acoustic synth electric cello (2023-ongoing)
Sound sculpture, installation, performance
A collaboration with Andrés Nuño de Buen (MX). This duo centeres around the convergence of an electric cello and an experimental acoustic synthesizer. Our investigation aims to challenge established notions of electronic and acoustic sound-making by exploring the physicality of sound and its psychoacoustic perception in relation to historic and contemporary sound technologies. The acoustic synthesizer in question is based on a 19th-century design by German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz. Using tuning forks, electromagnets, and glass bottles, the instrument produces entirely acoustic sine waves that combine to achieve additive synthesis without electronic sounds. Andrés has reinterpreted this early synthesizer into a contemporary version with microtonal tuning forks and a DIY mixing board controller. Part musical instrument and part sound sculpture, the working prototype captivates the ear through the physically materialized presence of sounds that are typically produced electronically and played through loudspeakers. Often dissociated from any material source, sine waves here become particularly tangible as they interact with architectural acoustics, unfolding in complex and unpredictable ways within the space. I have been exploring the electric cello as a means to expand on my sonic palette while reworking the instrument’s sounds through electronic manipulations. In my setup, the e-cello works as an interface between myself and the computer; an old piece of technology mediated through a contemporary one, capable of producing digitally distorted sounds in an effort to reterritorialize the cello’s sociocultural and musical associations. Through this collaboration, she have begun to explore the possibilities of amplification and manipulation using different media, introducing the use of transducers in interaction with diverse objects and materials. This approach brings an embodied materiality to her aural landscape, giving the cello a renewed sonic physical presence mediated through the use of technology.
This ongoing research project was presented in public for the first time at Künstlerhaus, Bremen in September of 2023, for the occasion of Rodrigo Hernández "Carrés" exhibition finissage.