For many years, I have been captivated by the visual images derived from the Mandelbrot Fractal. A very simple equation, turned in on itself in a recursive way results in a whole world of coastlines. Equally stunning are the Julia Sets (see image at left) based on information associated with each single pixel in the overall Mandelbrot image. Their evolution, moving from pixel to pixel, seems to imitate natural processes: the growth of a fern, an ocean wave as it develops into a whitecap, the flare of a sunspot...

Because of the repetition of visual motives in each image, I felt that there must also be strong analogies to sound and music. To satisfy my curiosity, I developed a mapping of the Julia Set in sound, essentially following the path of a radial arm and assigning a sine wave frequency to each colour along this radial arm. The result was a crude sound synthesis technique that generated a series of harmonics, moving through various glissandi. To my ear these synthesized tones resemble the sound of the wind as it passes through large tunnels, the sounds of large engines, or even the sound of high pitched vocalizations.