Meet the Ondioline

Commissioned by Owen Chapman.

I created this suite of three musical compositions from field-recordings of a research trip Owen Chapman, Andra McCartney and David Madden took in 2008 to the National Music Centre (known then as the Cantos Music Foundation) in Calgary, AB. I focused specifically on working with a set of recordings of the curator, David Kean, introducing the researchers to the obsolete electronic synthesizer, the Ondioline. The instrument, not in perfect working condition, sputters and emits a variety of sounds as the researchers and curator discuss and improvise on it. I used both the recordings of the instrument itself and the human voices from the discussion as the sole material in the creation of compositions that aim to explore different aspects of the instrument, its conservation, and the research encounter.