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electrothèque

Cartografía interior

Diego Bermudez Chamberland

Programme notes

The genesis of the work Cartografía interior [Inner Cartography] is rooted in my desire to musically materialize the imaginary worlds that were meaningful in my youth. I had envisioned exploring Scandinavian mythology through my acousmatic compositions for some time. My readings on Nordic folklore and its cosmogony as a youth left a deep impression on me. The vast multiple worlds described in the cosmogonic myth, the diverse mythological creatures, the ceaseless struggles between good and evil fascinated me.

Cartografía interior is inspired by Scandinavian mythology as recounted in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda (1220). The work consists of three movements that symbolically aim to represent three points of view at different scales. I wanted to imagine and create an experimental musical work in which the musical movements would resonate with one another. I sought to give birth to a reinvented universe, imbued with a personified nature. Its dimensions range from the titanic to the microscopic, unfolding through gestures, behaviors, energies, and materials. The result is music that explores energy, both continuous and fragmented temporality, and multiple spaces

Collaboration lies at the core of my practice. For this project, I wanted to explore new sonic materials such as recordings of natural elements and acoustic instruments brought to life by collaborators. The creation of Cartografía interior was for me a true playground, allowing me to explore different forms of sound synthesis, record a wide variety of sound sources, and above all experiment with various ways of bringing them to life in the studio.

Allow me to emphasize that the work does not aim to materialize this universe in a literal fashion; it is a free, personal sonic adaptation. The major themes tied to this mythology — natural forces, infinite territories, and the dynamism of a time-immemorial cosmogony — found a form of materiality within the work.

[ix-25]

Cartografía interior — a work in three movements: Chronomundo, Destin // Trouble, and Punto maximal — was realized from 2020 to ’23 at the studio of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (Québec) and at the composer’s studio in Montréal. Cartografía interior was revised in 2025 at the composer’s studio.

  • Composer(s): Diego Bermudez Chamberland
  • Year of composition: 2020-23, 25
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média

Movements

Chronomundo

Chronomundo [World of Time] is the prologue movement of the work Cartografía interior. It is anchored to Yggdrasil, the cosmic ash tree that connects all worlds and stands as the central pillar of this cosmogony. In the text Gylfaginning, Yggdrasil is described as “the greatest and best of trees,” its roots plunging through all realities.

I wanted to propose a large-scale overview, a kind of sonic cartography of these places. This first movement thus becomes a contemplative journey, where listening shifts between local details and large unified gestures. Textural masses evoke spatial and temporal vastness, echoing immense natural phenomena such as the Big Bang, planetary motion, or geological formations. These forces were transposed into parameters such as spatiality or the energetic life of sounds, in order to suggest a nature that surpasses us.

[ix-25]

Chronomundo was realized 2020-21 at the studio of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (Québec) and at the composer’s studio in Montréal. It was premiered on March 28, 2021, during Concert Vivier InterUniversitaire at the Amphithéâtre of Le Gesù in Montréal. Chronomundo was revised in 2025 at the composer’s studio.

Premiere

  • March 28, 2021, Concert Vivier InterUniversitaire, Amphithéâtre — Le Gesù, Montréal (Québec)

Destin // Trouble

Destin
Trouble [Destiny
Trouble] is the second movement of the work. Within it, one can discern more closely (conceptually) the activity of certain worlds previously only skimmed over. Concretely, this results — by contrast with the first movement — in a composition built with highly mobile materials and a more pronounced temporal framework (call, response, anticipation, allusion, reminiscence…). The title alludes to these games of montage, while the two slashes [//] refer to the final ascent. One can also hear other attempts at personifying nature. The ‘woody’ sonic material is a good example of an emergence inspired by smaller-scale phenomena, such as the growth of plants. I gave it a mobility far removed from the energetic reality of its original source. I also had fun imbuing my sonic materials with behaviors modeled after morphologies and movements from the animal world, such as the (iterative) beating of insect wings or the surreal image I had of them clustering around sources of light. I also included passages inspired by highly agitated phenomena such as storms (snowstorms, sandstorms, cyclones). The chaotic, violent, and accumulative behavior of these meteorological events can also be found here.

[ix-25]

Destin // Trouble was realized in 2021-23 at the studio of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (Québec) and at the composer’s studio in Montréal. It was premiered on March 16, 2023, during Soundwich (16) at the Studio multimédia of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. This movement was revised in 2025 at the composer’s studio. Destin // Trouble won the 3rd prize ex æquo at the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC)’s competition Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP) (Canada, 2021).

Premiere

  • March 16, 2023, Électrochoc 2022-23: Soundwich (16), Studio multimédia — Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

Punto maximal

The title Punto maximal [Maximum Point] refers to the concept of a listening point that runs through the work Cartografía interior: here, we are at the closest point, the intimate level, the heart of the matter. My reference point here is essentially what can be observed in the microscopic world. Thus, there is the discovery of a new perspective that had remained unexplored until now. One experiences a set of possible planes within the infinitely small. Once again, the inspiration or this movement comes from an imagined vision, not a desire to create a factual or imitative representation of nature as we know it. This freedom allowed me to design a bustling, moving universe that reflects my idea of the infinitely small: a place and space-time populated with as much activity and intensity as the infinitely large. It is also a reference to the multiple iterative morphologies found in the piece, which mark the work sonically with small dots.

Punto maximal concludes Cartografía interior in a way that leaves it hanging, looking toward the future. As the entire work has been revisited over the years, I was able to integrate new sounds and to revise and reinsert certain passages within the movements. In this way — a way that reflects the relationship to time that runs through the work — I was able to play with the past, present, and future of my sonic explorations.

[ix-25]

Punto maximal was realized in 2021-22 at the studio of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (Québec) and at the composer’s studio in Montréal. It was premiered on September 30, 2022, during the Echoes Around Me 2022 festival at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (Vienna, Austria). This movement was revised in 2025 at the composer’s studio. Punto maximal won a prize at the Young Lion*ess of Acousmatic Music 2022 of The Acousmatic Project (Vienna, Austria).

Premiere

  • September 30, 2022, Echoes Around Me 2022: Concert 1, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna (Austria)

Awards