artist
Annie Mahtani
United Kingdom
Indoor work at Galleri F 15.
Annie Mahtani (b. 1981, United Kingdom) is an international recognised electroacoustic composer, sound artist, and performer based in Birmingham, UK. Her work spans acousmatic composition, free improvisation, and site-specific installations, often in collaboration with dance and theatre. She explores the sonic identity of environmental sound, revealing hidden textures and characteristics beyond human perception. Working extensively with multichannel audio in both fixed media and live performance, she creates engaging sonic environments.
Mahtani is a Professor of Electroacoustic Composition and Practice at the University of Birmingham and co-director of BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre).
Annie Mahtani
Within the Silence, 2025
Field recording. Binaural audio
Within the Silence is a sonic exploration of the natural world, inviting listeners to attune themselves to subtle, often inaudible sounds that lie beneath and around us. Bridging urban and remote environments, the piece weaves together field recordings captured from within trees, soil, and found objects in both cityscapes and a Celtic rainforest.
In urban settings, the quiet resonance of living wood is interrupted by low-frequency vibrations from human activity. In contrast, the forest reveals a more immersive and seemingly undisturbed acoustic ecology. Through these contrasting soundscapes, the work uncovers the presence of life in even the stillest places.
The work challenges our perception of silence and highlights the impact of human presence on the natural world. It asks how sound might offer us new ways of understanding our place within a shared ecological system – and how, by listening more closely, we might learn to live more attentively within it.
