Publications
Open-access preprints, articles, and research communications. Everything here is freely available, with full texts and DOIs.
I publish research at the edges of disciplines: where voice meets acoustics, perception, physiology, and the ways we listen. Some of these texts propose hypotheses; others document observations or develop questions that are still unfolding.
I believe ideas become more useful when they are put into circulation. Each publication therefore makes its argument, methods, and current position as clear as possible.
ORCID: 0009-0004-2234-0476 · Zenodo · Academia.edu
Preprints
Vocal acoustics
Flute in the Throat: A Vortex-Acoustic Lock-In Hypothesis for Overtone Singing
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18868408
What makes the high overtone in sygyt so striking is its precision: one harmonic can emerge from the voice with an almost flute-like clarity. But how does the vocal tract achieve such a precise acoustic focus?
This paper asks whether formant tuning alone can explain it. I propose that structures above the tongue may act as small Helmholtz resonators, creating an additional aeroacoustic mechanism that helps lock onto a single harmonic. Pilot measurements point toward an asymmetric effect associated with the lateral vocal channel.
Under peer review.
Overtone Singing as Natural Theta–Gamma Cross-Frequency Neuromodulation
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19764616
What happens in the brain when you don’t just hear an overtone, but produce one yourself?
Building on recent MEG research showing increased theta activity in listeners exposed to overtone-rich sound, this paper asks whether active overtone singing could engage theta and gamma activity simultaneously through the combination of precise motor control, focused attention, and auditory feedback.
I propose that this may create conditions for endogenous theta–gamma coupling — a hypothesis that could help explain some of the unusual attentional and perceptual qualities of overtone singing, and that can be tested experimentally.
Sacred vowel sequences
Beyond AUM: The Acoustics of the Fourth Element
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19685899
The final /m/ of AUM may not be as still as it sounds.
This paper documents a continuous spectral movement — a “living” /m/ — in which formants and a travelling anti-resonance converge around a stable acoustic region near 1900 Hz. The trajectory is reproduced across different pitches and disappears in an inert /m/.
I explore whether this measurable acoustic process may correspond to the gradual dissolution of sound described in the nāda-yoga tradition.
The Pneumatic Sweep: Formant Trajectories in Three Sacred Vowel Sequences
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19438733
Three vocal traditions, separated by geography and history, converge on remarkably similar territory.
This paper compares sustained vowel sequences from the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri, Japanese kototama, and the Vedic AUM. Despite their different origins and orderings, all three trace a movement through the same fundamental regions of vowel space, passing between the acoustic anchors /a/, /i/, and /u/.
I call this shared movement the pneumatic sweep: a traversal of vowel space carried by a steady breath and sustained phonation.
The Formant Trajectory of the Greek Seven-Vowel Sequence: Acoustic Analysis of Vowel Rituals in the Papyri Graecae Magicae
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19115650
What if the ancient Greek vowel sequence was not simply a string of sounds, but a carefully ordered movement through the resonant space of the voice?
Building on recent philological work that challenges the traditional planetary interpretation of the vowels in the Papyri Graecae Magicae, this paper looks at the sequence Α–Ε–Η–Ι–Ο–Υ–Ω through acoustics. Formant analysis reveals a continuous trajectory through the vocal tract, including a progressive widening and collapse of the F1–F2 relationship — an acoustic “formant arc.”
The vowel permutations preserved in the PGM may have more acoustic coherence than their symbolic readings imply.
Water and landscape
Beyond Stagnant Water: Aegina's Souvales as a Distributed Groundwater Recharge Network for Terraced Agriculture
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19336814
Aegina’s souvales are usually understood as places where rainwater was stored. But what if their real function extended beyond storage?
This paper proposes that these unlined stone cisterns may have allowed rainwater to seep into the volcanic ground, helping recharge shallow groundwater and sustain the terraces below through the dry season. Rather than isolated reservoirs, they may have formed part of a distributed water system, working together with terraces, wells, streambeds, and the ancient aqueduct.
The hypothesis is testable. Bringing together field observations, hydrogeology, and the agricultural landscape of Aegina, the paper proposes a way to investigate, and potentially revive, an overlooked form of traditional water management.
Are Aegina's Souvales Bronze Age? A Hypothesis and Research Framework
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18324574
People on Aegina have long described the island’s souvales as ancient. But how ancient might they actually be?
This paper takes that local memory seriously and asks whether some of these rock-cut cisterns could date back to the Bronze Age, drawing on their proximity to Mycenaean sites and parallels with dated Minoan water structures.
It is not a claim of antiquity, but a testable hypothesis and a starting point for looking more carefully. The paper also proposes a simple way for residents, walkers, and researchers to document the island’s hundreds of largely unrecorded souvales, creating a shared inventory of a water heritage that may otherwise quietly disappear.
Last updated: September 2026. New work is posted here as it appears.