Shelemay Sound Lab featured on BBC's The Documentary Podcast

The Shelemay Sound Lab was recently featured in an episode of BBC's The Documentary Podcast, "Alexey Seliverstov: Bionic Birdsong." The episode discusses on composer Alexey Seliverstov, who recently completed an artist residency at the Shelemay Sound Lab, and features interviews with Alexey, as well as with Shelemay Sound Lab Technical Director John Pax. 

Listening to the full episode by visiting the BBC website. 

Synopsis:
How fixed is the borderline between human music and the sounds of nature? That is a question that guides the work of Los Angeles-based composer Alexey Seliverstov. In this programme, Regan Morris follows Alexey’s creative process from recording the dawn chorus in the Santa Monica mountains, through the ingenious transformations of the field recordings to the finished multi-channel and multi-sensory installation for the Shelemay Sound Lab at Harvard University.

There is more to Alexey’s music than first meets the ear: some of the ‘birds’ are actually the sounds of his own and his brother’s voices recorded when they were children and altered beyond recognition by Alexey’s sophisticated processing. Adding ear-prints of empty spaces to the sounds of chirping synthesisers, similar to the effect of repeated exposures on an old-fashioned camera film, draw us further into Alexey’s imaginary landscapes. Are these soundscapes artificial or still mostly natural? How does mixing the sounds of nature and sounds that we associate with humans, such as pianos, alter our idea of what music can be?

Visit the Shelemay Sound Lab website for information about other upcoming events.