By combining digital sound design with mutated vocal fragments, Lénok conjures multiple temporalities that are simultaneously haunting and liberating, offering opportunities to consider alternative realities. At the core of her practice is an exploration of sound and embodiment. Lénok creates dynamically layered sonic landscapes through aural strategies ranging from composition to deconstruction. In addition to solo work, she collaborates on choreographic, performative, and participatory projects with local and international artists.
Can you tell us about your background? How did you get into making music?
I was imagining a lot in music. Mostly different settings, states of mind, than the ones I was in. Existing in non-existence.
It helped me to add clarity to my audio-visual works during studies at art school. Drawing unknown appearances, giving them voice and personalising their attributes. Then I decided to fully interpret the visual aspect by deprivation of sight, using only sound to define the situation. But I gradually concluded that the image still defines the sculpting. In 2019, I gave myself the last chance to learn music during an Erasmus one-year program called Phonon in France. That year I understood that sound is a fundamental of music, however basic that may seem.
You are based in the Hague, where you are studying at the Sonology Institute, a specialised higher education institute focusing on sonic studies. How would you describe your field of study, and why did you decide to study there?
Sonology has a rich history in the origin of electronic music. Nowadays, in brief, it’s a complex study of sound. Heavily loaded with perspectives on music. I aimed to get better at the technical aspect. To understand how sound is created and what tools I can use to recreate the “crime scene” as realistically as possible. To understand the technology that comes with it and to be able to start from the bottom. I had ideas that I wasn’t able to bring to life. Didn’t understand how to make them possible. So I was hoping to solve my problems here.
Your music is very evocative, with ready-made sounds, various twists and turns, it almost sounds like an aural film set, a soundtrack to a non-existent film, or a film that is in your head. Can you talk about how you sculpt your sound?
I hope it does. It’s exactly what I’m aiming for. It’s a bit of a reverse process, shaping helps more with getting close to a certain trigger, which is a sign for that piece starting to get form. I might understand frequencies better than words, its language I mean. Been thinking a lot about what presence with technology and others is revealing now. It is a bit problematic considering the augmented realm switching positions with what is here. Obviously escapism also comes from certain needs & desires. I hope that having a glance at unexplored logic inside this haunted house can still affect the way we think. Currently I’m developing fictional concepts, images, and situations, like for example: The idea of bodies, bonded through a breathing tube, depending on each other collectively. How would that sound? And what does that mean in terms of an audible act? How do they talk and what about? What else is affected? Reality and its world logic alternation. Almost like in a gaming world. Rules are bent and reformed.
Is sound design something you would like to pursue further?
Definitely. It is very fascinating to start from scratch. Even bigger mysteries are the sounds I’m not able to recreate. Usually, they have a very vague tone as plasticity or even authenticity, if we’re trying to synthesize. You can make everything sound very robotic, but to recreate intimacy in sound, that’s mad science. When you articulate through sound environments, the entanglement of possibility can sometimes absorb the point. I’d like to pursue psychoacoustic understanding when designing more. The knowledge is still undeveloped and has a lot of potential for experimentation.
You are working on an album. Could you tell us more?
It’s been four years in the making and it’s finally coming to an end. It’s a record of events that have happened during this period, public and private. It sort of started from when I was only learning how to make music in general, slowly growing with it, in it.
What dreams do you have in terms of your future career?
Expecting the future is a bit sceptical for me at the moment, although I have dreams with music, I don’t see a career anywhere. Wish I could continue. Being able to collaborate with people, share ideas, words, and sounds. Of course, it would be a dream to make music for film or gaming environments, maybe attempt to get more performative with my work, conducting an electro-orchestral symphony? But existing side by side with Audibles would be enough.
Interview Lucia Udvardyova
Photo Peter Podolsky