Statement
Levant Noir is the electroacoustic practice of composer and researcher Ioannis Valasakis. Grounded in the modal traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean and the coastal landscapes of Scotland, the work investigates how acoustic gesture, neural memory, and live signal processing converge. Rooted in the microtonality of the lavta and mandolin, it deploys bespoke generative software and analogue electronics to interrogate resonance, dislocation, and the physical presence of place.
Listen first
Blackbirds and a lavta
Listening room
Selected recordings and site-specific studies.
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LN·01
Blackbirds and a lavta
A spontaneous study in acoustic co-existence. Improvised on an Istanbul lavta using a traditional Cretan kontyliá modal framework, captured in a single unedited take beside an open window in Glasgow. The piece charts the dialogue between human rhythmic phrasing and the ambient territorial calls of urban blackbirds at dusk, refusing electronic intervention to establish the naked physical baseline of the instrument.
Technical dossier
lavta · single acoustic capture · open-window environmental resonance
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LN·02
Oud texture (Smyrna)
Recorded in the stone interior of an Ottoman bathhouse in Izmir. A transient oud motif is refracted through real-time granular fragmentation, accompanied by processed bendir and finger cymbals. The processing acts as an acoustic mirror: short instrumental gestures are frozen into resonant micro-loops that dissolve into the natural reverberation of the stone chamber, examining how architectural space alters historical memory.
Technical dossier
oud → granular freeze (Beads) · percussion → multi-tap delay (Magneto) · bells → pitch-shifted reverb (Mimeophon, Clouds) · stereo field rotation via Maths
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LN·03
L’ambiance
An architectural meditation on physical and cognitive thresholds, developed for the installation Espacio Liminal (Galería Niebelungen, Berlin). The composition pairs sub-bass harmonic foundations with slow-swept narrow band-pass filters and slowed environmental recordings of glacial thaw, using deliberate voltage drift to mirror the perceptual adaptation of the ear to quiet spaces.
Technical dossier
Plaits (wavetable) · Ripples (band-pass, slow sweep) · Clouds (80% wet) · environmental recordings → Morphagene at half speed
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LN·04
Lean candles
Opening theme for an Armenian documentary on political transition. The composition constructs a dark, driving narrative around the breath and wood of the Armenian duduk, underpinned by low-frequency analogue bass synthesis and mechanical tape degradation. Down-tempo percussive structures ground the piece, allowing the modal lament of the reed to remain the primary emotional fulcrum.
Technical dossier
duduk → 3 s granular buffer · TR-8S rhythm architecture · Moog Sub 37 analogue bass · vinyl crackle → tape saturation → dynamic sidechain
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LN·05
The shearwaters (in development)
A dual-site comparative study of pelagic seabird colonies at night: Manx shearwaters on the Atlantic cliffs of Rùm, and Scopoli's shearwaters on uninhabited Aegean islets off eastern Crete. The work interweaves nocturnal colony acoustics, subterranean nesting calls, and bowed lavta strings, interrogating the shared maritime geography that links the two distant edges of Europe.
Technical dossier
nocturnal field recordings · lavta · archival voice materials · multi-channel spatial staging
Performance · Live Set
The Travelling String: A continuous, site-responsive electroacoustic suite for lavta, mandolin, and living electronics.
Navigating from stark, unprocessed Mediterranean melodies into expansive, immersive acoustic-electronic drones, the performance uses live instrumentation as the primary control source for its own transformation. Every electronic event, from pitch-shifted grain clouds to sub-bass resonances, is derived directly from the physical touch of plectrum, fingerboard, and breath on stage.
Format: Solo performance (30–45 mins) or extended collaborative ensemble (60–75 mins). Scalable for darkened listening rooms, galleries, historic stone spaces, and experimental festivals. Full technical rider, patch schematics, and channel configurations available on request.
Selected Live Documentation
- Live at Pianodrome, Edinburgh, with Samodiva Nestya & Friends
Research · Critical Texts
Listening, gesture, and signal decay.
“The lavta’s frets are movable gut, deliberately displaced to accommodate microtones set into the neck like geological strata. When the fingers press between them, they encounter the friction of multiple historical tuning systems coexisting on a single fingerboard. Analogue electronics share this stubborn physicality: voltage fluctuations, component drift, the unpredictable bloom of a filter on the edge of oscillation.”
An ongoing series of critical miniatures and field reflections investigating how Mediterranean modal memory, Scottish insular geography, and computational psychoacoustics converse through live electroacoustic practice.
Biography
Ioannis Valasakis
Ioannis Valasakis (performing as Levant Noir) is an electroacoustic composer, instrumentalist, and sound artist based in Glasgow. His practice is an exploration between Mediterranean modal memory, Scottish coastal geography, and computational sound design.
Trained in classical guitar at the Hellenic Conservatory and on the makam and dastgah traditional music systems, he works with microtonal traditional instruments (the Istanbul lavta and mandolin), exploring how modular synthesis can expand this palette, together with granular sampling and generative algorithmic environments. His compositions are structured around the friction between physical touch and electronic instability, where microtonal journeys meet spectral delays, tape loops, and wavefolding.
He holds a PhD in Neuroscience and works professionally as a research software engineer in cardiac signal analysis. This scientific approach extends directly to his compositional methodology, which treats acoustic memory, auditory scene analysis, and psychoacoustic perception as tangible musical materials. He uses motifs from traditional modal idioms alongside found sounds, site-specific field recordings, and archival documentary fragments drawn from his traditions and travels, exploring how an audio document can also be part of the live improvisation.
He is studying Applied Music at the University of the Highlands and Islands with a focus on electroacoustic composition and performance. He is currently working on projects that explore the acoustic ecology of the Cromarty Firth and Aegean seabird colonies, alongside live performances for multi-channel spatial systems.
Enquiries
Commissions & Performance
He is currently accepting commissions for live performance, site-specific sound design, and collaborative projects.
- hello@levantnoir.scot
- Location & Study
- Archive & Media
- Development Project