LOVERS LICHENS

2025, somatic music score for voice, neural network, bassoon, and Polish folk instruments, crocheted textile, oracle cards

A composition by Hołubowska, developed in close collaboration with Muciño, explores symbiosis as an artistic and evolutionary principle through collaboration, care, and mutual transformation. Inspired by lichens as composite life forms, the work approaches symbiosis as both method and metaphor, drawing attention to often overlooked systems that sustain soil formation and blur the boundaries between organisms and identities.

At the core of the project is a somatic score structured as a set of oracle-like cards. The cards can be arranged in multiple configurations, allowing the performers to braid different pathways through the material. Each card contains a somatic instruction that guides attention, movement, and sound, informed by ecological and somatic writings, including those of Robin Wall Kimmerer, as well as contemporary somatic and artistic research.

In performance, Muciño (bassoon and wind instruments), Hołubowska (voice and electronics), and AI-based RAVE models form an interdependent system. The performers interpret the score in real time, allowing sounds to overlap, merge, and transform. Bassoon, voice, and archival singing intertwine into a porous sonic texture that approaches a fragile intimacy between species, technologies, and bodies.

The project also includes a crocheted textile resembling a lichen-like pattern created by the artist.

One of the models was trained on the archive of the micro-label InCrudo, specializing in preserving traditional music from Poland, with recordings of the following singers: Regina Iwańska, Irena Wróbel, Apolonia Godlewska, Zofia Mech, Maria Iwańska, Marianna Sliz, Marianna Rybińska, Eugenia Rosińska.

In January 2026, Holubowska recorded the composition together with Sandra Muciño (bassoon), Edka Jarząb (voice), Anna Jurkiewicz (voice), Slasia Wilczyńska (cranked lyre), Miłosz Kędra (pipe instrument), Dominika Szelążek (Polish drums, found objects), with the help of Karolica Rec (creative production), Joanna Popowicz (mixing engineer), and Hanna Szczęśniak (consultation and support). Coding consultation by Moises Horta.

Supported by MA7 Wien, Polish Culture Institute Wien, Polskie Radio, Bundesministerium Wohnen, Kunst, Kultur, Medien und Sport