Mycelium (2022)

Written for Marie Ythier and Ensemble ICTUS as part of the 2022 Voix Nouvelles Academy at Royaumont, France. Finalist for the 2023 SOUNZ Contemporary Award

About the work:
Mycelium are networks of fungal threads that weave webs that connect individual mushrooms into larger organic communities. These communities vary in scope and scale and can occur in a variety of places but it is underground where they really excel, growing into staggeringly large interconnected fungal networks. These mycelium perform many vital ecological processes including most notably the breaking down of organic matter in a process that provides nutrients for both the mushrooms themselves as well as a myriad of other organisms. These symbiotic relationships are essential to the health of many of the world’s ecosystems and this forging of interspecies dependence teaches us much about the interconnected nature of our world.

This work seeks to weave knots and webs of interconnection within a musical context, with disparate material, temporalities and instrumental combinations being used to create sonic ecosystems that unfold over time in a variety of ways, most notably by engaging with unpredictability and volatility as the musical material gets broken down to the point of rupture, a rupture that in and of itself opens up new areas of vibrant potentiality.

Other:
Interview: https://news.sounz.org.nz/nathaniel-otley-sounz-contemporary-award-finalist-2023/