Drifting Voices

Drifting Voices explores the deep connection between the human body and the ocean.

Life is thought to have begun in the sea, and traces of that origin remain embedded in the human body. Human physiology depends on fluids, salts, and microscopic particles circulating within aqueous, salt-based systems whose evolutionary foundations emerged in early marine life. Drawing on this shared material scale, the piece treats sound transformation as if it were a chemical experiment. Through microsound techniques, human voices and ocean sounds are reduced to minute sonic particles, whose interactions unfold gradually at the edge of perception. Spectral textures are extracted, frozen, stretched, and blended, allowing sound to behave less like gesture and more like matter.

The voice in the piece is that of artist Portia Lee, reading a poem about the sea written by the composer. Vocal recordings were captured using both a condenser microphone and a throat-mounted hydrophone, producing a rich, intimate texture that allows for extended processing techniques. Throughout the piece, the voice—symbolising the presence of the human body—is deconstructed into intricate sonic particles and textures, moving beyond linguistic meaning. As the piece unfolds, the transformation of vocal material traces the body’s dissolution and expansion into the ocean, gradually merging with abstracted ocean field recordings. Ultimately, the distinction between voice and water blurs, as body and ocean dissolve into a single, unified sonic entity.

Performances and Exhibitions

• 2026Mecánicas Inmersivas 3, Mexico City, MX
• 2026Festival Supersonique Ambisonic Concert 1, GMEM Module, Marseille, FR
• 2026Bilkent Electroacoustic Music Summit (BEAMS), Ankara, TR
• 2026Convocatoria IN-SONORA Multichannel Concert, RCSMM, Madrid, ES
• 2025MUSLAB – MANTRA: The Art of Healing, Quito, EC
• 2025PSeME Study for One Stroke in the Water Winners’ Concert @Audio Art Festival, Kraków, PL
• 2025eviMus, Saarbrücken, DE
• 2025Musicacoustica-Hangzhou EA Finalist Concert, Hangzhou, CN
• 2025Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Seoul, KR
• 2025The Engine Room: International Sound Art Competition and Exhibition, London, UK (Installation Version)
• 2024Precarious Landscapes, Barbican Centre, London, UK (draft version)

Awards

• Computer Space 2025 Contest, 3rd Place
• PSeME Electroacoustic Music Competition 2025, 3rd Award
• Musicacoustica-Hangzhou Electroacoustic Music Competition 2025, 3rd Award
• The Engine Room: International Sound Art Competition 2025, Finalist

Journal

I buried hydrophones and a geophone beneath the sands of Rhossili Bay, Wales, to capture low-frequency vibrations and subsurface acoustics.

The combination picked up the distant hum of the tides, the subtle shifts of underwater currents, and the deep resonance of the wind as it pressed against the shoreline.

Along the southeast coast of England, I captured the subtle interactions between ocean water and rocks using a pair of hydrophones. These recordings were later processed into granular gestures that weave through the composition. I like to follow nature’s own pace—it feels more honest to let its rhythms and textures guide the music, rather than imposing my own.

The original poem was written in English, but I intended to break it down into fragments, so abstract that they no longer carry linguistic meaning, serving instead as a symbolic trace of the body.

The vocal was captured using a hybrid setup: a hydrophone combined with a condenser microphone. The hydrophone-recorded voice bypasses the modulation of the mouth, resulting in a hum that feels more bodily and internal. When blended with the condenser-mic material, it creates a unique spectral texture—as if the voice is being heard from within the body.

Exhibition at Morley Gallery

Conceptual visual