Fumohihimo

Duration: ca 14'20"
Instrumentation: Monoboard in Ambisonic Projection and Video Projection
Composed: 2023
Title Derivation: Fumohihimo is from an email exchange with composer Clarence Barlow where he asks "Do you know how to write 'Fumohihimo' in Japanese Katakana? フ モ ヒ ヒ モ." Fittingly this is not a word but rather more onomatopoeia. Barlow notes "It seems to mean "Imohi string", whatever that is". Discussion with the native Japanese speaking composer Yukiko Yoden revealed that "Fumohihimo evokes the image of something soft and fluffy floating in the air." She goes on to note that the notion of floating is more broadly "to describe something thin and light that moves as if it were fluttering". This seems to align rather well with how the string of the monoboard often seems within magnetic field of the ebow.

Some Technical Details:
A single string is amplified by two pickups (the monoboard). The signal is processed by 16 delay lines and 16 convolution kernels. The algorithm controlling the delay times is controlled by the performer via a pad controller. There are 912 impulse responses (IR's), from a 16x57 grid of the monoboard, each used one time. Special thanks to Mark Rau for capturing these IR's. The spatial position is composed by arraying sets of 16 delay line - IR streams over the course of 480000 milliseconds (you can guess what sample rate is employed). The spatial position of each delay line - IR combination in the sound field corresponds to the location of the IR on the monoboard surface. The video display is a didactic display of spatial positioning.

 

This is performance was rendered in 5th order ambisonics and has been transcoded to binaural, so use headphones when listening.

 

Video from premier at CCRMA 2023 Transitions

Video from premier at CCRMA 2023 Transitions