2026-10-09-back-rooms-app-icon -> RELEASE v0.0.4

i have been a submarine for the last days but for a good reason: i REALLY wanted to get the Back Rooms application to a state where i can confidently share it with others. as always this took MUCH longer than i hoped for; but here it is:

this is the first totally alpha, beta, raw, sketchy, flimsy, fragile release of Back Rooms!

2026-10-09-back-rooms-screenshot

it now has …

so, if you are interested feel free to download ( macOS only ) it. play around with it. build a room. share a composition. record some noise. give feedback.

also, if you do not know ( or do not remember ) what Back Rooms is; in a nutshell:

Back Rooms is one of the projects i am working on as part of my residency. it is a musical composition application that applies spatial metaphors to create virtual field recordings.

it was inspired by this observation:

2026-10-09-back-rooms-inspiration

imagine walking through the corridor of a hotel. your footsteps create a steady rhythm that follows you around. you pass a door numbered 23, and hear the faint sound of two people talking and laughing. The next door, a shower running. Then another door, humming quietly, maybe a vacuum cleaner? As you continue walking, you produce a composition. Back Rooms is a compositional tool based on this very experience.

at its current state Back Rooms is a functional application acting as a practical hypothesis. it breaks with the mental model of normal/western music composition and attempts to structure it rather as a spatial experience. Back Rooms meanders between a tool for musical compositions and a tool for live performances.

but i hope Back Rooms is best explained by using it. curious to hear what you are thinking.

PS { this might sound a bit weird but please do not share the application. i want to keep this a CIID exclusive thing for now. i might release it at a later time, in other places i.e FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY … FOR NOW }

PPS { ATM this release is macOS only. if you are on a different system let me know; it can also run on most linux systems and maybe even on Windows. }

PPPS { Back Rooms is written entirely in Umfeld which is an environment for audio- and graphics-based applications and a C++ variant of Processing.org. LMK if you want to learn more about Umfeld. }

PPPPS { i also made this ASCII illustration of a submarine surfacing:

+2                              +2              †
+1                              +1      _______| |___
±0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     ±0 ~~~~(_°___________)+~~~
-1             †                -1
-2     _______| |___            -2
-3    (_°___________)+          -3

}