Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
‘Mortality and the Soul’ is a poetic granular soundscape portraying the formation of the soul/living consciousness, based on the ancient atomist philosophical teachings of Epicureanism in the ancient Roman poem ‘The Nature of Things’ (Lucretius, c. 99–55BC). The work imagines a gradual entanglement and grand, energetic unification of the four atomic elements believed to materially constitute the soul, as described by Lucretius: breath/wind, air, heat, and a fourth unnamed particle (the nimblest, smallest atom, and the first cause of all other motions and sensations in the body – imagined as shimmering, darting sine grains).
This work is a consummation of Carter’s Master’s portfolio that interprets Epicurean philosophy through granular synthesis and soundscape composition. All of the work’s sounds, including a live performed layer, were generated from his own custom-built granular synthesisers, designed around a core creative metaphor: (physical) atoms in motion depicted as (sonic) grains moving through musical space (spectral, temporal, and spatial/dynamic).
Phrase fragments from ‘The Nature of Things’, granulated and transformed in the composition, were sourced from Alicia E. Stallings’ translation of Lucretius’ text.
Fixed and live electronics performed by Nathan Carter at the Lilburn Trust / NZSM Composers Competition, Hunter Council Chamber, 4 October 2025.
Audio engineered by Thorin Williams and mixed/mastered by Graham Kennedy. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
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Learn more about the composers and performers of music from Aotearoa New Zealand on our website (sounz.org.nz), or by following us on Facebook (@SOUNZnz), Instagram (@sounz_nz), or TikTok (@sounz_nz).
#nzmusic
‘Mortality and the Soul’ is a poetic granular soundscape portraying the formation of the soul/living consciousness, based on the ancient atomist philosophical teachings of Epicureanism in the ancient Roman poem ‘The Nature of Things’ (Lucretius, c. 99–55BC). The work imagines a gradual entanglement and grand, energetic unification of the four atomic elements believed to materially constitute the soul, as described by Lucretius: breath/wind, air, heat, and a fourth unnamed particle (the nimblest, smallest atom, and the first cause of all other motions and sensations in the body – imagined as shimmering, darting sine grains).
This work is a consummation of Carter’s Master’s portfolio that interprets Epicurean philosophy through granular synthesis and soundscape composition. All of the work’s sounds, including a live performed layer, were generated from his own custom-built granular synthesisers, designed around a core creative metaphor: (physical) atoms in motion depicted as (sonic) grains moving through musical space (spectral, temporal, and spatial/dynamic).
Phrase fragments from ‘The Nature of Things’, granulated and transformed in the composition, were sourced from Alicia E. Stallings’ translation of Lucretius’ text.
Fixed and live electronics performed by Nathan Carter at the Lilburn Trust / NZSM Composers Competition, Hunter Council Chamber, 4 October 2025.
Audio engineered by Thorin Williams and mixed/mastered by Graham Kennedy. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
--
Learn more about the composers and performers of music from Aotearoa New Zealand on our website (sounz.org.nz), or by following us on Facebook (@SOUNZnz), Instagram (@sounz_nz), or TikTok (@sounz_nz).
#nzmusic
