Tendrillar is an audiovisual collaboration between myself, 3D animation artist Ari Kalinowski, and choreographer Olesya Elfimova. It is a study of rhythm in ritual, ritual in machine, and the mechanics of cyclic human motion refracted across space, sound, and dance.

Concept Sound

Tendrillar originally arose as a standalone audio live set piece I created in early 2024.

Its sound was an exercise in emulating patterns and rhythms, biomimicry and ritual dance. I aimed to contrast the natural timbre of ceremonial drum samples with synthetic design found in more contemporary experimental club and ambient works. I started with some sketches of what this interplay looked like in my head.

Sketching before Tendrillar became a thing. Cycles, ridges, chisels, systems, beings that I wanted to translate into sound.

Some instrument and FX racks I put together to generate the sounds of early drafts.

Sonically, this concept combines natural drum instrumentation with heavily processed found sound. It is designed to be both rhythmic and ambient – the marriage of these natural drum and environmental, synthetic recordings creates a digital ritual that lends itself well to human motion.

The piece was created in Ableton Live + external macro control with a MIDI Fighter Twister, a Novation LaunchControl, and a small keyboard. Lots of experiments in physical modeling, randomized sample processing and randomization involved.

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Detuned synth snippet

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Granulated glass FX

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Generative voice loop

Adapting to Audiovisual

I worked with Ari to translate my sound into an audivisual piece. Inspired by sweeping motions and cyclical movements in dance, we settled on a winged humanoid design whose movements were both expansive and precise. Thanks to Ari for rigging this character so smoothly.

My friend Ari is a rockstar, who quickly weaved together a character we co-ideated.

Motion Capture and Scene Building

With help from Olesya, we inputted motion capture data of choreography into the rigged character. Ari built out a stark scene that made use of glowing whites in an otherwise dark room, with red orange accents.

The design of the character and setting is meant to emulate the progression and elements of the accompanying sound. Red sparks and accents are analogous to the synthetic critter-noises in the sound, and the camera trajectory following the character accelerates as the sound's gravity darkens.

Excerpt from final audiovisual reel.

Another excerpt from final audiovisual reel.