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Valery Vermeulen cuts a unique presence in the world of music. Holding a Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics from Ghent University (BE) and a MA in Music Production from the Royal Conservatory of Ghent (BE), his passion is the convergence of music, art and science. Vermeulen is driven by a raw curiosity, a fascination with the very nature of reality and a determination to test boundaries in electronic music. His music evolves tirelessly in its exploration of new generative sound synthesis and sound design techniques, algorithmic music composition, data sonification, affective computing, creative evolutionary systems design, astrophysics, theoretical physics and econometrics. His experiments range from using AI in his Emo-Synth project, which explores the connections between music and emotions, to working with Prof. Dr. Thomas Hertog, former colleague and long-time collaborator of Stephen Hawking, on the use of gravitational wave data for music compositional purposes. Vermeulen's process is as mind-bending as the music he produces, such as writing bespoke programs to translate data into musical compositions. This approach has led to the creation of beautiful, haunting sci-fi productions with an emotive intensity -- the merging of intuition and logic. When not in the production studio, Valery can be found as a guest professor at KASK & Conservatory / School of Arts Ghent (BE), as a researcher at the Department of Mathematic at the University of Antwerp (BE), as guest lecturer at the Master ArtScience KABK Den Hague (NL) and as a statistical expert and data scientist. Vermeulen's installations and performances have been widely shown at various festivals and venues including Hause der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, DE), CTM Festival (Berlin, DE), Slingshot Festival (Atlanta, US), KIKK Festival (Namur, BE), Bozar (Brussels, BE), Concertgebouw Brugge (Bruges, BE) and Muziekgebouw aan 't Ij (Amsterdam, NL).
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ASH 14-1CD
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Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 is the concept-driven, new electronic album from Dr. Valery Vermeulen featuring music produced using data from one of the most enigmatic, exotic objects in space: black holes. With this album, Vermeulen augments electronic music, art and science in previously unexplored ways. Black holes were first theoretically discovered and proposed in 1916 by German physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzchild. Their possible existence resulted from an exact solution Schwarzchild had found of Einstein's theory of General Relativity published a year earlier. Being a long-contested concept, the existence of the first black hole, Cygnus X, was confirmed in 1971. Four decades later, in February 2016, science made another huge leap as the first merger of two black holes was observed by the LIGO -- VIRGO telescope. This discovery announced a new exciting era in observational astronomy based on gravitational wave detection. Using the latest technology, Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 connects these fascinating scientific evolutions to the realm of electronic music. Having worked on previous astrophysics related musical projects, Vermeulen had the first idea for the album in 2016. It was not until 2018 that these conceptual ideas became a reality when Concertgebouw Brugge (BE) commissioned a new musical piece and live show for their Cosmos Festival. This work ultimately resulted in the album Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001. The six-track album is produced using data streams generated by various simulation models of astrophysical black holes and observational data of regions in space with extreme gravitational fields. Data used for the realization of Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 includes gravitational wave data, data generated by black branes (i.e. higher dimensional generalizations of black holes), neutron star data, data from white dwarfs and trajectory data of elementary particles near black holes. As a mathematician and artist, Vermeulen effectively designed and programmed new innovative data sonification, i.e. the means to translate data into sound and music, systems and techniques. These were used to transform black hole data and their associated mathematical models into engaging, moving and multidimensional sound experiences. Mikromedas is a data-driven audio/visual project in which compositions are produced using data from space, deep space, and astrophysical simulation models. Limited edition compact disc in extended ecopak.
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