Mel Chilianis

and the ants carried wonder

The environmental audio for this track was recorded in the surroundings of Hub Feenix residency in Finland. I used a contact microphone to pick up the vibrations of sited surfaces and percussion.

Burrow

The image shows clear sea water with ripples over rounded shapes in the sand. July, 2023.

I played, recorded and mixed this when I was quite ill after a major operation. I used the my phone microphone and the internal mic on my computer and then mixed in Max and recorded the live output. It was a way to reconnect with music and my body, after some significant changes.

Abide

Soundtrack excerpt using the flute for Sista Creatives Rising. To abide is to accept the challenges one has experienced, and to keep on. I take my inspiration from Claire and Amaranthia co-founders of SCR who use art and activism in an optimistic fashion. April, 2023.

Ways In

The images shows a stack of containers piled near the docks and a traffic light. The sky is pale green and the containers are bright purple. August, 2022.

I am in a port city. Containers are stacked up in primary colours, cranes lift the sky. A low piano vibes. The space is large, reverberative. The piano is under a concrete overpass.
Close-mic-ed spoon, bowl, and crunching sounds are heard.
I look around, immersed by a high, almost vocal sounding texture that engulfs a theme on the piano. Low tones ring out in the bass and other mid-granular textures join.
Text-to-speech voice announces itself in shwoop-y waves. Textures are ghosts in the background.
The atmosphere shifts. Instead of diesel and petrol I smell malaleuca and eucalyptus. There is an ibis and a dove picking out reverbed piano in the mix. High piano stings strum like a zither in a riff. I look toward the saltbush that grows in the wetland near the train tracks. Otherworldly vocals hide.
Zither-piano and textures continue to the end-world.

Note — this is my attempt at creative audio description, an equivalent to image description. The idea is that it can be a creative act in its own right, and not solely functionary.

Rast-panjgah

This composition, Rast-panjgah, is from Circle Messages by Atefeh Einali and Mel Chilianis. Jul, 2018.

In this composition, the santoor is performed and improvised in Rast-Panjgah dastgah (mode) by Atefeh Einali.
The remix/production is by myself.