Dunietz, Maya & Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop / The Sound of Difference and Connection – New LP

Maya Dunietz is a prodigy pianist, an avant-garde sound artist, an award winning composer, a dubious character and mom of four. Maya’s career has been abundant abundant - from playing with ‘Habiluim', 'Midnight Peacocks’, 'Boom Pam’ and countless projects worldwide through presenting her sound installations at Pompidou; France, to her work with Emahoy Tsegue Mariam Guebrou.

The Sound of Difference and Connection emerges from Maya Dunietz’s research into the irrational midpoint of the octave, a resonance zone where two close frequencies generate slow acoustic beatings and a third, emergent tone. Developed with Berlin’s Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, the work divides the octave into fifteen unequal parts, placing musicians in a continuous process of attunement. Instead of tuning to fixed pitches, players adjust their physical proximity to shape the pulse: closer to slow it, farther to quicken it. The piece unfolds as a fragile, collective resonance that often feels as if it rises from the air itself. Composed during a time of global unrest, it offers a quiet act of attention and care amid instability. RIYL: Éliane Radigue, Catherine Lamb, Giacinto Scelsi, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier. Emerging from an artistic research of the irrational middle point of an octave, 'The Sound of Difference and Connection' is a composition that unfolds as both a musical and a poetic experiment. This exploration, which began with a question about attunement, revealed its irrational zone, a field of resonance where two slightly different frequencies meet and form a third, pulsating sound between them.

The piece operates within this narrow interval, not too far, not too close, producing slow acoustic beatings that vibrate inside the range of human alpha waves. Between the two original played tones, a third tone appears, a sound born out of the relation itself. This emergent voice becomes the sonic manifestation of the relation. The composition, developed in close collaboration with the Berlin-based Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, divides the octave into fifteen unequal parts, positioning the musicians as living group organisms in motion. Each gesture creates delicate changes in time. This type of work demands radical attention and patience within playfulness, as each player tunes their instrument not to fixed frequencies, but to the beating of proximity. To quicken the pulse, they move apart; to slow it down, they move closer.

The result is a piece that listens to itself, breathing through the bodies of its players. At times, the sound seems to emanate not from the instruments but from the air itself: a shared, fragile resonance. Composed and recorded during a time of profound global unrest and war, this work stands as a quiet act of resistance, a music of care and listening amid violence and despair.