The idea behind this project with QUASAR is based on relating instrumental sound, produced by the saxophone quartet, and processed field recordings in a controlled virtual acoustic architecture. I have chosen a selection of sounds recorded in various oceans of the world, as well as more unusual aquatic scenarios (hydrophone recordings of marine animals, close-range tremors, recorded underwater with a geophone, responsse of metallic objects to changing currents and excitation patterns).

The piece constructs an immersive sound space, in which the performative actions of the musicians trigger spatial-acoustic reactions around them - acoustic responses within the electroacoustically extended space. Over time, a rippling, textured resonance-space evolves from the impulses of the musicians, locating them in an increasingly complex acoustic “biotope”, which may or may not be concretely evocative of the remarkable sound space found in our oceans. Underwater, sound travels much faster, is filtered differently, and has vastly different directivity patterns than in air. My aim is to somewhat re-create this phenomenon in a performance space, and derive compositional syntax and form in the process.

I would like to add a note on personal motivation: over the past decade, I been sailing across and scuba diving in different oceans and water bodies, always recording a broad array of sounds. Water has always played an essential role in my work, world view and in my life, but in the past years, I have increasingly focussed on the ecological and biological provenance of living sound in water. Marine bio-acoustics has become a primary interest of mine, searching for ways to integrate the findings into my compositional process.