Composition
2017-2020
ATAXY
Beginning with the diagnosis of being born with a mild form of ataxia as a child, I had to learn and acquire gross motor skills through external assistance. It wasn't until the age of four that I learned to walk. Drawing from this realization, I embarked on a three-year musical exploration, which culminated in the project "ATAXY." In this project, I sought to musically process the experience of paralysis through sound and music.
Extended soundscapes formed the foundation, punctuated and accompanied by high-frequency electroacoustic elements, symbolizing the disruptions and challenges posed by ataxia.
Ataxy- When The Lightning Falls 2017 FAINT
Ataxy- Places 2020 FAINT
Ataxy- The Other Home 2020 Healingsoundpropagandist
Maryam Rahmani & David Esser Live at Kühlspot Social Club, Berlin.
2025
Rahmani and Esser explore the Santur and Kamancheh beyond their traditional roles, placing both instruments—central to Iranian classical music—into a contemporary sonic environment. Rather than separating tradition and modernity, the project treats them as intertwined layers shaped by the experience of diaspora.
Using contact microphones and geophones, the recordings capture not only the played tones but also the subtle vibrations of material, body, and space. This creates an expanded acoustic image where instrumental sound merges with traces of place, movement, and memory. Field recordings and environmental textures deepen this interplay, linking intimacy with spatial depth.
Developed in part during a live performance at Kühlspot Social Club in Berlin (August 2025), the work combines improvisation, live modulation, and real-time processing. Traditional melodies appear alongside open sonic explorations, forming a dialogue between familiarity and transformation.
The project touches on themes of migration, linguistic distance, and cultural translation. As language and place shift, sound becomes a way of orienting oneself anew. The music reflects this process: through filtering, microphoning, and modulation, it turns translation and estrangement into audible forms—suggesting resonance as a mode of identity.
Sonic Fibers
2025
Sonic Fibers is an electroacoustic composition by David Esser that investigates the acoustic properties of dead wood. The work is built on field recordings made in the forest with contact microphones and geophones, capturing the inner vibrations and resonant textures of various types of wood. These recordings form the raw material for a composition in which natural sound sources and electronic processing are tightly interwoven.
For the label re:natura, Sonic Fibers was performed live at Madame Claude in Berlin. During the performance, Esser actively microphoned, touched, and gradually disintegrated the dead wood on stage, establishing a direct physical connection between sound, body, and material. The documentation of this process—photographs and the full performance recording—is included in the accompanying folder.
At its core, Sonic Fibers examines decomposition and transformation as essential parts of natural cycles. It can be understood as an exploration of impermanence, change, and the ongoing presence of material processes.
