Beginning by taking the phrase “atmospheric violence” quite literally, In the Air investigates how the structural violence of the climate crisis has already disproportionately affected non-human beings, and how easily humans can retreat into their own atmospheres of denial, or even of hope -- that our environment and its animals might be saved by the invention and intervention of new technologies. And yet the endless march of progress from the industrial revolution to the current technological revolution can feel like a loop, not a line, of echoing violences, heard and unheard in the falling forests. Crisis is no longer “coming in the air tonight.” It is already here.

First conceived in 2023 at Ecopoetics Workshop in Sottochiesa, Italy, In the Air is a generative instrument based on recordings of local bird calls. Having collected and identified 6 unique bird calls in the area, I conceived of making an infinite composition based on the notes of these “songs.”

Using Max MSP, a visual programming software for musicians and multimedia artists, I began by analyzing the incoming “notes” of a selected birdsong, asking the program to identify the pitch of the bird’s calls. With the collection of notes, I ask the program to begin playing different midi instruments in the key and rhythm of the birdsong. There is a way in which it at first feels like the flattery of imitation – playing music with the birds or as the birds (à la composer Olivier Messiaen). But as the song progresses, I gradually ask the instruments to change from imitations of nature -- “birdsong,” “rain,” and “seashore” -- to more man-made and violent sounds – “gunshot,” “telephone ring,” “helicopter.”

The entire composition evolves into one of extraction instead of harmony – taking a bird’s call, analyzing its notes, and changing it into the sound pollution of human society (like that observed in R. Murray Schafer’s Book of Noise). This also becomes illustrated in the included videos of the birds, sourced from online. As the instruments change from natural imitation to violent extraction, sound events in the piece begin to affect the video – disrupting, warping, and effacing the simple images of the birds.

As in the act of bird watching, the piece asks for patience and attention, and these are virtues that nature asks of us as well. Part violence of extraction, part call for attention, In the Air situates itself in the midst of a contemporary atmosphere -- both complicit and caring, vibrant and vexing.

Bibliographical References:

Ball, Malcolm. “Birdsong in Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques compared with the ornithological recordings he transcribed.” https://www.oliviermessiaen.org/birdsong

Eno, Brian. “Generative Music.” http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/eno1.html. 1996.

Schaffer, R. Murray. The Book of Noise. Price Milburn, 1973.