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Morphés for Flute and Electronics

  • Harvard University Department of Music 3 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA, 02138 United States (map)

Alexander “Sasha” Ishov and Theocharis Papatrechas, Morphés I.5 (2023) for flutist, fixed media, live electronics, and spatialization

Morphés for Flute and Electronics is a multipart electroacoustic collaboration between flutist Alexander Ishov and composer Theocharis Papatrechas. Morphés’s objective is to utilize technology to reveal the inner acoustic world of the flute, displace auditory perspective, and allow listeners to inhabit otherwise inaccessible sonic landscapes. 

Morphés is the creative output of PrismaSonus, an artistic research initiative exploring the relationship between microphone placement, technique, and perception. By placing sensors inside the body of the instrument, this project highlights timbres and microtechniques that are otherwise hidden to performers and listeners. PrismaSonus examines how technology, technique, notation, and listening interact and converge in electroacoustic collaborations, proposing novel ways of creating immersive auditory experiences.

The first part of this collaboration, titled Morphés I, is a 30-minute fixed media work for 20 channels that was premiered in February 2023 at the Spatialization Lab of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2). The 20 loudspeakers in the space are arranged in a dome configuration, where listeners receive sound from all directions. Through a constantly shifting musical landscape, Morphes I challenges the sense of space, timbre, and orientation. 

At this event, working within a more compact setup, the team presents Morphés I.5, integrating an interactive dimension into the experience. The performer, their flutes, and their signals join to form a stimulating dialogue with pre-recorded materials. Morphés I.5 seeks to challenge further the spatial perception and orientation of the listener, alternating and overlayering the distinct acoustics of the interior space of the flute, the virtual space of of the loudspeakers, and the performance space itself. 

In June 2023, the team will expand the live performance version into Morphés II occupying the 32 loudspeakers of the Experimental Theater at UC San Diego’s Music Department. Morphés III will be an online version of the project, mixed binaurally for headphones. Later in 2023, PrismaSonus will unveil an interactive database of electronically-mediated flute techniques that will serve as a modern, interactive resource for flutists and composers taking upon electroacoustic collaboration.

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