ZHAO JIAJING
赵嘉旌



Acousmatic Compositions
Installations & Multimedia

Sound Design & Soundtracks

Information
CV
Drifting Voices
2025
16-channel (3rd Order Ambisonics)
8’56”
Created between 2024-2025


Drifting Voices explores the deep connection between the human body and the ocean.

Life’s origins in the sea have left us with profound chemical affinities to the marine environment. This work reflects that connection by processing human voices and ocean sounds in almost chemical ways—analysing them into microscopic sonic particles and observing their interactions within the realm of microsound. Spectral textures are extracted, frozen, stretched, catalysed, and blended to explore their shared sonic characteristics.

The voice in the piece is that of artist Portia Lee, reading a poem about the sea written by the composer. Vocal recordings were captured using both a condenser microphone and a throat-mounted hydrophone, producing a rich, intimate texture that allows for extended processing techniques.

Throughout the piece, the voice—symbolising the presence of the human body—is deconstructed into intricate sonic particles and textures, moving beyond linguistic meaning. As the piece unfolds, the transformation of vocal material traces the body’s dissolution and expansion into the ocean, gradually merging with abstracted ocean field recordings. Ultimately, the distinction between voice and water blurs as body and ocean dissolve into a single, unified sonic entity.


Journal


I buried hydrophones and a geophone beneath the sands of Rhossili Bay, Wales, to capture low-frequency vibrations and subsurface acoustics.  The combination picked up the distant hum of the tides, the subtle shifts of underwater currents, and the deep resonance of the wind as it pressed against the shoreline. 
Along the southeast coast of England, I captured the subtle interactions between ocean water and rocks using a pair of hydrophones. These recordings were later processed into granular gestures that weave through the composition. I like to follow nature’s own pace—it feels more honest to let its rhythms and textures guide the music, rather than imposing my own.
The original poem was written in English, but I intend to break it down into fragments, so abstract that they no longer carry linguistic meaning, serving instead as a symbolic trace of the body.
The vocal was captured using a hybrid setup: a hydrophone combined with a condenser microphone. The hydrophone-recorded voice bypasses the modulation of the mouth, resulting in a hum that feels more bodily and internal. When blended with the condenser-mic material, it creates a unique spectral texture—as if the voice is being heard from within the body.
Conceptual visual




ZHAO JIAING 赵 嘉旌
Composer, Sound Designer, interdisciplinary Artist
jiajingzhao96(at)gmail(dot)com