Eiocha

Instrument: Danu System

Drawing its name from the Celtic mother-goddess, Danu System was designed for allegorical reproductions of biological forces and natural phenomena, creating sonic environments that tell stories about the natural world, its people, and their interpretations of nature.

Fractal sequencing, granular textures, physical modelling synthesis and deep modulation matrixes sonify our principles and breathe organismic behaviour into imagined microcosms.

Piece: Eiocha

“Once upon a time, there was no time and that was when there also was no gods and no man walked the surface of the land. But there was the sea, and where the sea met the land, a mare was born, white and made of sea-foam. And her name was Eiocha.” - Scott A. Leonard (2004) "Myth and Knowing"

Eiocha is an ambient performance on modular synth, where modulation interactions recreate what an ancient Celt may have felt whilst observing the shoreline, considering the invisible and unknown forces at play.

Patch:

The modulation centre represents the force of the moon on the tide, which breathes motion into its surroundings. The modules built by Glasgow-based Instruo take their names from Gaelic words. The filter module's name Tràigh means “the rise and fall of the sea.” The sea is represented by three oscillators, whose suffocated tones depict  submerged movement beneath the waves. Bloom, a fractal sequencer designed around plant growth and permutation, represents the diversity of aquatic life beneath. Chance procedures cause continual generative evolution characterising the Celtic subjects' unknowing of the deep. The piece is polyphonically quantised in a traditional Celtic scale, and a physical modelling synthesis module excites an amorphous corpus that shifts between illusory sounds based on traditional iron age instruments and working practices. Textural synthesis contributes to the aural field, tied tightly to the lunar modulation network.

Information on the system can be found here:

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/1471997