Ex Aere
Soprano, double bass, electronics
Premiered by: Sylvie Woods, Jacques Emery, Kirsten Milenko
22nd July 2017
City Recital Hall, Sydney
Single - Ex Aere (2017)
Acousmatic single released 31st December 2017 on Spotify, iTunes & Bandcamp.
Composition and Production by Kirsten Milenko
Voice by Sylvie Louise Woods
Double Bass by Jacques Emery
Album Artwork by Brontë Hock
Available on Spotify, iTunes & Bandcamp in digital formats. CD and vinyl available following extended album release in summer 2018.
Premiered in City Recital Hall as part of the Unashamedly Original Computer Music Festival. The soundscape in question is that of a forest - from movements upon the undergrowth to overwhelming light movements as transpire within the tree canopy. Recordings taken in Sydney, Australia and mastered in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sylvie Louise Woods - vocalist for the track Ex Aere and album Caeli
Post-premiere performance of 'Ex Aere' at City Recital Hall. From left: Jacques Emery, Sylvie Woods, Kirsten Milenko.
Concept design; effective measures moving from thought to sound
If a forest could speak to us what would it say? The most ancient living aspect of our planet unveiled into a tangible face of interaction through a conversation most traceable to siren-song with the grounding force and movements of double bass to connect light-movements in the canopy to light-fall upon the earth. The album has been inspired by a reading of Peter Wohlleben's 'The Hidden Life of Trees'. The single 'ex aere' first premiered in July 2017 in City Recital Hall, Sydney Australia, before remastering for release 31st December 2017.
A lot of time during the initial stages of composition was spent in forests on the east coast of Australia to map the movements of light and sound as they develop throughout the day and also vary within the change of seasons. This process began with sketches of light movements according to the time of day specifically in Ku-ring gai Chase National Park. Following travels to France in 2016 and Scandinavia in 2016 and 2017, a different series of light movements of forest mapping was recorded over the seasons of summer moving into fall.
The process of architecture transcription into music began with sketches framing rhythmic developments and later transitioned into cadence points. These were the skeleton structures within which the work has been composed for stereo setup and later re-mastered for higher-order ambisonics.