AWARDS

Oram Awards 2024
Sound of the Year Awards 2023/24

about

Experimental composer Lola de la Mata announces her debut limited artist edition LP and digital release Oceans on Azimuth, an auditory exploration of tinnitus, scheduled for May 8th.

As a violinist, she was told to give up her musicianship after becoming afflicted by severe tinnitus and vertigo in 2019. Instead, she chose to listen with a new ear, and reached out to A.J. Hudspeth in New York who runs the sensory cell lab where they study the cochlea. There, she found collaborators in biophysicists who offered her the unique experience of recording her tinnitus.

Lola’s new compositions feature sonic landscapes crafted from throbbing heartbeats and tinnitus phantoms reimagined through metal, glass, ceramic and ice musical instruments. Inspired by forms from the middle and inner ear, these prototypes introduced unique timbres and tonalities, enriched with noise from their carved imperfections.

Translated forms of hearing and listening are explored throughout the project in collaged poems which ricochet amongst field recordings, prepared string instruments, a Claravox theremin, an ear canal shaped gong, and other inventions.

Each instrumental choice is a specified act, one folding us into the project as a way of offering space for new conversations around hearing diversity with musicians and audiences.

release date: May 8, 2024

Credits

All Compositions - Lola de la Mata
Concept, Written, Performed, Recorded, Lyrics (Stereocilia), Text (Pearl Reservoir) - Lola de la Mata
SOAEs (Left Ear / Right Ear) Recordings - Brian Anthony Fabella, Research Specialist, The Hudspeth Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience
Interview (Calibration God) - Francesco Gianoli, Biophysicist, Hudspeth Lab
Voice and Lyrics (Pink Noise) - Lana Norris, Musicology Resident, Hudspeth Lab
Custom Ear Canal Gong and Triangles made by - Matt Nolan

Additional Instruments:
(Earthworms) - Gwen Reed, Double Bass
(KOH - Klee - uh) - Marianne Schofield, Double Bass + Joby Burgess, Canna Sonora

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Mixing - Lola de la Mata
Additional Mixing / Mastering - Andrew Larrabee
Cut by - Cicely Balston at Air Studios

Engineer - All Instruments (Earthworms), Violin (Pink Noise) - Eve Morris

Made with support from
Arts Council England and Help Musicians

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Special Thanks to A. J. Hudspeth, Lotti V Closs and Adam James Sinclair
Dedicated to, Mira Calix and Anneka Swann
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