Ecosons Etude I. – Lu, Nl, 2020
is a series of two electroacoustic soundscape works created as part of an ecoacoustic music study. For this artistic research, the „acoustic niche hypothesis“ (Krause 1987) is an important tool to investigate the field recordings and to evaluate an artistic and scientific assessment of the soundscape of natural spaces.
Two different landscapes in Central Europe were chosen for this work: the national park „De Biesbosch“ in the Netherlands and the region „Mëllerdall“ in Luxembourg. For this artistic research, the composer undertook sound walks in these areas and documented the acoustic environment with field recordings and deep listening techniques. The audio recordings were modified by computer music techniques such as spectral extraction, overlapping and filtering techniques.
The idea of these compositions is to emphasise the cocktail effect in acoustic environments, possible communication obstacles and the interaction between people and the environment.
„Mellerdall“ is a stereo fixed-media piece and tells of the interaction between bird calls and road noise in the East Luxembourg region (Reisdorf, Berdorf). The recordings were made with a Sennheiser MKH-416 microphone and a Zoom F4 field recorder in September 2020.
„De Biesbosch“ is a stereo fixed media piece and shows a very special biodiversity and human-environment interaction, during a kayak tour in the national park „De Biesbosch“ in the south of the Netherlands. The recordings were made with a Zoom H4n in August 2020.
Next, ecoacoustic parameters such as acoustic biodiversity and human presence in the natural sound recordings were determined. Signal processing was then used to create artistic representations comprising modulations of various photographies recorded in the field.
A live performance was presented at the „Sound & Visions“ concert at the Anton Bruckner Private University in the Sonic Lab CMS Lab in Linz on 9 June 2023.
De Biesbosch – Visualisation of Acoustic Indices
Mëllerdall – Visualisation of Acoustic Indices