Zeljko McMullen :

In my work, I utilize sounds to deconstruct the present physical space of the listener, replacing it with a perpetually shifting acoustic architecture.   Intended as a counter-din to the information saturation of present day society, my music serves as a cathartic release, a womb-like shelter of imploding space that allows the listener to have an introverted experience.

Projections from multiple sound sources collide onto a central focal point - manifesting a new composite world.   Overlapping spaces - a church crammed into a closet poured out on a mountain raining out of the sea... These elements, gathered from excursions into the unconsciousness of the performer, function like living cells in a larger body.   Each expand and contract, pushing one another out of the way.   The relationships are not organized hierarchically, but instead the parts are rescaled into emanating textures without a sense of time or necessary progress.  

Presently, my work manifests itself in both binaural stereo audio recordings and live spatial sound installations where various speakers and amplifiers are placed deliberately within a space and equalized to "tune" the sound structures for each room.  The goal of this placement is to create a physical and psychological immersion into a visceral presence of sonic phenomena where subject and object become intertwined.  The experience for the listener conjures images and feelings of polarities: presence and absence, being and non-being, place and non-place, and the solid and the intangible.

My music is comprised of intense recordings of improvisations on piano, strings, percussion, voice, and electronics - subjected to rigorous acoustic processes and electronic manipulations.  Duets on church organs are overlaid with rustic farm house field recordings and urban street scene chaos.   Feedback systems are utilized often - recordings are played back into spaces and recaptured with an emphasis on difference tone beating.  Nuances are magnified and reinterpreted to the extent that the "flawed sounds" become the basis for structural integrity.

My present body of work contains binaural recordings in site-specific locations, where each element of the music is carefully placed into discreet physical locations.  At least 3 different rooms contained playback of composed material, through which I walked carrying a binaural dummy head microphone, capturing different resonant frequencies within the tuned rooms.  The recordings represent one journey through a predetermined reflection of imagined architecture.