The work with spatial audio has grown almost naturally out of my interests in algebraic geometry.
The work is centered around algorithmic spatialization. Waveguide meshes are modeled from projections
of higher dimesional algebraic and geometric structures. At this moment the work is realized as very
large Pure Data externals. Encoding to ambisonics happens directly in the objects.
Hypercubes dimensions 4-8 graphical animation: https://vimeo.com/282543243
Compositions
For binaural renderings it is necessary to listen with headphones. Stereo can be played on speakers or via headphones.
ES QC – using mathematical quasicrystals to inform spatial audio
Concert presentation at the Speculative Synthesis Symposium, Graz, September 2024.
7th order ambisonics and acoustic voice. An algorithmic spatial audio work which explores non-periodic order
and quasicrystals for synthesis and spatialization. The structure of the famous 4-dimensional Elser-Sloane quasicrystal
forms the base. There is a short paper as well :
https://speculativesoundsynthesis.iem.sh/symposium/docs/proceedings/broch/
The piece was performed with a little bit of acoustic vocals, so well.. you are invited to hum along with this new sort of synthesis.
Binaural rendering, only for headphones:
Alloys of the Vast
7th order ambisonics 9min27. Algorithmic compositions based on the mathematical object : 'the E8'. This work has been under way for a few years.
And it will most likely be ongoing.
It includes developing quite some machinery to handle and approach this gigantic and awe-inspiring structure. Everything
is generated with data from the rotating and projected E8: Synthesis, spatialization and time structures are all one.
I have aimed at a purety wrt. composing the chosen algorithms since the E8 is vast and divinely rich in possibilities in itself.
The title has a small reference to mathematical quasicrystals though these do no appear directly here.
Alloys 2, 2024
Binaural rendering, only for headphones:
Alloys 1, 2023
Binaural rendering, only for headphones:
Stereo:
graphical animation of the Gosset polytope (E8) - no sound - made to test some of the math. Though it is a 3D projection it
explores the Coxeter plane and other planes of unusual symmetry.
Akerselvas Sang
Made in Oslo, at NOTAM, september 2022. The sound is based on a mono recording of the Aker river, a river which runs
down through Oslo, and passes right behind the NOTAM studio. Techniques include some subtractive synthesis and large
waveguide meshes for resonance and spatialization. There is a fast moving algoritmically generated spectral / integer series
which control the filters and some amount of entrainment is happening in the waveguide meshes
Binaural rendering, only for headphones:
Stereo:
The Copenhagen Interpretation
The work fluctuates between noise and spectral harmonies. Double bass : Jimmi Roger Pedersen - a variation on the Danish song:
Jeg ved en laerkerede by C. Nielsen.
Text qoutes from the works of S. Kierkegaard. Field recordings from Copenhagen.
Ambisonics. Finished 2024.
Binaural rendering, only for headphones:
Stereo:
17-19
Harmonic structures from the numbers 17 and 19. Recorded for 7th order ambisonics - 6min01
Finished 2022 January.
Binaural rendering for headphones:
Stereo version:
Forfatteren - The Author
2022-2024 , 7min30 , original 7th order ambisonics
Spatial Audio composition with text excerpts from Om min Forfatter-Virksomhed and Synspunktet for min Forfatter-Virksomhed
by Søren Kierkegaard (!! Danish text!!)
This piece came about partly as an early study for a music theater project, and partly as an application of new developments in spatial audio.
Recordings of the text are let loose in the 8D hypercube waveguide mesh. This is a very large reverberation effect,
which creates instrumental room and algorithmic spatialization, - and a bit of artifacts plus a non-linear distance mapping in the 3D projection.
Binaural rendering, only for headphones:
Stereo:
7sphere Revisited,
I revisited the world of the octonions and refined the tools.
The unit length octonions make up the unit 7sphere.
In a way one could say that this is a field recording on the
7sphere. I know that things are well behaved within a certain framework, but the
way it is set up, then there are always new things to encounter. The piece was made during an artist residency at IEM in 2021.
It was played at ICMC 2022 Limerick
and a few more places.
Stereo :
Binaural :
picture of the IEM CUBE. Studio for spatial audio.
Thanks to the IEM institute for letting me work there the summer of 2021
Entartung Entkörperung Entgeistigung,
The harmonic structure for this piece started by looking at some tiny fragments
from Arnold Schönberg's opus 23 which is now written exactly 100 years ago.
After that the movements transformed much and got woven into a microtonal
spectral structure. Anyway, every time I look at some of Schönberg's music I
perceive that he has had premonitions of jazz to come up through the century. So
maybe that is what it became: little echos of distant premonitions. The text is by
Rudolf Steiner, from lectures 1916 and 1917. So the piece brings together some very
different, both highly visionary, aspects of Austrian culture. Made at IEM 2021.
Voice: Jannick Knyrim. text and English translation
Stereo :
Binaural :
E8 work in progress
_
The E8 is a mathematical object which was discovered more than 100 years ago.
But just the last few decades it has become very popular among physicists who try
to use it to explain various mysteries.
Algorithmically the 'sound test' follows more or less what is happening
in this animation: Gosset polytope - E8 - 3D projections .
Stereo :
Binaural :
Syntropy 77
Binaural rendering of composition for 5th order ambisonics - 5min15
The compositional structure for this piece was made winter 2021. But it is here reworked at the IEM summer 2021.
Spatialization is realized through the Simplex23 waveguide mesh described on the IEM blog. The piece explores
harmonic structures generated from the numbers 7 and 11, which usually do not have a place in traditional
tuning systems. The synthesis has bits af quasicrystal waveforms, non-periodic order.
CCRMA 2020 Stanford
7sphere Karma, 2020, practically everything in this piece is
generated with the 8 dimensional octonion algebra. FM synthesis plays an
important role, here octonion orbits are modulating the phases of other
octonion orbits. The piece was made during
a stay at CCRMA, Stanford
binaural:
Syntropy 7times8, 2020, A spectral composition
binaural:
Efflux, 2019, The 6 dimensional hypercube rotated and projected
onto 3D creates the resonant framework, the synthesis
has bits from mathematical quasicrystals
binaural:
