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​​'Plastiglomerate' for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello, pebbles and electronics by Monika Dalach Sayers. Premiered as work in progress at the New Music Dublin Festival on the 6th April 2025. 

The complete work had a world premiere at the Ensemble(s) Festival in Paris, France, on Saturday, 20th September 2025 at the Théâtre de l'Echangeur, then a second performance at the Sound Festival in Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 31st October 2025. The project was created as a part of LEGATO, an international composer development programme devised by organisations across three countries: CMC Ireland, New Music Dublin, Sound Festival Scotland & Festival Ensembles. 

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About 'Plastiglomerate':

 

The work takes its title from a hybrid rock formed when melted plastic fuses with natural materials like sand and shingle — a striking symbol of how human activity and nature have become inseparable.

 

I explored this idea through sound — recording both organic and man-made materials (stones, plastics, found objects) and transforming them into electronic textures that merge with live instruments.

 

In creating this electroacoustic work, the tactile experience of touching these objects, experimenting with how their sounds transformed across different acoustic spaces, and how these recordings were later processed and shaped into electronic layers, became central to the piece, forming a dialogue between the tangible and the digital, the natural and the artificial.

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Musicians (comprising Ensemble 2e2m, Cairn, Court-circuit, Multilatérale and Sillages):

conductor: Jean Deroyer

flute: Cédric Jullion

clarinet: Bogdan Sydorenko

piano: Maroussia Gentet

violin: Alexandra Greffin-Klein

cello: Ingrid Schoenlaub

 

mentors: Jérôme Combier and Laura Bowler