Globalalia is a 29 minute piece using syllables taken from 26 different languages, to create a series of elaborate variations on the sounds of language itself. Voices in 26 languages were collected from the airwaves, and cut into over 8300 spoken syllables. These were organized in a database and then used to create a series of 20+ short movements each exploring the possibilities of one (or two) syllabic types. Formally, a musical abstraction of the (literary) frame-tale (a story in which other stories are told). Each syllabic type is derived from the sequence of events in the 'frame-tale' which begins the piece and recurs from time to time, and at the end.

Commissioned by Folkmar Hein and premiered at Inventionen 2004 in Berlin, June 2004, the piece was originally available on the DVD, 50 Years Studio TU Berlin, from Electronic Music Foundation.

Newly released on the Globalalia: Imago CD, available from Digital Music Archive or Integrated Circuit Records.