EN / FI
Before anything is composed, the place is listened to.
Listening continues through the decisions I make. In recordings, I keep breaths, hesitations and laughter when they carry something of the encounter. I compose with intensity, repetition and silence, and leave room for sounds to meet in ways I did not plan. At RE-BIRTH, the music I had prepared did not fit the room, so I composed a new structure during installation. What happens with the people and the place can change the work.
Voices are distributed across separate loudspeakers, so that each has a place and direction in the room. Moving closer to one voice changes its relationship to the others. The arrangement offers several listening positions, with different degrees of proximity and intensity.
I record people together, with individual microphones that preserve each person’s voice and its relationship to the group. The number of participants and the microphone setup depend on the work. In choral recordings, for example, a microphone on a stand can capture the singing while a small microphone on the cheek brings breath, whispers and speech close. What happens between people becomes the material: a breath settling with another, a voice answering a voice.
The listener’s own body is part of the composition. Where people sit, stand or lie down, and how they arrange themselves in the room, changes what is heard. My background in theatre sound design informs these choices: I compose distances, durations and places where visitors can approach the sound or remain at its edge.
