Adam Pultz

I am trained as a double bassist and have more recently taught myself to write code and tinker with electronics. As such, my work often sits in the intersection between materially situated acoustic practices and digital and electronic sound. In particular, I am fascinated with how the supposed boundaries between these domains can become porous, such as when physical materials can take part of a computational process, or when digital signal processing can produce speculative materialities.

During my time at the Saari Residence, I will work on a sound installation based on location recordings from the area around the residency, with a particular focus of sounds that trouble the notion of nature/culture binaries by inhabiting a spectrum that houses both the organic, the mechanical, the feral and the domesticated. 

The sound installation will include sonic digital beings that slowly evolve according to their sonic environment. This draws on the idea of the acoustic niche developed by sonic ecologist Bernie Krause which hypothesizes that organisms will evolve their sounds to occupy unique bandwidths in the acoustic ecology in which they live.

In addition to looking much forward to being granted the time to focus on this project, I am excited to meet the other residents and experience their work.

Adam Pultz is a double bass player, composer, and improviser working in the field of acoustic and electronic sound. Adam’s work spans live performance, sound installation, sound for dance, theatre, film, multimedia, sculpture, algorithmic design, and instrument building. They have performed and exhibited work in Europe, Australia, the US, and Japan, while appearing on close to 50 albums.

Adam often performs with semi-autonomous performance systems such as the FAAB (feedback-actuated augmented bass) and the Spectral Parrot—a string instrument with motorized tuners. Adam holds a practice-led PhD in music technology from SARC, Queen’s University Belfast.