Karst Grotto
[Acousmatic composition / fixed media, 3rd order ambisonic]
Available in:
Micro-lieux, (2019), CD, Montréal, Québec: Empreintes DIGITALes;
Métamorphoses 2018 (2018), CD, Ohain, Belgium: Musiques & Recherches.
Date and Location of First Performance: Sound Junction Autumn 2017: Nikos Stavropoulos, Firth Hall — The University of Sheffield, Sheffield (UK)
- Submitting institution
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Leeds Beckett University
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 53
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
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- Year
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
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- Criminology
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- Interdisciplinary
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- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
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- Reserve for an output with double weighting
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- Additional information
- Karst Grotto is an Ambisonic, B Format, acousmatic composition whose title references confined space in geological structures. The work builds on techniques used previously to capture and work with aural micro-space (acoustic space inaccessible unless technologically mediated) using bespoke hardware. Recordings and processed sound materials deriving from this technique are employed here in a 3rd order ambisonic field. The premise that the aural architecture of micro-space could be accessed by adapting existing multichannel recording techniques was confirmed by recorded material which displayed strong, coherent and characterful spatiality, indicating auditory intimacy and close proximity to sound objects. These characteristics are also observable in sound materials resulting from extensive processing and consequently in the composition itself.
Karst Grotto extends techniques Stavropoulos developed previously using ambisonic technology to encode in 3rd-order B-Format multichannel stems of raw and processed recordings as soundfield planes which could be rotated (yaw, pitch and roll) on three axes whilst maintaining a coherent plane structure whilst increasing further the compositional capacity of micro-space. The five discrete channels of each 5.0 and 5.1 stem were treated as point sources and were positioned in the soundfield to delineate a plane by mirroring the ITU-R recommendation for 5.1 systems and the Polyhymia array (the arrangement of speakers in the recommendation is identical to the arrangement of microphones in this particular array).
Karst Grotto has appeared in over 14 concerts in the UK, China, France, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, USA and Cyprus and has been broadcasted on-air in Canada and France. Karst Grotto has been awarded in three international composition competitions: Prx, Ars Electronica Forum Wallis 2018,(Switzerland); 2nd prize, Computer Space 2018, (Bulgaria); Special Mention, 10th Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses 2018, (Belgium). Karst Grotto has also been disseminated in Canada and Belgium on CD, produced by leading electroacoustic music publisher empreintes DIGITALes.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
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- English abstract
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