A soundscape composition concert: real and imaginary spaces

Barry Truax

Multi-channel audio reproduction provides listeners with a highly immersive auditory experience that has greatly benefitted the practice of soundscape composition by creating aesthetically enhanced experiences that are based in real-world experience but move the listener into an abstracted or even a completely imaginary space. This concert presents three octophonic works by the author that illustrate this potential, beginning with PendlerdrØm (1997) (Commuter Dream), which takes the listener to Copenhagen train station where a commuter arrives at the end of the day and waits for a local train, lapsing at two points into a daydream in which previous sonic elements return as memories that swirl around the space. Island (2000) takes the listener to an imaginary island where hyper-realistic sounds are accompanied by processed versions of the same sounds, suggesting a magical quality to this space. The listener progresses from the shoreline up a river, into a watery cavern, then to a windy mountain peak, through a nighttime forest and finally to the opposite shore. Chalice Well (2009) takes the listener to mythical underground caverns beneath Glastonbury Tor in England. All three works were realized with computer-controlled diffusion and digital signal processing techniques such as granular time-stretching, convolution and waveguide resonators.

Mots clés: Soundscape; Composition; Acoustic space; Acoustics ecology

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Barry Truax. A soundscape composition concert: real and imaginary spaces. Acoustics 2012, Apr 2012, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-00811392⟩