Premiere announcement: “The Calm Before the Storm“, TO)pot 2026 Festival of Radical Soundwalks, “Walking with Silence”, production: Cona, venue: Cukrarna, Ljubljana (SI), September 2026
The Angstmachine is a series of electroacoustic, quadraphonic compositions for a custom-made friction idiophone of the same name. The sonic material interweaves atmospheric field recordings with friction, oscillations, resonances, and restrained electronic processing. The composition unfolds as a processual layering of sound, in which performative gestures (strikes, slides, pressures, bowing, spins, and rotations) are transferred into the instrument, generating sensations of unrest, tension, and the foreboding of an approaching collapse. The instrument, tuned to 31edo, is simultaneously bowed, plucked, and struck; it produces pulsations, reverberations, and rhythms, along with unusual sonic landscapes.
The electronics do not assume a leading role but instead act as a quiet extension of the instrument through decay, modulated feedback loops, spring reverb, and seemingly random movement through the quadraphonic space. Sampling and real-time recording enable gestures to condense into loops. Uncomfortable relationships between tones, unstable vibrations, and cracks between overtones evoke the contemporary experience of uncertainty. Through sharp friction, muffled resonance, and sonic implosions, the artist creates an acoustic metaphor for social anxiety.
The first composition in the series, “The Calm Before the Storm,” establishes states of anxiety, ranging from subdued tension to ominous sonic shadows (unease, apprehension, tension, sinister foreboding, torment). “A Field of Noise” foregrounds the city’s noise and the low-frequency seismic sound of construction work (fear, nervousness, distress, anxiety, confusion). “Collapse in Slow Motion” is the result of the war machine (horror, turmoil, horror, pain). The Angstmachine is a sonic ritual that, through the fissures between the acoustic and the electronic, reveals the inner unrest of the contemporary world and invites listeners to confront its echo.
1. The Calm Before the Storm, 22 min
2. A Field of Noise, 22 min
3. Collapse in Slow Motion, 22 min
Note: The Angstmachine is a custom-built instrument that combines elements of the hybrid acoustic instrument Apprehension Engine by Canadian film composer Mark Korven, the electroacoustic wooden experimental bowed instrument Daxophone invented by Hans Reichel, and the modular electroacoustic instrument Resonant Garden produced by Folktek. The electronic processing is performed in VCV Rack 2, an Eurorack simulator.