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
Ecosons Etude Il. – winter shades – an ecological radio artwork – Lu, 2021
Commissioned by Radio Ara and radia.fm, a radio artwork was realised in terms of an ecoacoustic music research. This project is supported by Knut Aufermann, Sarah Washington and Sandra Laborier and was released online at radia.fm and ara.lu on the 18th of January 2021.
In a visually shaped world, little attention is often paid to the acoustic environment. However, hearing is a vital sense that serves not only for recognition, categorisation, monitoring and surviving, but also for the perception of sound-aesthetic phenomena and eco-sensitive obstacles in real space. Thus, with the help of sound art, abstractions can be guided into real space, and certain focal points can be reformulated from the real to the abstract world.
With the help of a directional and a contact microphone, various soundscapes in south- and north-western Luxembourg were recorded in December 2020 and January 2021, and the sound signature unique to each location was crystallised. In essence, it seeks to examine the correlation between biodiversity quality and soundscape quality, as well as to highlight the essential characteristics of naturally left and human-modified spaces. In this way, the listener is left to draw his or her own conclusions and is thus made to think and listen.
Field Recordings and Sound Design: Sam Erpelding
Speaker: Katrin (MacBook Pro – British english voice)
Performers: different Soundscapes around south- and north-western Luxembourg
[Pétange, Lasauvage, Prënzebierg, Garnich, Grass, Clemency, Bauschleiden]
Ecosons Etude lll.
is a set of three synthesizers for the sonification of acoustic indices. In this patch, the Acoustic Complexity, Acoustic Diversity, Acoustic Evenness Index, Bioacoustic Index, Normalised-Difference Soundscape Inndex, Number of Peaks and Spectral Entropy are calculated for three different location recordings. This patch was developed to make the acoustic indices audible. This is the basic construction for Etude IV.
Ecosons Etude lV.
A.C.I.S.S. & hidden fluctuations among leaves
A.C.I.S.S. = Sonification and Spatialisation of Acoustic Indices.
EcoSons Étude IV. is an artistic-ecological investigation of habitat ambience and spectro-temporal dynamics in natural landscapes. This study compares eight different recordings of natural soundscapes in Central Europe and explores the sonification and spatialisation of their acoustic indices. For this purpose, the eight natural soundscape recordings were divided into one-minute segments, and the acoustic indices were calculated for each segment. For each soundscape, a data set can be loaded every minute, controlling three different synthesizers. The controlled parameters of these synthesisers are, for example, pitch, panorama, modulation frequencies, reverb feedback, filter frequencies and grain size. In this way, both the original sound recordings and the sonification of the data sets can be played. The mix interprets the spectro-temporal and -variable fluctuations as well as internal patterns in the soundscapes. The recordings were made at different times of the year in Pétange, Dumontshaff Nature Park, Prënzebierg Nature Park and Öewersauer Nature Park (all in Luxembourg) as well as De Biesbosch National Park (Netherlands) and Donau-Auen National Park (Austria).
This patch is designed for live use and can be presented via a stereo as well as a multi-channel speaker system.
As part of the exhibition „Woven in vegetal fabric“ at the Casino Display in Luxembourg on the 26th pf Febrruary 2022, a 45-minute audio-visual performance was played over an 8-channel loudspeaker system.
For the „Earth Day Art Model 2022“ on 24.04.22, an 8-minute short version was played in binaural stereo.
