Project — live electronics & visuals
Microcosm
Styrian accordion, kalimba and percussion meet analog effects and modular synthesizers – looped live, transformed and invented entirely in the moment.
Jonny Kölbl · Madeleine Haider · Premiere July 25, 2026
The sound space
Where folk music meets modular synthesizers.
Microcosm opens up a sound space in which traditional instruments like the Styrian accordion, kalimba and percussive elements meet analog effects and modular synthesizers. The starting point is melodic fragments from Alpine and Nordic folk music. These are recorded live, transformed, looped and turned into new soundscapes – between minimal drones, rhythmic density and open, atmospheric textures.
The musical process unfolds entirely in the moment. Nothing is pre-programmed; the sound is shaped directly through analog signal paths and improvised interaction.
In parallel, illustrative real-time visuals emerge that respond sensitively to the sound and enter into a mutual dialogue with the music.
Microcosm is a first public approach to this electroacoustic-visual experiment – a field of tension between cultural origins and contemporary abstraction.
Behind the scenes
From sketch to dome.
Behind the 45 minutes on stage are ten months of work – and none of it is off the shelf. The dome, the instruments, the light control: all designed, built, wired and programmed myself.
10
months to the premiere
25 m
individually addressable LED strips
45 min
audiovisual live performance
0
pre-programmed sounds
Stage · designed & built myself
The LED dome
The stage of Microcosm is a walk-in geodesic dome in the shape of an icosahedron – designed and built myself, from the first pencil line on paper to the last solder joint. It completely surrounds me while I play and makes the idea of a microcosm tangible in space.
The struts are made of wood; I designed the connecting nodes myself and 3D-printed them. That way the dome can be taken apart, transported and rebuilt anywhere. Around 25 meters of individually addressable LED strips run along the struts, driven via Art-Net/DMX from a control box I also built myself.
First sketch
Shell in the workshop
Self-built control box
Rehearsal at Audiotope Studio
Sound · wired & programmed myself
The instrument setup
At its heart is a Eurorack modular system with modules from Mutable Instruments – Plaits, Stages, Blades, Beads and Marbles –, complemented by the semi-modular Intellijel Cascadia, an Arturia MicroFreak and the sequencer Torso T-1. Accordion and kalimba are picked up by microphones and electromagnetic pickups and run through a pedal chain from Chase Bliss (Blooper, Onward, MOOD MKII, Generation Loss MKII, CXM 1978 and Clean) and Hologram Electronics (Microcosm, Chroma Console and Infinite Jets), plus the Plus Pedal from Gamechanger Audio.
A Radial EXTC-Stereo reamper also lets the electronic sources run into this chain. A Morningstar MC6 Pro recalls the presets of every device at once via MIDI for each piece; expression pedals and a 12 Step shape filters, pressure and volume in real time. The first pieces were written during several weeks of seclusion in a remote cabin in Croatia – with the whole setup in tow.
The Eurorack modular system
Retreat in Croatia
Signal chart with presets per piece
Light · Madeleine Haider aka Madeleine Marie
The light is listening
The light isn’t an illustration of the music, but an equal partner. Madeleine Haider – as artist Madeleine Marie – developed her own control system for it in TouchDesigner : with faders and buttons she switches live between scenes, colors and movement patterns. Via NDI the image goes to a second computer, where the dome is mapped in Resolume Arena – every strut individually addressable.
On top of that, the light reacts to the sound: the pulse of the drum machine makes it flicker briefly, synth pads create soft, slow gradients, and the intensity of the accordion flows into subtle nuances. So every light image is created in the moment – in the interplay between musician and light artist.
Live light control
The dome in action
Ten months to the premiere
Fall 2025
Sound research & setup
Building the setup of effects pedals, synthesizers and a modular system – and clearing lots of technical hurdles.
Fall 2025
Collaboration
First conversations with Madeleine Haider about an interactive connection of light and sound.
Dec 2025 – Jan 2026
Composition retreat
Several weeks in a cabin in Croatia: searching for sounds, improvising, first pieces.
Spring – summer 2026
Building & rehearsals
Building the LED dome, programming the light control, weekly intensive rehearsals at Audiotope Studio in Graz.
July 25, 2026
premiere
Neudorf bei Ilz, Verein Gaudium – the dome right in the middle of the audience, 45 minutes of sound and light.
Listen & watch
live from the sound space
At work
two people, one sound space
Jonny Kölbl
Styrian accordion, electronics
Madeleine Haider
Visuals, light · Madeleine Marie
In the moment
photos: reithofer media
Microcosm was created as part of the 2025 Start Scholarship for Music and Music Theater, funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.
