A recording of a rock ptarmigan’s vocalisation for the 4-hour long compilation of animal sounds “harkening critters” curated and published by Pablo Diserens on their label forms of minutiae → more info here

“Beyond the Arctic Circle, surrounded by Lapland’s vast wilderness, Diane Barbé, Irwin Barbé, and I were walking through the discontinuous permafrost zones of one of Europe’s coldest region. Reaching the northernmost tree lines and wandering in peatlands, we witnessed and documented the rapid changes brought by the estival warmth. Our long crepuscular walks across the open tundra quickly led to us loosing touch with circadian cycles. We existed with a never-setting sun in the non-night of waterlogged landscapes. Our footsteps choreographed by lichens, moss, tundra tussocks and hummocks. In the perpetual dusk, cliffs materialized like ghosts on a cloud-topped ridge.

We summited the Saana mountain on a fog drenched non-night, when a sound reached us through the vapors. Gurgling signals from an unknown source. Unable to lay our eyes on it, we listened for a while with puzzled minds. “What a delightfully strange sound”, we thought. It followed us as we pursued our descent and we concluded that it was the spirit of the place. The following days, the sound inhabited my ears, and I kept wondering: "what was it?” Driven by a gripping curiosity, I returned on the Saana in the hope of hearing it again. I waited on a windswept plateau, when a white dot flew between boulders followed by the peculiar gurgles. It was then that I realized who emitted this signal: a rock ptarmigan or as locals call them — kiiruna."

water beetle phase duet

2024 | 05:35
field recording
published by Hard Return

This track is a response to Hard Return’s open call for "the most repetitive thing you've ever done". It is a duplicated hydrophonic recording of a pond-dwelling water beetle's stridulation desynchronizing over time ~ resulting in a sort of non-human phase shifting.

Recorded in Galicia using a Sound Devices MixPre-6 II and an Aquarian H2a-XLR hydrophone.

tidal dwellers

2021 | 04:30
field recording + soundscape composition
for the compilation “possible moistures”
published by forms of minutiae
PDF + digital

Short soundscape composition made of hydrophonic recordings of sea snails and sea urchins found in tidal pools on the shores of the Corinthian Gulf (Greece). The sound is accompanied by three analog photographs and a note taken on site. Part of the compilation “possible moistures” curated and published by Pablo Diserens on their label forms of minutiae → more here.

“It was a calm morning on the Hellenic shores. The sea was discrete and the waves were shy. As the tide allowed me, I ventured on the outskirts of the waterfront where I rapidly met hundreds of sea urchins, sea snails, and anemones living in the temporary stagnating crystal clear pools created by the lowered waters. I was perched between sea and land, on the rocks of this ambiguous terrain: the intertidal zone. Far from the waves’ action, I wondered if the creatures that appeared motionless before me would care talking to me. Delicately, I plunged a hydrophone below the surface and the underwater concerto began. The zone was never silent. As their image, the one-footed-shelled and black-thorns-sphered invertebrates unveiled a sharp semantic kept secret below the surface. Anchored in the present, I sat there for a while and listened.”

︎

the avian kin

2023
album of musical biomimicry
as part of Diane Barbé’s tentacular project the Alien Kin
published by First Terrace Records
cassette + digital

The Alien Kin is an itinerant research and sound project playing with biomimicry and collective music making. Starting in 2022 with a sojourn in the Black Forest, the ensemble started to explore the sonic worlds of meadows, monoculture forests, train tunnels, bogs and imaginary places.

This release’s side B brings into play more instruments by Joe Summers & Diane Barbé –bird calls, whistles, flutes - alongside vocal, musical and textural contributions by Mariana Carvalho and Pablo Diserens. The four players came together to listen to the instruments, twist them, pet them and generate compositions that were recorded at the studios of Morphine Raum in Berlin a few months later. The context is urban, the background is blank. The landscape is only an imagination, and the instruments take on new voices.

Alien Kin is curated by Diane Barbé. It has taken many different shapes and continues to grow, with workshops and instrument building sessions that currently involve ceramics and river canes.


pictures of the Morphine Raum recordings by Zach Hart

thum

2020 | 03:58
sound design + music score
for the short animation film by Luca Depardon

the discreet music of antennas

2022 | 05:12
field recording
published by Presque Tout

It is a drenched afternoon in Alto Adige as a storm plunges the Eisack Valley in a thick fog. The sky is cadenced by distant thunderbolts and the soundscape swallowed by cold downpours. Sitting on the flank of a mountain, Hotel Briol faces the Dolomites while overlooking the small town of Barbiano. By a window of the hotel, a radio aerial stands in the rain, its rods plucked by drizzling drops. To naked ears only the showers' white noise prevails, yet within the array of metal conductors lies the discreet music of antennas.

Recorded with Sound Devices MixPre-6 II and a pair of JrF C-series (neutrik) contact microphones.

a shadow cast on vapours

2022 | 12:14
drone composition
for the compilation “First Rays & A Lasting Echo”
published by Audio Visuals Atmosphere
3 x cassette + digital

A figure walks on the wavering reliefs of a rocky crest. A mist gradually moves in. The mountain's outer layer gives in. Sunrays pierce the droplets in suspension. Faced by a warped shadow, the wanderer gently slides into unknown territories.

A contribution for Audio Visuals Atmosphere’s 100th release: a celebratory triple cassette compilation.

60 Sec Radio 2020 · 3e Prix/3rd Prize Pablo Diserens - Intertidal Zone
3rd prize winner of 60 secondes radio. This field recordings composition invites listeners to momentary dive in the soundscape of intertidal zones. Once submerged, one can discover the sounds of Greek sea urchins and Australian periwinkles. ⁣

⁣ “ “intertidal zone” is a moment of delicious communion with the sea world: what a delicate sensibility towards nature and the flow of living things must have presided over the birth of this piece!” — Zoé Paquin-Gagnon (member of the jury).

entering the taroko gorge

2019 | 05:32
soundscape composition
for the compilation “Sound Maps For The Dreamer III”
published by Sono Space

architectonic soundprint

2019 | 10:47
field recordings + architectural soundscape composition
in collaboration with Robin Koek
for Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee radio

Architectonic Soundprint is the first episode of the Walking Series. An archive of architectonic soundscapes curated by Denisa Kollarová and Teresa Castro. This episode was recorded by sound artists Robin Koek and Pablo Diserens, who invite us to sonically explore a space and its acoustic signatures. ~ more info here.