To Annette Vande Gorne

I had left for Place de Ransbeck in search of Rumeurs’s thirteen doors when I encountered an angry hymenopteran who fled my microphone by hiding in the cracks of a wooden beam. This is how my piece was first conceived. It features a carpenter bee and twenty doors recorded at Musiques & Recherches (Ohain, Belgium). In it, I continue my exploration of changes of scale, from a passage in human proportions featuring familiar sounds to the more abstract world of microfauna, where bacteria found in wood form wriggling masses. Between these two sizes of scale, the carpenter bee carves out wood shavings and comes buzzing around our ears.

This piece is part of Nano-Cosmos, a cycle of acousmatic pieces dedicated to insects, small arthropods and microorganisms.

— Ana Dall’Ara-Majek [English translation: Stephanie Moore, iii-18]

Xylocopa Ransbecka was realized in 16 channels at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium) in 2017 and premiered on April 25, 2018 as part of the Électrobelge concert at Espace Senghor in Brussels (Belgium). Thanks to Annette Vande Gorne for the residency at Musiques & Recherches (Ohain, Belgium).

Composition

• 2017, Métamorphoses d’Orphée — Musiques & Recherches, Ohain (Belgium)

Premiere

• April 25, 2018, Électrobelge, Le Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)

Awards

• Special Mention, Ars Electronica Forum Wallis 2018, Leuk (Switzerland)

About this sound recording

This version is a stereophonic reduction of the 16-channel original realized in December 2017.

Remixing

• December 2017, version 2.0: Ana Dall’Ara-Majek • Studio Blue Spider, Montréal (Québec)

Mastering

• January 7, 2018, Ana Dall’Ara-Majek • Studio Blue Spider, Montréal (Québec)