Arkhḗ: Noise Maps for string quartet, electronics and 3D mapping, which I developed together with video artist Aleksandra Ołdak, is my attempt to create a connection with nature, referring to Slavic beliefs. This composition is a multidimensional sound ritual that places man at the centre of the emergence of three conditions for the creation of a sacred microcosm—the relationships of wood, stone, and water. The sound, its sonic evolution and plasticity, linked to the rootedness in the performatively exposed gestures of the performers on a three-dimensional visualisation shimmering with symbols, is transformed into electronic layers that create new relationships, new interpretations and new “sound maps” with reference to Slavic roots.

The loosely quoted nineteenth-century Belarusian fairy tale used in the electronic layer of the piece, which I found while reading Aleksander Gieysztor’s Mythology of the Slavs, helps me to recognise the permanence of our relationships with the elements of nature to this day. It helps to look for forces and energies whose presence is contained within the framework of our everyday experiences, and which create order or chaos. The energies that, regardless of their ancient sources, can hide in different forms and transform in the endless cycle of life and death. 

Martyna Kosecka