starting point sound materials recorded above and below water, in liquid and solid form – sometimes recognizable, sometimes heavily processed – combined into a compositional structure that builds on Earth's hydrological cycle where water melts, evaporates, condenses and freezes. In this cycle, water absorbs, stores and releases energy and distributes energy around the globe via air and ocean currents that lead to warmer and cooler regions and seasons. Even a minimal increase in temperature will disturb this cycle's fragile balance and affect the distribution of water to areas that will experience lushness, flooding, drought and desertification. This fragility is illustrated in the work by playing on the balance between stability and breakdown, accumulation and disintegration, transformation and constancy. Spatialization and integration of spatial elements are important structural devices in the work, which is composed as a fully immersive, 3D sound environment.

Inflow was created with support from The Composers’ Remuneration Fund, Norway.

hyperthermic

(2019)

acousmatic music; ambisonic sound
duration 9’43’’

Hyperthermic is based on sound material that in various ways is associated with global warming and extreme weather phenomena: wind, rain, storm, fire, flooding, heat, meltwater and deforestation. The harmonic material, and in part the formal structure of the work, is derived from the Earth’s resonance frequencies in the electromagnetic field that vary in response to global lightening activity, which in turn intensifies in response to global warming. The work is composed in the ambisonics format for performance on multi-channel loudspeaker systems.

Hyperthermic was commissioned by Electric Audio Unit in Oslo, Norway with support from The Norwegian Composers’ Fund.

Orbita

(2017)

acousmatic music; ambisonic sound
duration 11'38''

Orbita is inspired by the overview effect - "seeing the reality of the Earth in space [...], a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere." The work centers on aspects of biodiversity, survival, fear, isolation, regret and lost hope in an existence away from terra firma in order to save life from extinction or to save the planet from destruction.

Orbita was created with support from the Audio and Visual Fund at Arts Council Norway.

Klanger fra Trøndelag

(2017)

acousmatic music; ambisonic sound duration 5'00''

Klanger fra Trøndelag was commissioned by the Electric Audio Unit for the 100th anniversary of the Norwegian Society of Composers. The work is based on 3-second sound samples of music by members of the Norwegian Society of Composers from the Trøndelag region in Norway, one sample of music per year since the founding of the Society in 1917.

Intra

(1999)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration 12'40''

The underlying model for Intra is based on some of the symptoms encountered in different stages of schizophrenia, a condition characterised by fragmentation of mental functions and blurring of fantasy and reality. Difficulty in distinguishing between internal and external worlds is a key symptom, and hallucinations and exaggerations of sensory input are common. Space and spatial relationships among the sounds are central tools in this composition to portray such a state. Environments of internal and external nature are set up, and appear both separately and juxtaposed throughout the work. Transitions between different virtual spaces are guided by the development of the sound material, and take place sometimes gradually, other times abruptly. A wide range in dynamics and density of sounds reflect extremes in sensations experienced from overstimulation on one hand and the desperation for calm and stability on the other. As with the state of the mind, one cannot always anticipate what happens next.

Intra was composed during the autumn of 1999 in the composer's private studio and in the studios of the Music Department at City University London, UK. It received an Honorary Mention in the Métamorphoses 2000 competition in Belgium.

Ebb

(1998)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration 10'43''

Ebb was created in London in 1998 during the grey and rainy summer that never became a real summer. Around the same time there were record breaking temperatures in the USA and disastrous tidal waves in South America. The strange weather and the unpredictable seasons in recent years and possible reasons for this were the inspiration for the piece. It is all in the title. Ebb does not only refer to the water sounds that the work is based on, but it also points to other implied meanings; political, social and psychological. The work deals with regression and decline on several levels, but this is not necessarily obvious on the surface. Ambiguity is created by contrasting beautiful water sounds and drones with distorted sound masses and downward glissandos. There are familiar sounds intermixed with unknown sonic textures. There are natural sounds set up against sounds of human gesture. These are all integrated in a structure that balances on the edge of a narrative. Ebb is a nearly eleven minute long journey that may not really end, but continues into the far distance—with or without the consciousness of its participants.

This work is dedicated to all those who fight against the ruthless exploitation of the world’s natural resources.

(dis)integration

(1998)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration 9'53''

(dis)integration plays with stability and instability, density and scattering, unification and fragmentation, tranquility and disruption, anticipation and surprise, integration and disintegration. The work is based on recordings of percussion instruments – themselves having disruptive potential – that are manipulated both on a microscopic level as well as on a macro-structural level. Residue from the process of fragmenting the source material is magnified, expanded and brought to become carrying elements of the work. Particles emerge and merge, regularity is ruptured by irregularity, and intensity and focus bounces between the temporal and the spectral, all the while hinting at an overall coherency that clarifies as the work progresses.

The source material in (dis)integration is manipulated using a variety of granular, transposition, time stretching and time compression techniques in order to disintegrate the percussive elements into fragments and magnify and re-integrate the fragments into new textures and configurations. It is a highly energetic work with structural elements shaped based on the internal morphologies of the edited source material in ways that both set up and challenge a sense of anticipation and order through disruption and surprise. The work has a wide dynamic range and extensive spatial movement as well as great variety in density, pace and intensity, all designed to be underlined and enhanced using active sound spatialization in the concert hall. Utilizing spatialization techniques that focus on distance, presence, movement, placement and envelopment as well as manipulating intensity, loudness and softness, the spatial and dynamic elements composed into the work are further articulated in order to bring forward spatio-structural components of the work in ways specifically tailored for the space in which it is performed.

..des cantiques

(1997)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration 22'16''

..des cantiques is based on text fragments from the Song of Songs from the Hebrew bible, a collection of poems that has elicited a great variety of interpretations. The composition underlines the dramatic effect carried by the text, and seeks to portray sides of the human psyche that come into play during loss and desolation. The reading of the text, processed and unprocessed, is the main sound source for the composition. The structure of the piece is closely connected to the content of the text; sometimes merely suggesting the drama of the poem, other times more direct in its expression.

..des cantiques was composed and premiered at the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music in Oakland, California, in 1997.

Voice: Sofia Carreras (ESP/USA)

Obelisk

(1996)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration

Flukt

(1996)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration

Echoes of the Environment

(1996)

vocal music (3 or more vocal performers)
duration open

Sketch for Clarinet

(1995)

solo clarinet
duration

aeolus

(1995)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration

ab initio

(1994)

acousmatic music; stereo sound
duration