MAGONOTE (Japanese for "backscratcher"; literal translation: "grandchild’s hand") is a staged live recording featuring two performers. Soland, an artist working at the intersection of visual art and music, presents a custom-built binaural recording device called Soliloquy. This device, a portrait of the composer’s head with precise replicas of his ears containing the microphones, was crafted in collaboration with Meret Schulenburg and has also been displayed in visual art contexts. The audience witnesses a studio session where the performers focus not on those present, but on creating a captivating recording, with the Soliloquy device as the focal point.

Binaural recording is a technique using two strategically positioned microphones to simulate human hearing, producing a 3D stereo sound that immerses listeners as if they were physically in the space with the performers or instruments. In this composition, the performers use Soliloquy to record a binaural session guided by an open score and accompanied by a fixed media track that drives the acoustic narrative. This media track comprises manipulated fragments of improvisational sessions previously recorded by the duo in collaboration with the composer, combined with sounds from MIDI instruments and analog synthesizers. For MAGONOTE, Soland draws inspiration from traditional Japanese court music as well as contemporary bands like Melt-Banana and OOIOO.

The score primarily consists of text instructions, allowing the performers freedom to improvise with their setup, instruments, and additional self-made devices crafted by the composer and the performers. These instructions create a scenario in which the performers imagine entering their speculative grandmother’s home, engaging in small talk, arguing, and feeling bored as she eventually drifts off to sleep.

After each public performance, the binaural recording is uploaded to a SoundCloud playlist, enabling the audience to revisit the experience from the unique auditory perspective of the recording device—in other words, from and through the composer’s head.