BOHEMIAN CRISTAL INSTRUMENT
Sound sculpture · cinematic ambient & experimental electronic music · immersive audiovisual performance · Czech glass
2012–ongoing
PROJECT INFORMATION
Bohemian Cristal Instrument (BCI) is Lenka Morávková’s long-term sound and performance practice built around a unique acoustic sculpture made from Czech glass.
The project emerged from Morávková’s earlier artistic and ethnographic research into the glassmaking region of Northern Bohemia, where she grew up. After working with field recordings, factory environments and the social transformations surrounding the decline of the local glass industry, she began exploring glass itself as a source of sound.
Developed from Morávková’s original design, BCI is a unique interpretation of the legendary Cristal Baschet, created in collaboration with Martí Ruiz of Metalúdic Baschet in Barcelona, successors to the legacy of the Baschet Brothers. The instrument transforms Czech glassmaking heritage into a contemporary platform for composition, experimental sound and audiovisual performance.
BCI is both the physical and conceptual centre of the project. Its material, acoustic behaviour and visual presence generate the world around it: the compositions, Morávková’s vocal and electronic language, the performance environment and, increasingly, the visual systems of light and generative lasers. Rather than functioning as one element within the work, the instrument becomes the source from which the wider artistic practice unfolds.
Sonically, crystal resonance combines with Morávková’s voice, electronics and synthesizers, moving between cinematic ambient, experimental electronic music and hypnotic minimal pulses.
THE INSTRUMENT AS ENTITY
For Morávková, BCI is not simply an instrument but a post-human, genderless entity with its own agency.
Rather than approaching the instrument as an object to be controlled, she treats performance as a collaboration, responding to BCI’s natural sonic tendencies and moods and positioning herself as a mediator between the instrument and the audience.
Influenced by Roland Barthes’ concept of the Death of the Author, this relationship questions conventional hierarchies between composer, performer, instrument and sound. By relinquishing a degree of authorship and control, Morávková allows the material and acoustic behaviour of the instrument itself to shape the work.
THE WORK
Over more than a decade, BCI has evolved from an experimental sound sculpture into an expanding immersive audiovisual performance environment.
Acoustic glass, voice and electronics are combined with light, moving image and lasers, extending the physical and sonic properties of the instrument into visual space. Following an artist residency in 2024, Morávková developed a generative laser system in which the sound of the instrument is translated into responsive laser imagery, further dissolving the boundaries between sound, object, performer and environment.
The project moves fluidly between experimental music, sound art and new-media performance, appearing in configurations ranging from intimate solo performances to expanded productions with live band, strings, light and generative lasers.
BCI has been presented internationally across museums, festivals and interdisciplinary platforms including The Broad, Eurosonic Noorderslag, Colours of Ostrava, Summit LA, Lightning in a Bottle and Experimance. An acoustic performance filmed in California’s blooming desert also went viral, reaching more than 2 million views and introducing the instrument to a global online audience. Morávková has also presented the instrument and the research surrounding it through lectures, workshops and performative presentations at universities, conferences and festivals.
FILM & CINEMATIC SOUND
The distinctive acoustic character of BCI has also led to collaborations across film, television and cinematic music.
Its sound has been recorded for projects involving composers including Grammy-winning Stephanie Economou, Bear McCreary and Jeff Rona, extending the instrument from live performance into film scores, television, trailers and recorded composition.
SELECTED FILM & SOUNDTRACK WORK
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken — BCI recording for score by Stephanie Economou / DreamWorks
Halo — commissioned BCI recording with composer Bear McCreary
LUME — recording collaboration with composer Jeff Rona
The Bikeriders — trailer sync
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart — trailer sync
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
2026 — Experimance, Saarbrücken, Germany
2025 — Burning Man / Reverbia, Nevada, USA
2024 — Laser & Sound Artist Residency, Palác Akropolis, Prague, Czech Republic
2023 — Lightning in a Bottle, California, USA
2020 — Summit LA, Los Angeles, USA
2019 — Eurosonic Noorderslag, Groningen, Netherlands
2018 — LEM Festival, Barcelona, Spain
2017 — Colours of Ostrava, Czech Republic — collaboration with William Close & The Earth Harp Collective
2017 — The Broad, Los Angeles, USA — with Bora Yoon
2016 — TEDx UCR, Riverside, USA
SELECTED RELEASES
NEW NATURE — single, 2024
EVAPORA feat. Drum & Lace — single, 2022
UNICODE — EP, 2018
CURRENT DEVELOPMENT
A debut full-length Bohemian Cristal Instrument album is currently in production, expanding the project through new compositions, ensemble arrangements and immersive audiovisual work.
This ongoing development also extends into NEW NATURE, a new immersive project exploring the relationship between organic systems, technology, sound and the future of human connection with the natural world.
→ NEW NATURE
EXPLORE BOHEMIAN CRISTAL INSTRUMENT
For music, live performances, videos, film & sync, press and booking information, visit the dedicated Bohemian Cristal Instrument website.
→ VISIT BOHEMIANCRISTALINSTRUMENT.COM
CREDITS
Concept, Instrument Design, Artistic Direction & Creative Production — Lenka Morávková
Composition & Performance — Lenka Morávková
Instrument Development & Construction — Martí Ruiz / Metalúdic Baschet, Barcelona
