Nano-Cosmos
Ana Dall’Ara-Majek
Programme notes
- Composer(s): Ana Dall’Ara-Majek
- Instrumentation: fixed medium
Works in this cycle
Akheta’s Blues
The title of this piece refers to the cyclical and repetitive song of the Acheta domesticus, better-known as the house cricket. Its song served as a model for the construction of the piece. Akheta’s Blues is one of my most tonal acousmatic pieces. I deliberately searched for precise harmonic relationships between its sonic layers and used characteristic melodies as leitmotifs. The spatial arrangement of its sounds reflects the layout of desks in an orchestra, where each sound family has its own distinctive location. Finally, the piece explores a whole world of particles inside of renewing minimalist gestures.
This piece is part of Nano-Cosmos, a cycle of acousmatic pieces dedicated to insects, small arthropods and microorganisms.
— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation
Akheta’s Blues was realized in 8 channels in 2012, then revised into a 16-channel version in 2013 at the Studio Hexa of the Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal (Québec). It was premiered on September 24, 2012 at the Électro buzzzzzzz festival at the Salle Claude-Champagne of the Université de Montréal (Québec). The 16-channel version premiered on August 29, 2013 at a concert produced by Distractfold at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester (UK).
Premiere
- September 24, 2012, Premiere of the 8-channel version (2012)
: Électro buzzzzzzz, Salle Claude-Champagne — Université de Montréal, Montréal (Québec) - August 29, 2013, Premiere of the 16-channel version
: DF #11, International Anthony Burgess Foundation — Engine House, Manchester (England, UK)
About this sound recording
This version is a stereophonic reduction of the 16-channel original realized in December 2017.
- Year of composition: 2012, 13
- Cycle: Nano-Cosmos
- Duration: 9:14
- Instrumentation: multichannel fixed medium (Klangdom) (16)
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISRC: CAD501810001
Diaphanous Acarina
An observation of the world of mites under a musical microscope as they evolve on flat surfaces. The Typhlodromus pyri are semi-transparent mites which live along the veins of vine leaves. These veins are represented sonically by long, homogenous drones and the mites are portrayed by composite objects derived from granular synthesis. The musical discourse evokes the behaviour of mites and their various methods of proliferation
This piece is part of Nano-Cosmos, a cycle of acousmatic pieces dedicated to insects, small arthropods and microorganisms.
— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation
Diaphanous Acarina was realized in 2015 at the Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec) and premiered on March 20, 2015 in a concert produced by Distractfold at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester (UK). It was commissioned by the Distractfold Ensemble.
Premiere
- March 20, 2015, DF #26, International Anthony Burgess Foundation — Engine House, Manchester (England, UK)
About this sound recording
This version was remixed in December 2017.
- Year of composition: 2015
- Cycle: Nano-Cosmos
- Duration: 7:00
- Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- Commission: Distractfold Ensemble
- ISRC: CAD501810002
Bacillus Chorus
For this piece I was interested in bacteria — particularly their ability to multiply and modify their environment by working together. This led me to the idea of considering musical polyphony as a bacterial colonization in which sounds duplicate by binary fission processes, contaminate each other, form bacterial chains, and slowly alter the properties of the entire work.
This piece is part of Nano-Cosmos, a cycle of acousmatic pieces dedicated to insects, small arthropods and microorganisms.
— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation
Bacillus Chorus was realized in 4 channels at the Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec) in 2016 and premiered on August 7, 2016 at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik at Centralstation in Darmstadt (Germany). It was commissioned by the Distractfold Ensemble. Thanks to Christine Groult and Marco Marini for those wonderful days of improvisation on the RSF Kobol synthesizer in the electroacoustic studio at the Conservatoire de Pantin (France).
Premiere
- August 7, 2016, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt
: Distractfold, Centralstation – Halle, Darmstadt (Hessen, Germany)
About this sound recording
This version is a stereophonic reduction of the 4-channel original realized in December 2017.
- Year of composition: 2016
- Cycle: Nano-Cosmos
- Duration: 6:35
- Instrumentation: 4-channel fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- Commission: Distractfold Ensemble
- ISRC: CAD501810003
Pixel Springtail Promenade
Collembola (springtails) are small arthropods
This piece is part of Nano-Cosmos, a cycle of acousmatic pieces dedicated to insects, small arthropods and microorganisms.
— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation
Pixel Springtail Promenade was realized in 16 channels at the Studio Hexa of the Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal (Québec) in 2014-15 and premiered on May 12, 2015 in the context of The Engine Room 2015
Premiere
- May 11, 2015, The Engine Room 2015 — Private View, The Engine Room — Morley Gallery — Morley College London, London (England, UK)
About this sound recording
This version is a stereophonic reduction of the 16-channel original realized in December 2017.
- Year of composition: 2014-15
- Cycle: Nano-Cosmos
- Duration: 15:16
- Instrumentation: multichannel fixed medium (Klangdom) (16)
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- Commission: SeaM
- ISRC: CAD501810004
Xylocopa Ransbecka
To Annette Vande Gorne
I had left for Place de Ransbeck in search of Rumeurs’s thirteen doors when I encountered an angry hymenopteran who fled my microphone by hiding in the cracks of a wooden beam. This is how my piece was first conceived. It features a carpenter bee and twenty doors recorded at Musiques & Recherches (Ohain, Belgium). In it, I continue my exploration of changes of scale, from a passage in human proportions featuring familiar sounds to the more abstract world of microfauna, where bacteria found in wood form wriggling masses. Between these two sizes of scale, the carpenter bee carves out wood shavings and comes buzzing around our ears.
This piece is part of Nano-Cosmos, a cycle of acousmatic pieces dedicated to insects, small arthropods and microorganisms.
— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation
Xylocopa Ransbecka was realized in 16 channels at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium) in 2017 and premiered on April 25, 2018 as part of the Électrobelge concert at Espace Senghor in Brussels (Belgium). Thanks to Annette Vande Gorne for the residency at Musiques & Recherches (Ohain, Belgium).
Premiere
- April 25, 2018, Électrobelge, Le Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)
Awards
- Special Mention, Ars Electronica Forum Wallis 2018, Leuk (Switzerland)
About this sound recording
This version is a stereophonic reduction of the 16-channel original realized in December 2017.
- Year of composition: 2017
- Cycle: Nano-Cosmos
- Duration: 15:22
- Instrumentation: multichannel fixed medium (Klangdom) (16)
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISRC: CAD501810005
