Spatial Audio

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

MP8


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:


Akeren Notam

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 :


CCRMA concert

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:


CCRMA concert
pdf, extended program notes



Experimentation


Residency blog, IEM, Graz may-Aug 2021

time varying fdn

Binaural Renderings :

testing the 8D hyper cube wave guide mesh with a short envelope over 172hz sine wave.

mp8_sinetest.ogg

simple field recordings in the 8D hyper cube wave guide mesh.

iem_hypercube.ogg

parameters of the projection of the Gosset polytope (E8) mapped to Karpus-Strong waveguides

gosset1.ogg