together we sing

as part of Sweet Spot: Open Garden – Tipping Points for Mozarteum University, Salzburg, Austria
Concept: daz disley and clàudia Parés
composition: Clàudia Parés
surround sound composition: daz disley

2025
Sound installation

Together we sing was one of the four selected compositions created for the electroacoustic installation Sweet Spot: Open Garden – Tipping Points from the Mozarteum University, happening from 18th until the 25th of June, played from 8h to 20h as a permanent installation via 16-channel speaker system integrated into the architecture of the Mirabell garden, Salzburg.

The concept of the event revolved around acoustic tipping points—exploring how small changes within unstable sound systems can trigger significant, often irreversible transformations. Inspired by biological and climatic tipping points, where minor shifts lead to disproportionate effects, the project invited composers and sound artists to create installations that disrupt conventional auditory spaces.

Together we sing reimagines the relationship between human-made and natural sounds in urban environments, questioning the hierarchies of sounds (for example machinery jarring noises versus melodic birdsong). Inspired by how birds have adapted their singing due to noise pollution and human activity, the work challenges the “separation”/dominance of artificial sounds over natural. Instead of reversing this dynamic it proposes a new kind of coexistence, where call-and-response interactions between birds and machinery blur the lines between nature and artificial. Through field recordings, synthetic and sound manipulation, the piece is a sort of a synthetic love song/soundscape, inviting the listeners to reconsider how we share sonic spaces with other/more-than-human beings.
By shifting perspectives from dominance to responsiveness, it explores what might emerge if our soundscapes were shaped by collaboration.