STEREO • FONIE (2022)

Notes:

In this work the principal material is sustained pitches that are spatially opposed (i.e. stereo) and interfere with each other. The result of this interference is beating sounds that may occur in multiple levels: within one accordion (between the left and right system), between the two accordions, between the two singers, or between the group of singers and the group of the accordionists. With their controlled, diaphragmatic vibrato and their nasal singing, the singers emulate the beating sounds of the accordions, while the singing of the accordionists aims to blend into their instrumental sounds while mirroring, at the same time, the vocal action of the singers. In other words, the borders between the singers and the accordions are challenged, and the sonic unity of the four performers point out a form of lived sound-space, that is, a united group of interrelated bodies that exists in space like a living organism. The multiple layers of spatialized sound (i.e. stereo- ) and the sonic unity of the four voices (-fonie) may quite literally portray the main features of this emerging lived sound-space.