Electroacoustic sound artist and composer Amma Ateria shares CONCUSSSSION I, an auditory meditation on cognitive recovery. Across six tracks, Ateria paints with a precise and winnowed palate, highlighting both the isolation that comes from trauma and the transformative potential of sonic waves.

In the artist’s words:

“CONCUSSSSION is an on-going sonic study that originates from an impact to the orbital and frontal bone. Sonic movements continue to develop over the course of my recovery since June 2021. Utilizing low-frequency binaural beats, brainwave entrainment, equal-loudness contour, and time shifts as focal point, this work takes the forms of sound compositions, recordings, visual scores, performances, and generated projections as documents that track the changes of my neurological responses to DELTA, THETA, ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA waves. The four ‘SSSS’ symbolize a period of auditory disorientation I encountered, such as instances of prolonged frequency extension of sibilance in human speech. The selected pieces are reflections of my experiences with stillness, unconsciousness, and auditory hallucinations, which became starting points towards levitation, transformation, and neurogenesis. How does one’s process of recovery from trauma in the present moment shift the effects of past / present stress, oppression, dislocation, and collective trauma?”