The fourth edition of Unsound Festival in New York, presented by Fundacja Tone and the Polish Cultural Institute New York, rolled in on the last day of March, the streets of the city still covered in snow, the pavement frozen with perpetual layer of water. The official opening night featuring EVOL and Oren Amabrchi with Sinfonietta Cracovia Quintet & Friends was still a few days away, while the synesthetic installation of sounds, scents and visual elements, titled Ephemera, already opened its doors for the first installment, featuring the work of Steve Goodman (aka Kode9) set to an olfactory composition. The “smell” of rumbling bass was strong, loud and acute, like the sharp angled waves of its saw-tooth aural accompaniment. The vibrations and their perfumes spilled onto the street, and an older couple walking through dusky New York alley couldn’t help but peak inside. The other two installations, rotating on a daily…

The British Library’s “Sound and Vision” site has posted a challenge to people working with sound. The idea is to compose a sound piece, under 3 minutes, that is inspired by one of the 1 million images released by the British Library last year onto Flickr Commons.

I’m happy that my own sound piece, inspired by the above picture, was the first work chosen to be posted for the series. To listen to the work and to read more about the project visit the British Library’s Sound and Vision site.