Aural Cartographies
This project began during my travels to Turkey for the Klassik Keyifler Festival in September 2023. In Şirince, a beautiful mountain village that hosts the Stoa Center for Philosophy and Art, I had the chance to meet remarkable musicians and immerse myself in Turkish folk music, Persian modes, and improvisation. I played with musicians from different traditions and found deep resonance—both musically and emotionally—especially in the folk songs, which reminded me of Mongolian singing. Both traditions use throat techniques that produce rich overtones, creating a layered, vibrating sound that seems to emerge from both body and space. These sonic parallels made me reflect on how musical and sound travels—perhaps from Mongolia, Nepal, and other Eastern traditions—may have traveled through Turkey, a country that bridges East and West and holds a bunch of cultural influences.
It was here that my interest in resonance, space, and sound as a cultural connector began to develop, but still had I had no shape and form to bring this idea to life,. I started asking how sound shapes our sense of place, how it carries memory, and how we can attune ourselves to environments through listening. During this same period, I was introduced to the viola d’amore by Garth Knox—an instrument with sympathetic strings that, like the Indian sarangi, blends resonance with a deep emotional presence. This meeting sparked a long-term research path into instruments with sympathetic strings and the way resonance connects bodies, histories, and environments.
Over time, this practice evolved into something I like to call “Aural Cartographies”, a performance-based research centered around the Campanula Quinton—an instrument with 16 sympathetic strings, built by Helmut Bleffert. The campanula allows me to work intimately with overtones and explore how sound resonates across materials and architectural forms. In this work, I connect the instrument to everyday materials such as paper, styrofoam, cardboard, and long strings, transforming each performance site into an acoustic body. These materials vibrate in response to the campanula. As a medium to propagate sound I also use a long string, inspired by Yuri Landman’s instrument and DIY knowledge.
Each performance becomes a form of aural cartography—a mapping through resonance.
