Home (Breath Replaced): acousmatic composition (octophonic/stero) plus dance video version

The acousmatic composition ‘Home (Breath Replaced)’ exists both as a video (stereo) and an acousmatic 8-channel composition.

The work began its research trajectory through collaboration with the Middlesex University Dance Professor, Vida Midgelow, to produce a video composition of very limited palette of material both visually and sonically – the work was titled ‘Home (a replacing)’. The created video work’s imagery emphasizes processes of breathing and resting, waiting and weight, the emergent and fleeting; the acousmatic soundscape explores the inner, intimate sonic life of the body as home: created by making binaural (stereo) head recordings of the dancers - the sole source of the sound material. These are electroacoustically transformed within a spatial field using a range of digital tools and composed into a musical form. The aim was to explore source bonding (the innate quality of breath and movement) as a proprioceptive and psychological experience.

A key research imperative was developing material from the limited noise source of breath by exploring and experimenting with types of filtering and layering, stretching and compressing, spatial movement and sonic depth. The creative process looked to transcend ‘just breathing’ to new morphologies that ebb and flow, temporally molded through electroacoustic processes. The aim was to breathe new life in to breath as a sonic dance: to ‘re-place’ breath in an acousmatic context.

The acousmatic composition has had multiple performances including, Klangland Germany, ICMC Utrecht, NYCEMF New York, MUSLAB Mexico, CMMR Sao Paulo, SEAMUS Oregon, Sonorities Queens University, further performances include Wolverhampton, Leeds and Coventry.