Not all sounds are alive. But I find that collision can awaken them—giving them breath, a pulse, a shimmer. I am drawn to sounds that, as sonic matter, seem to live. Sounds that breathe, waver, move, shiver. They may emerge from dead things or living ones, yet all are bound by a shared quality: a sonic behavior that feels alive.
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May 17^th 2023
It’s the breath I hear on the coast of Lipari, where waves crash into beds of large, smooth pebbles, nudging them audibly as the water recedes, sifting through dancing stones, softly colliding with one another.
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July 19^th 2025
It’s the same fragile dance I hear when I rest a spiky ball of tin foil inside a singing bowl. When struck, they begin to sing together, eventually tripping up, falling, shivering and spinning together – soft collisions shaping their mutual song.
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August 31^st 2025
It’s insects stridulating in their flight, as they flash their red wings above the tall grass.
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It happens, too, inside cybernetic synthesizers—where oscillations interact, meet, rub, and collide, softly.

– Benedikt Alphart

Commissioned by INA grm
Premiere: Akousma, 1 November 2025 in Paris (FR)