The Medienfrische artist residency program in Tyrol, Austria (summer 2023) comprised a series of activities around listening and sound creation, focusing mainly on the making of field recordings (biophonies, birds, machines and dialogues). This immersive documentary act included an exploration of local sound identities and their territory, as well as recordings of participatory actions and activities that generated deep connections between the community, participating residents and the environment. The recording process involved spending entire days between walks, meditation, silence and deep listening, generating reflections on our social and interspecies relationships.
The recordings have been used for the composition of an acousmatic work entitled “Ignis Fatuus” which is composed of four movements generated through sound categorizations (biophonies, geophonies and anthropophonies). The sound materials were used unaltered and also under different digital processing such as editing, synthesis, effects and other techniques of timbral transfiguration. The construction of the work takes advantage of the inherent nature of each sound element, the echo and memory of the recorded source, its place and time.
One of the main objectives of the work is to evoke the Will-o’-the-Wisp through sound narratives. This is a concept from the Middle Ages that describes phenomena, guardians or ghosts of light that wander around to divert the traveler from the right path; they can appear in dreams and nightmares, feeding on our fears and desires. They appear in art, technology and aurality. The conjunction of sound elements creates metaphorical relationships between art and listeners, offering an aesthetic experience that proposes routes of social action through dialogue and reflection. This project is a connection between communities, resonant vestiges and sensorial and emotional internalization through listening.
Listen: https://open.spotify.com/album/3L8xbgf1hSLd5tJcIaQfL9
