Improvisations by Petra Floyd and trē in January of 2026. Video by Petra Floyd.

pterratactl is a live experimental duo by Petra Floyd and trē. We use contact mics to amplify and effect everyday objects: objects from Petra’s sculpture/multidisciplinary art practice, flutes, vocal improvisation, and field recordings. We transform their sounds through loops, samplers, audio effects. The sonic results are dark, playful and buoyant.

Pterratactl emerged out of Pittsburgh’s improvised music scene. Our name merges “terra” and “tactile." We conjure with a curiosity in the natural world, sensorial, visceral performance, as an exploration of material. Our collaboration investigates familial and ancestral connections to sound, spirit, and music; reclaiming as queer, nonbinary first-generation Liberian-American and Filipinx-American.