Zvířena by Maryia Kamarova

Zvířena is the debut release by sound artist Maryia Kamarova, in which the author compiles recordings of sound objects assembled between 2020 and 2023 through projects such as 555 bugs and Krajina. Usually animated and performed live, these objects take on new identities on tape — scattered across time, environments, and materiality. Motors, buzzers, sirens, and tiny oscillator circuits join with stones, avocado peel, wooden and plastic pieces found on the northern Portuguese coast. Merged with field recordings from Peneda-Gerês National Park, the bird market in Porto, and recordings of marine mammals sourced from the BBC sound archive, these textures form a dense sonic microecology.

Translated from Czech as "fauna," Zvířena presents an imaginary world of creatures where sound becomes a medium for unexpected encounters — between materials, species, and environments that might never meet otherwise. Some compositions weave microsamples and equalized sound into layered structures; others remain raw unedited portraits of singular objects or their interactions facilitated by the author and other sound artists. The album is closely connected to Sonoscopia — an artist-run association based in Porto — where Maryia spent time in recent years creating sound objects, leading workshops for children, and using it as a departure point to explore the surrounding landscape. Zvířena is dedicated to this and other independent initiatives that make seemingly impossible faunas possible.

Maryia Kamarova is an interdisciplinary artist working on the edges of performing arts, scenography, sound and installation art. She continuously develops autonomous electro-acoustic objects, assembling found materials with analogue electronics. Taking on a role of facilitator, she then lets them temporarily inhabit the sites of performances and installations.

maryiakamarova.com