This project explores the physical and perceptual "shape" of recorded music through a process of granular analysis. Every piece of music in the archive is sliced into thousands of microscopic sound fragments — or grains. Each grain is analyzed and sorted by its sonic similarity to others, based on characteristics such as timbre, pitch, texture, and density.
By reorganizing the music in this way, the project reveals an abstract “map” of sound — a visual representation of the internal structure and relationships hidden within the piece. Rather than focusing on melody or rhythm, it exposes the material that makes up the music itself.
The visual form produced is not a waveform or spectrogram, but a shape: a topography of the musical archive.
The image presented here shows the shape derived from the 1 hour and 30 minute live performance Live at Freerotation, capturing the sonic fingerprint of the piece as an evolving landscape of grains.
The image presented here shows the shape derived from the 1 hour and 30 minute live performance Live at Freerotation, capturing the sonic fingerprint of the piece as an evolving landscape of grains.
