Inside My Mobile Studio: Loops, Fragments, and Living Sound

Packing for an artist residency—or simply creating outside a traditional studio—requires intention. You can’t take everything. So you bring what matters most. The tools that inspire freedom. The ones that feel like extensions of your own body.

For me, that means a small, carefully chosen set of instruments that lets me build sound worlds from scratch, wherever I am. I call it my mobile studio, but it’s more than that—it’s a hybrid instrument. One that lets me weave together sampled sounds, electronic textures, and analog expression into something entirely my own.

Violin & Voice – The Heartbeat

My violin and voice are at the center of everything—tools for storytelling and melody. I weave memory and place into textural compositions.

Push 3 – The Looping Brain

Push 3 and Ableton Live serve as my creative engine. I use them to loop and layer violin, vocals, and ambient textures in real-time. It's where improvisation and structure meet.

Microcosm – The Texture Shaper

The Microcosm pedal is my texture machine—reshaping violin and voice into dreamy delays, granular fragments, and lush soundscapes. It adds a layer of unpredictability and depth, making every loop feel alive.

Playtronica – Sound You Can Touch

I use the Playtron MIDI Controller to invite interaction—audience members trigger sounds by touching objects connected to Playtron. It turns objects into instruments.

Violin and voice – the heartbeat

At the center of everything I do are my violin and voice. They are my roots.

The violin was my first instrument and when I play, I still hear the encouragement of Mr. Horch, who once made me feel like the most extraordinary musician in the world. That feeling lives in every note I play.

I use a Yamaha YEV-104 electric violin—minimalist in form, sculptural in design, and resonant with possibility. Built from layered woods, it feels both futuristic and deeply traditional. It allows me to blend long, classical tones with layered loops and experimental sound.

My voice moves with it—sometimes soft, sometimes sharp, sometimes caught in a loop through Microcosm and Push.

Microcosm – the texture shaper

Microcosm adds the dream. This pedal takes my violin or voice and transforms it—granulating, looping, refracting it into something unexpected. It helps me break my own patterns. With one note, I can create a swarm. With one whisper, a whole landscape. It’s not just an effect; it’s a collaborator.

Playtronica – sound you can touch

The Playtron MIDI Controller invites people in. It lets me turn objects into instruments. In Wildroot & Amber, I connect Playtronica to jars filled with personal relics and natural elements from the land I’m exploring. Each one, when touched, releases a sound—a memory, a shimmer.

It’s interaction.

It’s not about perfection. It’s about presence.

This kit is coming with me to Studio Kura in Japan from May to June, where I’ll be creating Wildroot & Amber—a living, breathing archive of sound and memory.

If you want to follow the project (or just peek inside my process), I’ll be sharing updates at mel-lif-lu-ous.com and on Instagram @mel__lif__lu__ous.