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Acousmatic / Electronic / Video / Computer Graphics
Most of the music below is now available for concert in all spatial audio formats (ambisonics, decoded speaker feeds, Dolby Atmos and stereo for sound diffusion). For larger loudspeaker arrays I travel with the music to ensure a correct rendering and performance. For enquiries, please select the contact tab.
Toxic Colour
2024, duration 15'20
All 2D and 3D Spatial Audio formats
Mining. Construction. Industry. Cleanup or coverup? The first outdoor exhibition showcasing aerial photography that captured the human impact on natural landscapes was "The Earth from the Air" by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, shown in Paris in 2000. The paradox of these mesmerising photos, in contrast to the often ravaged human-altered landscapes that they capture, has become the theme of many photo-art projects. Despite my being repeatedly drawn to such stunning imagery, their statements are becoming lost in our oversaturated world of digital visual media. I thought it was time to make a statement in sound. Toxic Colour was commissioned by EAU with support from Arts and Culture Norway.
Constructions of Collapse and Desire
2024, duration 30'00
Immersive audio and video
Media, science, images, talk of a world in collapse. Yet The buildings around me are still standing. The nature outside still grows. The local station still receives and delivers its carriages. For how long? Maybe for eternity. Maybe for four years. But if constructions of man and nature collapse, I hope they will regroup as beautiful objects of desire. At least in my dreams. Constructions of Collapse and Desire reimagines reality through 3D sound, immersive computer graphics, and real-time video processing performance. It transports audiences to a surreal world where our surrounding constructions are set in motion, torn apart, and rebuilt. The work explores sonic and visual architecture, featuring locations such as a rural train station, a snow-covered path leading into the night, and Oslo's Barcode District. Supported by The Norwegian Government Grants for Artists.
Glass Eye
2024, duration 11'30
All 2D and 3D Spatial Audio formats
“Glass Eye” is an electroacoustic dystopia where the proliferation of surveillance technology is an invisible force, quietly eliminating resistance. The Glass Eye focuses on undesirables in the crowd, singles them out and eliminates them through a transformation from expression to apathy that eventually dissolves into harmless tones. Commissioned by Notam for premier at the Ultima Festival 2024, with support from the Norwegian Composers' Fund.
Ghosts of the Children
2024, duration 8'29
All 2D and 3D Spatial Audio formats
The sensory presence of spirits is embedded in the cultures that have shaped history. Although I don't rationally believe in ghosts, the power of cultural influence can shape something as basic as what feels real to the senses. In "Ghosts of the Children" the spirits of lost children live on. these spirits are mainly abstract, playing in a frozen world that gradually warms with their presence. Originally motivated by the global disasters of 2023, I soon realised that I wanted to capture beauty and not death.
The Swifts of Pesaro
2024, duration 6'07
All 2D and 3D Spatial Audio formats
In November 2023, while preparing for the premiere of a large orchestra and live electronics composition I had some days off from the intensity of performance, people and concert halls. To unwind, I visited a few of the recordings I made during the warm nights of Pesaro (Italy) earlier in the summer. Experimenting with these recordings resulted in ambient and immersive soundscapes, which, unlike the high-energy composition materials I was currently working on, I didn't really think much more of. It was also a mediation amidst the destruction wreaking havoc in the world in the end of 2023. Later on I played these slow-moving sounds to a friends who suggested that they could live on in a short composition. The result is 'The Swifts of Pesaro.' Dedicated to eco-acoustics researcher and sound artist David Monacchi.
Impossible Moments from Venice 3: The Other Side of the Lagoon
2023, duration 10'00
Ambisonics (3D and 2D options)
“The Other Side of the Lagoon” is the third composition in the “Impossible Moments from Venice” series. With one foot in reality, these compositions take the listener to a fictional location beyond the reach, as if in a dream state that nevertheless appears to be totally real. The watery reality of Venice, sinking into the muddy lagoon and threatened by the rising Adriatic, is counterpointed by curious sounds we rarely hear. These sounds are revealed by advanced signal processing methods that I developed during the Reconfiguring the Landscape artistic research project, aimed at exploring interesting features of the urban noise we are party to. The work draws on the sound of Venice before the tourists awaken, counterpointed by iron piers rolling on the waves, motorboats resonating across the Lagoon, and a sense decadence sitting uneasily against the reality of the rising tides.
Impossible Moments from Venice 2
2023, duration 7'42
Ambisonics (3D and 2D options)
On September 1st 2022 I landed in Venice for the first time. Loaded with expectations about history and culture, and influenced by how Venice has featured in the literary fiction of some of our great writers, my goal was to explore this city of islands, canals and bridges. Happy to be there outside the peak tourist season, and a year after cruise ships had been banned from the lagoon, I walked, listened and recorded. The tall and narrow buildings mislead a GPS and cast you into watery dead-ends, while a blind corner may reveal a hidden diagonal bridge leading to a passage the width of a person, transporting you directly to where you had intended to go. Capturing reality seemed impossible. The sounds, the acoustics, the light, the people, and whether the concept of the Venetian as a native inhabitant still exists, created a paradox of past, present and expectations of the future.
No. 1 creates music from a narrative of floating iron piers, vaporetti (water buses) and the behind the scenes jostling of the graceful gondolas from 5 am to 8 pm. No. 2 reveals the outdoor city squares, a fishmonger and church bells, from many vantage points, and ends with a fortuitous recording exemplifying the clash of cultures living side-by-side in this city.
Impossible Moments from Venice 1
2023, duration 6'48
Ambisonics (3D and 2D options)
On September 1st 2022 I landed in Venice for the first time. Loaded with expectations about history and culture, and influenced by how Venice has featured in the literary fiction of some of our great writers, my goal was to explore this city of islands, canals and bridges. Happy to be there outside the peak tourist season, and a year after cruise ships had been banned from the lagoon, I walked, listened and recorded. The tall and narrow buildings mislead a GPS and cast you into watery dead-ends, while a blind corner may reveal a hidden diagonal bridge leading to a passage the width of a person, transporting you directly to where you had intended to go. Capturing reality seemed impossible. The sounds, the acoustics, the light, the people, and whether the concept of the Venetian as a native inhabitant still exists, created a paradox of past, present and expectations of the future.
No. 1 creates music from a narrative of floating iron piers, vaporetti (water buses) and the behind the scenes jostling of the graceful gondolas from 5 am to 8 pm. No. 2 reveals the outdoor city squares, a fishmonger and church bells, from many vantage points, and ends with a fortuitous recording exemplifying the clash of cultures living side-by-side in this city.
Sensory Sleep and Dream Awake
2022, duration 8'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
Many years ago, in 1994 to be precise, excited and captivated by the possibilities offered by computers and composition, I enthusiastically delved into using sources that seemed musically innovative. Of course, after listening and learning, I found other composers had got there before me! I chose to preserve some of these sounds in the 'possibly interesting' archive, and the sounds from water droplets were amongst them. Fast forward to 2022, and it was time for me to revisit the ideas I had set aside, armed with fresh ears, new knowledge, new tools and new dreams. The result is a two-part work composed in higher-order Ambisonics: ‘Dream Awake’ and ‘Sensory Sleep’. The titles reflect my mental state before and after long studio sessions during the quiet hours of dawn. A project funded by the Norwegian Arts Council, aimed at illustrating the creative process of acousmatic composition to the Norwegian music scene, provided the perfect opportunity to bring to life what I had envisioned many years ago.
‘Dream Awake’ and ‘Sensory Sleep’ can be performed from a stereo source or decoded from the ambisonics over any 2D or 3D loudspeaker array, including Dolby Atmos systems.
Stereo preview not yet publicly released.
Speaking Spaces 2: Surfaces from Graz
2021, duration 20'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
"Inversion 3: Speaking Surfaces" was commissioned by the musikprotokoll festival in Graz Austria. It was installed both inside and outside the MUMUTH (The House of Music and Music Theatre), Lichtenfelsgasse 14, 8010 Graz, Austria. It played in all weathers from the 7th-9th September 2021. The work was remixed into a 15 minute stereo piece for the Reconfiguring the Landscape documentation CD and given a new title: "Speaking Spaces 2: Surfaces from Graz".
Also see links to the sound installation: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2442459/2442460
Speaking Space 2: Surfaces from Graz can be performed from a stereo source or decoded from the ambisonics over any 2D or 3D loudspeaker array, including Dolby Atmos systems. For the installation version Inversion 3, please take contact.
Growth
2021, duration 6'00
Stereo for sound diffusion performance.
During the corona crisis, like many composers I spent time isolated in my studio playing with new ideas and new directions. 'Growth' was one of these pieces. It grew out of the ideas that I was experimenting with during the creation of the installation 'We Are Not Alone' in 2015.
Also see links to the sound installation: https://vimeo.com/141030686
Growth can be performed as acousmonium sound diffusion from a stereo source or decoded from the ambisonics over any 2D or 3D loudspeaker array, including Dolby Atmos systems.
Speaking Spaces no.1: Heterotopia
2021, duration 25'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
I no longer remember when I realized: rather than hearing a dog bark, a hawk screech, the traffic or a child, I instead heard the forest, the mountain, the rock-face and the city. The spaces were speaking with their acoustic reflections, but it was something more too. These encounters contradicted my normal perception and became transformative experiences during my walks through the landscape, which seemed to contain more layers of meaning than immediately evident to the eye and ear. 'Speaking Spaces' is a series of works that explore these alternative conceptions of common space. Without knowing what to call this first composition I stumbled across Foucault's concept of Heterotopia as a mirror, which seemed to embody much of what I was experiencing. 'Speaking Spaces no.1: Heterotopia' is a journey from a forest to a winter shoreline.
Subliminal Throwback (Inversion-2)
2021, duration 23'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
Subliminal Throwback was a site-specific outdoor 3-D audio sound installation located in the amphitheatre between Gydas vei 8 and Slemdalsveiein 11 at Majorstuen, Oslo. The outdoor installation version is still available, and I have also remixed a version that can be played indoors over a variety of loudspeaker configurations.
Talking Trees (Sound Landscape Development 3b)
2020, duration 6'48
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics and stereo for sound diffusion performance.
The 'Sound Landscape Developments' are a series of compositional studies that reveal and enhance the features of outdoor spaces. They integrate listening, semantics and environmental interaction with new technical approaches addressing the dynamic range of sound-field spatiality. In 'Talking Trees' I searched a winter pine forest for trees that produced a creaking-squeaking sound when blown by the wind. Alongside bird calls, woodpeckers and a runner passing through the partly iced-down winter environment, the acoustics of the forest was also heard 'speaking'. Source recordings were made with two Soundfield SPS200 microphones spaced 20 meters apart: one close to the squeaky tree, one further away, in Skaugum Forest (Asker, Norway) on March 20th 2020 during the first week of the COVID-19 shutdown. Absent was the background noise from roads, trains and planes that would normally mask the details of the forest. The work is currently unreleased in stereo. Send a message for enquiries.
The Weathered Piano (quattuor tempora anni)
2019, duration 21'37
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
The seasons are disrupted. Freezes and thaws, storms and heatwaves. The 'Weathered Piano (quattuor tempora anni)' adventures along an acousmatic line through this landscape, the sounds subjected to the seasonal changes, the sounds becoming one with the land, a memory of the present before the future climate takes hold. The work has four seasons that play without pause.
- Autumnus (autumn): late summer dissolves into autumn. Storms, tearing.
- Hiems (winter): arctic winds, the cold creeping in, a last burst of energy as the light fails, the freeze.
- Ver (spring): cracks appear, bursting, fighting, the light returns, spring rains heavy then calmer.
- Aestas (summer): warm twilight evenings, extending time. Daytime brings passing company. The sun smashes into the piano's varnish, glares off the brass, rebounds off the strings.
The composition was made by applying my own methods for analysing spatial information in the 3D recordings of a real "weathered piano" that had stood for many years outside CCRMA.
I segmented and classified the recordings based on their spatial-spectral features, and explored principle trends, consistencies and variances in the materials using music information retrieval and machine learning. The results were then used to train a system that would reveal rules useful for composition. From these rules the work gradually took shape. 'Autumnus', 'Hiems' and 'Ver' are made with their own systems derived from specific sounds from the piano and from the local nature. 'Aestas' presents a freer connection between piano and nature through my experience of sound, what is heard, what is unheard, and the forest close to where I live
The Weathered Piano is composed in 64-ch 7th order 3D ambisonics. It was commissioned by EAU (Electric Audio Unit) with support from the Arts Council Norway and premiered in Oslo on the 28th February 2020.
The original 'weathered piano' from which the source sounds were recorded maybe still sits outside CCRMA, Stanford (USA).
Innermost
2019, duration 18'50
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
"Innermost" explores how individuality manifests in outward expression, where our internal state is often reflected in our posture, movement, and gait. This work reveals and develops these expressions in space.
The source materials are from two mass crowd events: gatherings free from political tension or violence, where individuals express themselves collectively — marching bands, dancing and cheering, and the end of a 10k running race.
Yet, a darker undertone runs through the work. The materials are processed using image and sound analysis techniques employed in population surveillance, facial tracking, and gesture analysis. Human traits emerge — sometimes energetic and harmonious, at other times aggressive or eerily lifeless. Harsh shouts and whistles build to a climax, merging into a mechanical cacophony of drilling and juddering engines. These dissolve into delicate spectral lines, ultimately evoking care and embrace.
Innermost was originally composed in high-resolution 3D ambisonics and 3D video in collaboration with digital video artist Marc Downie (Open Ended Group, USA). It has since been adapted for 2D video and as a standalone concert work heard here.
Commission by the Ultima Festival (Norway) and EMPAC (USA).
Urban Melt in Park Palais Meran
2019, duration 12'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics and stereo for sound diffusion performance.
The summer of 2018 was rather hot. The cities I visited that were normally a pleasant summer temperature were melting. Is this the sign of summers to come? Experiencing how excessive heat can lead to both mirages and a state of delirium, Urban Melt transports an ordinary, outdoor table tennis game in Park Palais Meran, Graz, to a crazier world on the other side of the mirage. This work is one in a series of pieces that visits everyday 'normal' sound scenes and explores ways in which we can evoke and provoke a new awareness of environments we easily ignore.
The composition was made by recording the outdoor table tennis game with the high-resolution EigenMike (4th order ambisonics recording) and then using beam-forming to isolate specific sounds and their directions in the sound-field. These new sources were then gradually transformed and layered back into the scene in 7th order 3D ambisonics.
The work was supported by a grant from the Norwegian The Composers' Remuneration Fund and is available in all multichannel formats as well as stereo for performed sound diffusion.
Dusks Gait
2018, duration 12'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
As dusk falls, an ecosystem of fictional creatures appear, projecting their characters through their gait, or in other words, the manner in which they move. Dusk's Gait celebrates moments of real nature that may easily expire. The composition captures many late evenings and nighttime experiences of nature, and fantasies behind the veil of darkness. Dusk’s Gait was composed during an Edgard Varèse guest professorship at the Electronic Studios of the Technical University Berlin, and in the composers own studio.
Pockets of Space
2018, duration 15'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics and stereo for sound diffusion performance.
“Pockets of Space” is the music for the 3-D video and virtual reality work of the same name. The work is a collaboration between Natasha Barrett and United States–based visual artists Marc Downie and Paul Kaiser, known collectively as OpenEndedGroup. The work was originally composed in seventh-order 3-D Ambisonics for concert performance, and as an interactive binaural version for virtual reality headset. Stereo and binaural versions are presented for this present edition. Throughout the work, audio and visual scenes transform between states verging on both reality and abstraction, created by experimental methods involving the spatial decom- position and recomposition of source materials. Some of the musical materials began as real Ambisonics sound recordings that were then decom- posed to reveal sound objects and their spatial-frequency fingerprint. From these experiments, new materi- als were then abstracted and explored, and sometimes fed into the visual art- work. Other musical materials drew instead from the visual art, where Downie decomposed images into pixel information and implemented his own custom-made algorithmic processes. These processes revealed unique geometries and eccentric physics, which were in turn fed back into sound synthesis to create new spatial-audio imagery. This work was commission by the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) and premiered at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Involuntary Expression
2017, duration 17'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
"Involuntary Expression" is one in a series of pieces investigating whether the spatial and dynamic behavior of sound could evoke the sensation of a living entity. Can we feel the music through the sound’s behavior in space?
I first captured micro-movements from three motion sources—crowds attempting to collectively stand still, a cellist, and a drummer—using a high-speed, high-spatial-resolution 3D motion-capture camera system. Rather than recording the sounds these people made, I was instead interested in their physical movements that produce no sound on their own. Many of the motion recordings captured involuntary micro-movements of which we are often unaware. I then used the data from these recordings to create and control sound, amplifying gesture to fill the expanse of space. The work was commissioned with support from the Norwegian Cultural Council and in collaboration with the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo for motion capture facilities.
He slowly fell and transformed into the terrain
2016, duration 24'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics and stereo for sound diffusion performance.
The seasons are disrupted. Freezes and thaws, storms and heatwaves. The 'Weathered Piano (quattuor tempora anni)' adventures along an acousmatic line through this landscape, the sounds subjected to the seasonal changes, the sounds becoming one with the land, a memory of the present before the future climate takes hold. The work has four seasons that play without pause.
- Autumnus (autumn): late summer dissolves into autumn. Storms, tearing.
- Hiems (winter): arctic winds, the cold creeping in, a last burst of energy as the light fails, the freeze.
- Ver (spring): cracks appear, bursting, fighting, the light returns, spring rains heavy then calmer.
- Aestas (summer): warm twilight evenings, extending time. Daytime brings passing company. The sun smashes into the piano's varnish, glares off the brass, rebounds off the strings.
The composition was made by applying my own methods for analysing spatial information in the 3D recordings of a real "weathered piano" that had stood for many years outside CCRMA.
I segmented and classified the recordings based on their spatial-spectral features, and explored principle trends, consistencies and variances in the materials using music information retrieval and machine learning. The results were then used to train a system that would reveal rules useful for composition. From these rules the work gradually took shape. 'Autumnus', 'Hiems' and 'Ver' are made with their own systems derived from specific sounds from the piano and from the local nature. 'Aestas' presents a freer connection between piano and nature through my experience of sound, what is heard, what is unheard, and the forest close to where I live
The Weathered Piano is composed in 64-ch 7th order 3D ambisonics. It was commissioned by EAU (Electric Audio Unit) with support from the Arts Council Norway and premiered in Oslo on the 28th February 2020.
The original 'weathered piano' from which the source sounds were recorded maybe still sits outside CCRMA, Stanford (USA).
Topology Chamber 2
2015, duration 14'00
Higher-order 3D/2D ambisonics or stereo for sound diffusion
Topology Chamber 2 was composed in 2015 in 5th order 3-D ambisonics. The composition was created with the sonification of motion data recorded from a human playing with a balloon and a cymbal.
Motion tracking markers were strategically placed on key points of the performer's body, balloon, and cymbal. A high-speed motion tracking camera system recorded the 3-D location of each marker while the performer explored the kinetic and acoustic properties of these instruments. Simultaneously, a microphone array captured the actual sounds produced by the instruments.
Each marker generated a spatial motion dataset. Analyzing this data, along with the acoustic recordings, unveiled 'rules' representing the real-world performance system. These rules were then employed to compose new 'fictional' datasets, subsequently sonified into the sound materials of the composition.
The sonification process took place in an interactive software called Cheddar, developed in MaxMSP.
One objective was to render the motion, which is itself inaudible until it strikes the acoustic object, audible. With this approach I was interested in creating tangible sound - sound that you feel has a dynamic and physical connection to the listener - as if it were a real, touchable object.
The track presented is rendered in binaural format using the APL Virtuoso software and is specifically designed for headphone listening only.
Volvelle 1
2015, duration 20'34
Higher-order 3D ambisonics, stereo for sound diffusion performance.
A volvelle is a rotating slide chart constructed from multiple concentric circles with pointers. In antiquity, they were used as calculators in astronomy, witchcraft, and fortune-telling. The volvelle in this piece calculates the emergence of frequency, spatial and temporal structures when sound-fields interact and are heard from different viewpoints. For a composer, this is a magic akin to sonic fortune-telling.
“Volvelle" is an electronic / acousmatic work without instrumental performers and is composed for playback over loudspeakers in the higher-order ambisonics 3D sound format. Slow-moving lines are dynamically crossed by gestures and spatial patterns, made possible with our latest computer tools. The prominent appearance of sub-bass frequencies means this composition can only be experienced in a concert or sound-art installation with sub-bass loudspeakers. The sound sources stem from flutes and from environment recordings of a partly deserted rural village at dusk, recorded by the composer. These materials are highly processed, controlled by numerical parameters dictated by the volvelle. The work was made possible with support from a Norwegian Cultural Council artists grant, and created in the composer's own studio.
Kernel Expansion
2009, duration 14'26
Higher-order 3D ambisonics.
Kernel Expansion exposes the 'kernel' or 'heart' of certain secret sounds: some derived from real sources, some from personal experiences, and others from within my mind.
Kernel Expansion was commissioned by and realized in the studios of ZKM, funded by ZKM's Giga-Hertz Award for electronic and acousmatic music in 2008. The work premiered on ZKM's 43-loudspeaker Klangdome concert system.
The piece is composed in 5th-order ambisonics. At the time, encoding, mixing, and decoding higher-order ambisonics was more difficult than it is today due to the lack of mixing tools that supported sufficiently high-output buses. The available decoders also offered fewer options, and managing room and speaker layouts was problematic. During my experiments at ZKM, I developed a solution consisting of five layers of 2D 5th-order ambisonics. Each 2D layer was decoded using its own dedicated decoder and played over vertically displaced horizontal rings of speakers. The relative volume of these layers was controlled live during the concert, allowing compensation for changes in room acoustics caused by the presence of the audience. This format also made it easy to decode over horizontal loudspeaker arrays, and to compensate for 3D arrays that were less 'dome-like' than the Klangdome.
Our tools have greatly improved since 2008, and although this approach is now unnecessary, the work represents an important phase in my ambisonics repertoire.
More about the work can be read here: Barrett, N. 2010. Kernel Expansion: a three-dimensional spatial composition combining different ambisonics spatialisation techniques. Proc. of the 2nd International Symposium on Ambisonics and Spherical Acoustics. IRCAM. Paris, France.
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