This week’s Sunday Mix is something a little different. Coming courtesy of avant garde artist Lola de la Mata, who released her debut album Oceans on Azimuth last month (May 8), the 55-minute recording dives deep into the canals of our ears.
In 2019, Lola was advised to quit music after developing severe tinnitus and vertigo. A violinist by trade, she chose instead to try to make and listen to music with a new ear, working with biophysicists who helped her develop processes of recording her tinnitus.
Over ambient soundscapes inspired by her experiences of tinnitus, Lola mixes strings, field recordings, poetry and hits an ear canal shaped gong. The recording also features two segments of talks recorded at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, during her launch event, in which Lola discusses her practice and inspirations with Amy Skjerseth, a lecturer in audio visual media at the University of Liverpool, abstract turntablist Maria Chávez and ACS Director Jono Heale.
“Treating Sunday as a moment of introspection, taking time with my vertigo vision and off-balanced hearing, the mix became a freeflow space in which to be vulnerable, to play in and experiment with the fabric of my record Oceans on Azimuth,” she says.
“Listening with a new ear, I chose to keep the spontaneous recorded distortion on the live takes, allowing for our ears to acknowledge the parallel that exists between the movement of the microphone’s membrane and our own tympanic membranes – here, straining against the influx of volume, the soft saturation is pleasing to our tuned in ears.”
Sunday Mix: Lola de la Mata
Sunday Mix: Lola de la Mata
This week’s Sunday Mix is something a little different. Coming courtesy of avant garde artist Lola de la Mata, who released her debut album Oceans on Azimuth last month (May 8), the 55-minute recording dives deep into the canals of our ears.
In 2019, Lola was advised to quit music after developing severe tinnitus and vertigo. A violinist by trade, she chose instead to try to make and listen to music with a new ear, working with biophysicists who helped her develop processes of recording her tinnitus.
Over ambient soundscapes inspired by her experiences of tinnitus, Lola mixes strings, field recordings, poetry and hits an ear canal shaped gong. The recording also features two segments of talks recorded at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, during her launch event, in which Lola discusses her practice and inspirations with Amy Skjerseth, a lecturer in audio visual media at the University of Liverpool, abstract turntablist Maria Chávez and ACS Director Jono Heale.
“Treating Sunday as a moment of introspection, taking time with my vertigo vision and off-balanced hearing, the mix became a freeflow space in which to be vulnerable, to play in and experiment with the fabric of my record Oceans on Azimuth,” she says.
“Listening with a new ear, I chose to keep the spontaneous recorded distortion on the live takes, allowing for our ears to acknowledge the parallel that exists between the movement of the microphone’s membrane and our own tympanic membranes – here, straining against the influx of volume, the soft saturation is pleasing to our tuned in ears.”
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