A music living organism
Ephemeron is a music living organism. During each concert, the work is born, evolves, and dies at the end of the performance. The performance space, including the audience, is the “natural environment” of this music organism. This music organism is fed from the sound of its environment through microphones while it feeds back the environment with sound through the speakers. Music organism and the environment are an interconnected and inseparable ecosystem.
There is no pre-recorded material at any stage. The work emerges as a music organism from the interactions among space algorithm and (if any) user-performer. In the original version, the initial material of the composition is the applause coming from the previous piece.
Ephemeron was commissioned by the Z.K.M. institution and saxophonist Pedro Bittencourt. Originally, it was conceived as a real-time electronics “concert work”. It was initially developed in the concert hall of Z.K.M. Karlsruhe and the Maison de Science de l’Homme/Université de Paris 8. It premiered at Z.K.M. Kubus Concert Hall.
Ephemeron has been presented as a concert piece or installation numerous times worldwide. The algorithm has become an ecosystemic music instrument, the backbone of several projects of Kollias.
In 2026 Ephemeron was reborn as a web page, computed in the visitor's browser: Web-Ephemeron.
