The Secret Inner Life of the Piano: Cosmologies III

"Cosmologies III" situates the listener inside a virtual grand piano to experience its secret inner life. The piano interior, recorded with a 32-channel microphone array, is complemented by 3D field recordings of Paris’s Place Igor Stravinsky. These recordings are highlighted and underlined with computer synthesis using artificial intelligence to reproduce the spatial presence of acoustic instruments, while the microcosm of the piano’s inner space expands larger-than-life.

The binaural version presented at « inSonic 2020 » EASTN-DC festival in turn brings the grand piano into the listener’s home and headphones as intimate virtual chamber music.

Along with "Cosmologies II", an interactive 3D sound installation, we hope to present both parts of the modular work live in the future in the ZKM Kubus.

Material

Audio recordings of Hamburg Steinway D piano (IRCAM Studio 5) and field recordings (Place Igor Stravinsky Paris) produced using the EM32 Eigenmike 32-channel microphone array.

Synthesized sound composed using original Cat-Spat software based on packages Spat5 and MuBu for Max and librairies OM-Spat5, OM-IAE, and OMAI for OpenMusic#.

Produced thanks to

• an EASTN-DC residency at ZKM Hertz Lab, and based on Cosmologies for piano and 3D electronics,
• an IRCAM STARTS Residency collaboration with Jean Bresson, Diemo Schwarz, and Thibaut Carpentier, premiered at Centre Pompidou, Paris, March 5th, 2020 by pianist Alvise Sinivia.