Maria Balabaș is a romanian artist and jurnalist. She studied Musicology at the National University of Music in Bucharest and obtained her Master degree writing about the role music played in the social evolution of the radio. She is the moderator of 2 broadcasting programs on the National Cultural Radio – The crossover morning and The Sonorous Generation, a member of the EBU Ars Acustica Group and of the Propuls Association that promotes contemporary music. She collaborates with different printed and online magazines such as Dilema Veche, Tataia, liternet.ro, jazz.ro. Maria is a founding member of the artistic collective Avant’n’Gard dedicated to improvised music. The group released three albums – Landscape Painted in Tea (bootleg, 2010), Tinfoil Sun (2012) and Untempered Carols (2012) and was invited to participate in festivals such as The International Week of New Music (2010, 2011, 2012), Sibiu Jazz and More (2011), Bookfest (2012), Astra Film Festival (2012), FanFest (2012), Street Delivery (2010, 2011) etc. As a solo artist she had a residence in the project Sound Delta (2007), collaborated with the ResonanceFM Radio (London) and participated with a piece on the compilation Framework250. In 2012 she created the graphic score in the project Soundforrest, was invited to participate in Explore Dance Festival with the graphic and sound installation Pasărea care-ți mușcă auzul (The Bird That Bites Your Hearing) and worked for another sound installation and performance (La Madeleine sonore) with the French Institute from Bucharest. She also organizes sound-walks under the name Sounds That Walk.

I started working with field recordings in 2006 and created different pieces for radio. Through the years I developed this passion and participated in projects, gave workshops, created sound-installations, used them in live performances and extended my radio-technique with a very personal use of field recordings.