atmospheres – a symphony of movement qualities

Composition, performance, production, vocals: Clàudia Parés
Double bass and vocals: Hannah Grosch
Mastering: Audiotic Music
Mentoring: Emily Welther
Cover design: Elsa Álvarez

2024
Performance, installation, album

Performed at 4bid gallery, in the frame of the sound event Forbidden Sounds Forbidden Spaces and as final performance Master in Performance Practices, ArtEZ University, Arnhem, Netherlands

In Atmospheres: a symphony of movement qualities I explored how transposing movement qualities to sounds extends, deepens, and challenges the relationship between dance and music. The use (and abuse) of music in dance triggered my query into this topic, influenced by my experiences in contemporary dance and hip-hop dance. Trying to understand the similarities and differences between movement and sound and wanting to conciliate these approaches of dancing to/with/without music, I embarked on a search for sounds supporting dance improvisation, ground of my artistic practice.

In this search, sampling became a tool which enabled me to understand and compose music, collecting recorded sounds and treating them to achieve sonic qualities relating to movement. Coming from a non-musically trained background, I learned sound production DIY, influenced mainly by my dance perspective. I approach sampling as I do dance, as a collection of movements that can be transformed by focusing on the quality, the how the movement is executed. Sampling is used in hip-hop as a musical production strategy to extend recorded music segments (mostly the beat) to give space for dance. I used sampling with a similar intention, extending and magnifying sounds to give space for dancing in improvisation considering a somatic approach.