Artur Artinian’s Sonata of the Stones is a stylized 3D environment inspired by the Symphony of Stones, a natural basalt formation in Armenia’s Garni Gorge. Rather than reproduce the geology exactly, Artinian built a fantastical scene grounded in the place’s striking columns, using a small set of reusable assets, sculpted stone and carefully directed composition.
What is the Symphony of Stones?
The real formation—also known as the Basalt Organ—is in the Azat River gorge, on the river’s right bank, about 1 km northeast of Garni village. Armenia’s Ministry of Economy site-management plan describes it as a protected natural geological monument, with polygonal basalt columns and a core area of 0.9499 hectares. The plan gives the site’s elevation as 1,270–1,375 m above sea level. The site-management plan places it within a wider visitor landscape that includes the river gorge, nearby geological features and Garni’s cultural sites.
The geology has two useful, separately attributed descriptions. A 2017 geological-sciences proceedings volume identifies the exposed flow near Garni as columnar trachybasaltic andesite lava and dates it to 127 ka; it relates the polygonal prisms to slow cooling and cracking. The Ministry’s plan describes the columns as Quaternary basalt and says they reach up to 50 m. That is a maximum reported by the plan, not a height shared by every column. The 2017 proceedings and the site-management plan should not be collapsed into a single, more precise geological claim.
How did Artur Artinian build the 3D scene?
Artinian says the project grew from a visit to the monument and a childhood memory of seeing it. He collected images from the Garni region and of basalt formations more broadly, then started with simple blockout shapes to judge the silhouette and how the pillars would relate to one another. In his interview with 80 Level, he describes making pillar variations from a shared mesh: a single column, a group of three and a group of four, each at different scales. He hand-placed these assets to control the scene’s larger masses.
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One pillar, varied through sculpting and reuse
Rather than model every column as a unique object, Artinian sculpted one six-sided pillar and gave each face a different surface treatment. Rotating that asset could then reveal new combinations of faces. He says the columns used a high-to-low detail workflow: sculpted detail was baked onto lower-poly meshes. For smaller pieces such as candles, he specifically describes sculpting in ZBrush and decimating the result for a low-poly version.
Materials and surface variation
The stone material was tileable and made in Substance 3D Designer. Artinian also made an RGB mask in Substance 3D Painter to direct edge wear, dirt and other surface variation. Together, those choices let repeated geometry read less uniformly without requiring a new sculpt for every pillar. The interview tags Unreal Engine, Marmoset Toolbag, Maya and other tools in connection with the project, but does not assign every tagged application a specific production role.
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Composition creates the fantasy
Artinian describes using a low camera position and a low focal length to make the structures feel imposing. He also split the main structure asymmetrically to balance the frame and guide attention toward a golden sun emblem and a flame gate. Those are elements of Sonata of the Stones, not features of the natural monument.
Why the artwork is an interpretation, not a geological replica
Artinian states his goal plainly: “I wasn’t trying to build a perfectly realistic geological formation; I was much more interested in creating a striking image that felt grounded in reality yet fantastical.” That distinction matters when looking at the finished scene: the basalt columns supply a recognizable foundation, while camera, layout, emblem and gate shape a designed fantasy environment. The project is best understood as an artistic response to Garni, not a scientific digital twin.
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What the project shows about making a 3D environment
Artinian says limiting the number of unique assets was deliberate; in a later passage he describes roughly five unique meshes. Reuse alone does not make a scene varied. Here, the artist combines changes in scale, rotation, placement, surface treatment, lighting and set dressing to make a compact asset library support a larger composition. It is a practical example of how environment artists can create visual breadth through silhouette and staging rather than relying on a large inventory of one-off models.
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Armenia’s Ministry of Economy plan says ministerial decree N 274-N approved the passports for the Symphony of Stones and Anonymous Cave on 18 August 2017. It describes the formation as a natural monument under Armenian law and identifies Garni community and the Khosrov Forest State Reserve’s non-commercial organization as participants in its protection; the community conducts site operations. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre lists the combined “Archaeological Complex of Garni and the ‘Basalt Organ’ Columnar Joint” on Armenia’s Tentative List, submitted 10 March 2025. Tentative-list status is not inscription on the World Heritage List. UNESCO’s entry places the joint in the Azat canyon, approximately 900 m southeast of the Garni archaeological complex.
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The Ministry’s plan says visitor movement is mainly organized along a renovated road. A travel guide updated 3 August 2026 describes a steep route and an uphill return, and estimates a 35-minute downhill walk from Garni village; conditions and access details can change, so check current local information before setting out. The Armenia Guides’ visitor guide provides its dated account of the walk.
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