Synthesized Field Recording is a seven-part electronic work created during the Corona period as part of the Denkzeit Fellowship of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony.
The project explores repetitive sonic structures and their emotional resonance. Starting from moments within everyday sound environments — motorway, forest, construction site, hospital, public space — the work approaches these places not as nostalgic memories, but as social and sonic studies of landscapes and everyday situations that were absent, restricted, or radically transformed during that time.
The project begins with the idea of a field recording without an actual field recording: places, situations, and acoustic environments are not documented through recorded audio material, but synthetically reconstructed. In this process, I deliberately avoided the use of samples. Samples are easy to obtain, strongly loaded with listening conventions, and the randomness of recorded noise often allows too little control over the actual sound.
Through reverse engineering and sound design, I developed a form of synthesized field recording. The individual sounds of the resulting drones and sound clusters were generated digitally with an FM synthesizer, the Elektron Digitone. The soundscapes are therefore not based on recorded audio material, but on complex modellings of sine waves.
FM synthesis is more of a mathematical process than an intuitive one. Using this method makes it possible to isolate triggers of emotional response and to pursue them precisely through sound. For my work as a composer, this project functions as basic research: it deepens my understanding of sound generation, sonic perception, and the emotional effect of constructed acoustic environments.
Funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This measure is co-financed by tax funds on the basis of the budget adopted by the Saxon State Parliament.
