Music as a chemical reaction

Our entire world is made up of chemical elements and their structures. Each of the elements has its own unique light spectrum, either colourful or invisible to the human eye. And it’s the frequency of atomic spectral lines that inspired music experimenter Jiří Suchánek to create his AtomTone musical project.

Atomic sound synthesis

AtomTone explores unusual harmonious relationships between chemical and physical element structures. Jiří Suchánek did some calculations and transformed fluorine, carbon and even gallium into audible sounds. (Click on the links to hear them!) To further modulate individual tones, he used the numbers of the elements from Mendeleev’s periodic table as parameters that allow the entire sound composition process to keep developing and transforming.

Jiří Suchánek studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology. He likes to create interactive sound and light installations in surprising places. This way he explores the limits of what electronic media can endure in difficult conditions. His dream is to create an electronic installation in the mountains which would work on its own for at least 500 years while overgrowing with moss and lichen.

This project uses a special type of software with the same name. From the data received from atoms, it makes it possible to compose or live play its own electroacoustic music. The sound engineers and enthusiasts at the klingt gut! conference in Hamburg, Germany, got so interested in AtomTone that it won the Excellence in Sound Art and Sound Design prize there.