In Spring of 2017, Experimental Sound Studio (ess.org) presented Psychotropic Electric Eel Dream IV, a four-channel sound composition for the ESS Florasonic sound installation series at Lincoln Park Conservatory, Chicago. The installation was in conjunction with Rob Mazurek's solo exhibition The Shaping Light at ESS's Audible Gallery.
What you hear in the Fern Room is Psychotropic Electric Eel Dream IV by composer, musician, and visual artist, Rob Mazurek. The sounds in this composition were generated by electric eels at the National Institute of Research and Technology in Manaus, Brazil. Mazurek recorded them between 2000 and 2008, and has since used them in several music compositions, recordings, and installations. In this iteration of the work, he combines them with analog / digital synthesis to create an undulating and radiant sonic texture. By placing the sounds in loudspeakers overhead, our typical relationship to the eels is reversed: they are above us, not underwater, and we can imagine ourselves submerged.