THE GARDEN OF SONIC DELIGHTS (2015-16)
a soundscape composition for multiple digital soundtracks

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The Garden of Sonic Delights invites the listener to enter an imaginary soundscape (one that Murray Schafer might describe as a “soniferous garden”) richly filled with sounds that may remind us of the actual sounds of water, wind, insects and birds. Our visit will take us through the afternoon until the next morning, hopefully leaving us delighted and refreshed.

The piece was commissioned by the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST) for the 2016 BEAST FEaST, and realized in 48 channels at the Technical University, Berlin, and the composer’s private studio with spatialization created by Harmonic Functions’ TiMax2 matrix mixer, marketed by Outboard Inc (UK). Original recordings from the World Soundscape Project Tape Collection. Sound processing realized with Soundhack convolution and Chris Rolfe’s MacPod software,

The Garden of Sonic Delights was premiered at the 2016 BEAST FEaST at the University of Birmingham, UK, in 48 channels, with a 36-channel version performed during the Sonorities Festival at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Belfast, along with an 8-channel version played at other venues.

Sound Example available

A detailed documentation of the entire work, its sources, processing and multi-track mixing scheme is available on the WSP Database (truax@sfu.ca for guest access), as well as the 8-track and multi-track soundfiles for performance.