listen with mother~
2024

>> Are you sitting comfortably? y/n

>> Then I shall begin.

listen with mother~ is an audiobook rendition of Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola in which the novel is narrated by a programme whose synthetic voice generates an evolving musical piece. It is a reinterpretation of the eponymous twentieth-century BBC radio programme, in which a presenter would read stories to children in an intimate tone, as though they were talking to each child alone.

In this re-imagining, the story is narrated by a programme whose synthetic voice generates an evolving musical piece. Word length and punctuation determine the metre, while other variables based on the text influence the pitch, timbre and texture of the synthesis.

listen with mother~ explores the possibilities of using cues and information from other forms of media as a departure point for a musical composition. In doing so it invites the listener to engage with the both the composition and the novel, allowing their attention to drift between the composition and text.