Magnets @ EMS 2021 Rehearsal - To Alvin Lucier by Anna Xambó

This piece gets inspiration from Alvin Lucier’s Sferics (1988). Sferics musically explored electromagnetism from radio waves in the ionosphere. In this piece, I investigate the acoustic properties of electromagnetic fields and their translation into music. I am using MIRLC 2.0, a self-built library in the free Supercollider software. I am developing this library to allow the live coder to retrieve or rewire sounds based on music information retrieval techniques. You can find the first version at github.com/axambo/MIRLC.

The audio input signal is a personal recording of electromagnetic fields emitted by a home network router recorded with a self-built induction microphone. You can find out more about circuit sniffing in this video by Nicolas Collins: https://youtu.be/4T7qkYY7LZM. Based on these acoustic properties of the pitch, onsets and beats, a sinusoidal sound generator, a bit crush sound effect, and a bass generator are triggered, respectively.

This piece was first released in the album compilation Compassion Through Algorithms Vol. II (Light Entries, 2020), a collaboration between Light Entries and Algorave Sheffield curated by Alex McLean, with all proceeds to Young Minds Together: https://lightentries.bandcamp.com/album/compassion-through-algorithms-vol-ii

It has been presented live for the first time at “Concert PACE 1 Live Music from MTI2. Works by Simon Emmerson, Anna Xambó Sedó, John Richards, and Leigh Landy” on November 10, 2021, during the Electroacoustic Music Studies conference 2021 in Leicester: http://www.ems-network.org/ems21/schedule.html

This recording is a rehearsal previous to the EMS21 Concert: Live Music from MTI2 and it is dedicated to Alvin Lucier, who has passed away on December 1, 2021.