Mare Buchlae

Mare Buchlae — Radiolaria’s overture — takes us from the human world to the world of underwater organisms. The piece features all the sound families that represent the plankton-inhabiting species that will be explored individually later on in the cycle. My objective was to recreate an underwater world using only sound synthesis, moving from ocean field recordings to a waterscape consisting entirely of Buchla 200 sounds.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Mare Buchlae was realized in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec) from recordings made in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Premiere

• October 16, 2024, Akousma 20: Soirée 1, Usine C, Montréal (Québec)

Awards

• Prize, Ars Electronica Forum Wallis 2025, Leuk (Switzerland)

Improvisus B200-1

Improvisus B200-1 focuses on “crackling white noise” sounds inspired by the static sounds and clicks produced by some species of crustaceans and underwater bivalves.

This work was completed from a multitrack improvisation at the Buchla 200 synthesizer. I tried to retain the directness of the instrumental performance of analog synthesis, leaving the original sequence of interventions largely untouched, but heavily mixing the tracks. I wanted to explore a specific sound palette that represents one underwater species from the Radiolaria cycle’s collection.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Improvisus B200-1 was realized in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden) then remixed in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Perpetuum spirae

Perpetuum spirae features radiolarians, unicellular micro-organisms that produce symmetrical and spherical silica skeletons, the variety and complexity of which is quite impressive. Think of underwater snowflakes. In the 19th century, the naturalist Ernst Haeckel identified hundreds of shapes. Among the most fascinating ones are skeletons that encapsulate a miniature version of themselves, like possibly infinite Russian dolls. This fractal shape gave me the idea of a work made by overlaying one sound with larger and smaller versions of itself.

I chose a sequence made on the Buchla 200 synthesizer as a starting point. I transposed that sequence several times and in extreme ways, then overlaid all these instances. Totally unexpected sounds emerged from the process, allowing me to create a plethora of variations for every dimension. I looked for mineral sounds to translate the idea of shells clinking one against another, like radiolarians’ silica skeletons. The ocean can be heard in the background as waves that occasionally “overturn” the properties of the environment, shedding new light on the underwater landscape.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Perpetuum spirae was realized in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec) from recordings made in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Parasiti fluxique

In several underwater animal species, the juveniles are very tiny and live as part of the plankton until they reach their adult age. For Parasiti fluxique, I wanted to create an imaginary environment that would make the voice of micro-plankton audible. I imagine it as tiny isolated points, fragile parasites adrift in the vastness of the ocean. I explored a gamut of micro-sounds, impulses and “slimy” sonorities, through modular synthesis, to make these tiny larval beings heard. I am trying to gradually make these frail micro-sounds “grow” into denser, stronger sounds, like juveniles reaching their adult size. Meanwhile, human activities are detectable, including industrial fisheries, which makes it hard for adult species to survive. In my soundscape, some individuals manage to slip through the net and go on perpetuating their species.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Parasiti fluxique was realized in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec) from recordings made in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Improvisus B200-2

Improvisus B200-2 focuses on sounds that convey a feeling of multitudes and density. I wanted to bring to mind an accumulation of planktonic life getting thrashed about for a brief moment by a mighty wave.

This work was completed from a multitrack improvisation at the Buchla 200 synthesizer. I tried to retain the directness of the instrumental performance of analog synthesis, leaving the original sequence of interventions largely untouched, but heavily mixing the tracks. I wanted to explore a specific sound palette that represents one underwater species from the Radiolaria cycle’s collection.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Improvisus B200-2 was realized in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden) then remixed in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Canticum asphodeli

This work brings to mind diatoms, a remarkable member of the phytoplankton. Diatoms are microscopic algae. There are so many of them that they colour the ocean and become visible from space. I imagined the point of view of someone posted in a space station observing Earth and the blooms of diatoms that seem to be stationary, like large blots of light-hued paint in the deep blue of the ocean.

To illustrate this idea, I composed a contemplative piece of music made of a long, continuous swaths of sound. It consists of pure waves and unfolds with potentially infinite duration. Less pure elements are added for contrast. I wanted to create a shadowy world where nothing is clearly detectable. The title is a reference to the Asphodel Meadows, a section of the Greek underworld, which I understand as a vast plain where nothing is happening, nothing is standing out, everything is underlying.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Canticum asphodeli was realized in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec) from recordings made in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Improvisus B200-3

Improvisus B200-3 explores articulate sounds, rhythmical sounds, elastic materials, impulses, sequences of random notes and low beatings mostly inspired by the sounds of some “drumming” fish species, to which I added imaginary variations.

This work was completed from a multitrack improvisation at the Buchla 200 synthesizer. I tried to retain the directness of the instrumental performance of analog synthesis, leaving the original sequence of interventions largely untouched, but heavily mixing the tracks. I wanted to explore a specific sound palette that represents one underwater species from the Radiolaria cycle’s collection.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Improvisus B200-3 was realized in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden) then remixed in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Ostinato micromacro

Ostinato micromacro, the last piece in the Radiolaria cycle, evokes the evolution of plankton on a planetary scale, ie: over billions of years. Planktonic organisms have survived from the early times of the appearance of life on Earth, when volcano lava was still generously flowing, up to the Anthropocene, fine-tuning their morphologies and modes of existence to reach the forms we see today.

To illustrate this idea, I composed simple, stripped-down minimalist music that unfolds slowly. The ostinato represents time ticking away inexorably, and the electronic sounds with irregular rhythms are the plankton dancing with the currents. The nature of these sounds is evolving little by little as eras pass by. I wanted to tell the tale of microscopic evolutions over macroscopic times.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: François Couture, xii-23]

Ostinato micromacro was realized in 2023 at Studio Blue Spider in Montréal (Québec) from recordings made in 2022 at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm (Sweden). Thanks to the entire EMS team. The realization of this piece was made possible thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).