An architectural choral project · Västra Götaland
/ Spatial Voices /
Twenty-five singers. A five-by-five grid. The audience seated inside the choir, as voices move through the space like a single, breathing instrument.
- 25singers
- 5×5spatial grid
- 45minutes
- 4movements
- 2026–2027project period
01
The project
Spatial Voices explores how human voice, space and digital tools can become one musical instrument.
The work is performed by 25 singers standing in a precise 5×5 grid. In Spatial Voices, the audience sits inside the choir. Voices emerge from different points around you, so the harmonies and gestures move through the space.
The building itself becomes part of the music. The walls, the distances, the echoes and where each singer stands all shape how the music is heard and felt. The audience does more than listen to a choir. They sit right inside it.
02
Artistic vision
The human voice is one of the most immediate and vulnerable forms of music. It carries breath, body, language, memory and presence.
In Spatial Voices the voices are spread all around the space. Each singer performs on their own and also forms one part of a larger sound built from everyone together. A chord may surround you. A melody may travel across the space. A texture may slowly dissolve from one side to the other.
Every site gives the work its own character. Industrial buildings, coastal spaces and resonant halls across Västra Götaland each bring out different qualities of the same composition.
03
What is hidden in the score becomes physical.
Where each singer stands is part of the composition itself. The 5×5 grid lets sound sweep, turn, ripple and dissolve across the space. These diagrams map a few of those movements.
04
Sync, as a spatial score.
The project runs on Sync, the spatial platform developed by Lucio Cavallari. Sync sends each singer their own musical events, visual cues and instructions, so the composition can unfold across the grid with precision and flexibility.
The technology stays discreet. The human voice leads, and Sync quietly holds this complex spatial work together, keeping the focus on singing, listening and presence.
More about Sync →05
Compositional structure
A continuous 45-minute composition in four movements, bringing together one spatial composer and three guest composers.
Each guest composer contributes the vocal material for one movement, while Lucio Cavallari develops the overall spatial structure, the electronic and ambient layers, the transitions and the final movement. Each composer keeps a distinct voice, while the whole work is unified through spatial composition.
- Artistic lead & spatial composer
- Lucio Cavallari
- Guest composers
- Paula af Malmborg Ward · Tormod Tvete Vik · Peter Holmstrand
- Primary partner
- Körcentrum Väst
- Co-funded by
- Västra Götalandsregionen
06
Regional collaboration & legacy
The project combines a professional artistic core with regional choir participation. This hybrid model allows the work to maintain artistic precision while also creating meaningful local engagement.
Spatial Voices brings each location to life through workshops, rehearsals and collaboration with local singers. Regional choirs perform the work, learn new ways of working with sound in space, and add to the cultural life of their own communities.
Beyond the première, the project establishes a reusable spatial-music setup: a semi-permanent spatial audio laboratory for experimentation, rehearsal and the development of new works. It becomes a lasting resource for composers, choirs, universities and research partners in the region.
07 · Proposed Implementation
A clear path from workshop to publication.
- Phase 1 August 2026
Research & Workshop
A two-day exploratory workshop in collaboration with Körcentrum Väst.
- Phase 2 Sept 2026 – March 2027
Composition & Integration
Guest composers write the vocal music for movements I–III, while Lucio Cavallari composes the final movement and shapes how the whole work moves through the space. Everything is then brought into the Sync platform: the transitions, the paths the sound travels, and the cues each singer follows.
- Phase 3 May – Sept 2027
Residency & Performances
An intensive production and regional performance phase. Each tour stop is a three-day residency: technical setup and first rehearsal, a workshop integrating the local choir with the professional core, then dress rehearsal and public performance.
- Phase 4 Oct – Nov 2027
Documentation & Publication
The project closes with audio and video recordings, diagrams showing how the sound moves, score excerpts and a published artistic record. Together they map the work and serve as a guide for future performers, composers and researchers.
Support the project
800,000 SEK to bring Spatial Voices to life.
With 200,000 SEK already confirmed by Västra Götalandsregionen, we are seeking partners, patrons and sponsors to help reach a first production target of 1,000,000 SEK.
20% confirmed