Rolf Wallin dives deeper into the background of Phonotope 4, his new audio-visual work performed by SISU Percussion. Tune in for the premiere at 6pm BST, Fri 23 Jul.

A biotope is a small ecological area supporting its own distinctive community of plants and animals, the different species dependent on each other, the soil, the weather conditions and so on in a finely balanced network. A "phonotope" would then be a musical "area", with sounds taking the place of living creatures, dependent on each other and interacting after certain rules.

This piece has no score in the traditional meaning of the word. The part material for the musicians consists mainly of five musical "games", with small fragments of musical material serving as "playing cards", and with a set of rules for each game. This allows the musicians a freedom of choice within clearly defined limits.

Phonotope 1 was commissioned by the computer studio IRCAM, Paris, and in addition to the game between the musicians, there is a game between the musicians and a computer, running a program made by IRCAM specifically for this piece.

The principle idea behind each Phonotope is the interaction between five distinct musical materials: sonic descriptions of the five elements in traditional Chinese philosophy: Wood, Metal, Water, Fire, and Earth.

I have always been fascinated by how we humans have tried to make sense of the world around us. Whether religious, mythical or scientific, our understanding of our surroundings are all are manifestations of the human psyche, as Carl Gustav Jung pointed out. And some of them make way for interesting self-contained systems, such as astronomy, alchemy, and the notions of the four Western and the five Eastern elements. The classical descriptions of the five Chinese elements are easily translated to musical qualities, resulting in five qualitatively different “sound-spaces” in each Phonotope.

The piece consists of five main sections. Each section is dominated by its middle portion, the "game", which focuses on one of the five elements. The “game” is preceded by a short introduction of electronics and is followed by a relaxation. The element in focus in each sections is determined according to the Chinese system of thought on how the elements consume each other or transform into one another.

After the manifestation of the first Phonotope several other Phonotopes have been created with varied instrumentation, including one for prepared pianos and another for vocal sextet. They have all been made in close collaboration with the musicians, to achieve the most illustrative sounds possible from their instruments. And when SISU Percussion Ensemble asked to create a version they decided not to stop at the sound qualities, but actually make instruments out of the elements! Collaborating with the highly inventive scenographer, architect and instrument builder Carle Lange, they created a pentagonal landscape where they could move between five stations, each with a set of specially invented instruments. The Metal station has hanging aluminum rods and a large plate of iron, the Wood section has large treetrunks with wooden drum heads built in – but how on earth do you make a Fire instrument? Well, Lange had already constructed one: with electrically charged hammers and whisks hitting stroking and grinding charged iron nails and various metal items, the piece ends in a glorious firework of high voltage sparks.