Ecosonics grew out of Stephen Preston’s research into birdsong as a basis for new techniques and improvisational forms, particularly on the baroque flute. Birdsong is an inspiringly rich source of sonic ideas and forms: for example, birds that sing in duet are a key model for duo performances.

In improvising with ecosonics the performer aims to draw on the intense emotional expressivity that lies at the heart of spoken utterances. Improvisations are generated through “temporal feeling-shapes … the dynamic and temporal aspects of forms”. They are expressed as “vitality effects” which are best described in dynamic, kinetic terms such as ‘surging’, ‘fading away’, ‘fleeting’, ‘explosive’, ‘crescendo’, ‘diminuendo’, ‘bursting’, ‘drawn’, and so on. Improvisations are shaped through a contour of affectivity, the temporal form of a set of profiles of intensity, rhythm, and duration of vitality effects.

When extended into live electronics the physical and gestural relationships between the performers remain at the forefront. But there is also consideration of an instrumental ‘group action’ which can be added to individual instrumental actions. This is derived from the electronic sensing of group interactions, and gives another voice to the ecology in which the performers are acting.

© Stephen Preston