Ljudbio II, 2015

Medverkande kompositörer och verk:

  1. Alex Harker (UK) Fractures 5.33
  2. Maria Lindström Trana 8.56
  3. Birgitte Alsted (DK) KL4 5.00
  4. Girilal Baars Call of the Lonesome Quarkboy 6.35
  5. Vlatko Georgiev (MK) Elevator 7.04
  6. Monty Adkins (UK) Clockwork Cities 6.40
  7. Ethan Hayden (US) Bats with Baby Faces in the Violet Light 7.12
  8. Thommy Wahlström 2015 invention for EA no.24 6.00
  9. Boris Bezemer (NL) Spring 6.00
  10. Manfredi Clemente (IT) Il habite partout 6.25
  11. James Andean (CA) Maledetta 6.48
  12. Andrea Mancianti (IT) We Are Lost 7.00
  13. Luca Turchet (IT) 2008Tibet 5.25
  14. Per Åhlund Kryssar över Åsön 6.06
  15. Mathias Josefsson Resedagbok 9.50
  16. Pär Johansson Nyarlathotep 9.50
  17. Jones Margarucci (IT) 3 Degrees of Inner Motion 6.20

Alex Harker (UK) Fractures 5.33

Alex Harker (born 1983) composes electroacoustic, instrumental and interactive music. His work focuses on strategies for bringing together these sometimes disparate fields to create an engaging and coherent whole.

He has studied with numerous composers including Gwyn Pritchard, Vic Hoyland, Jonty Harrison, Scott Wilson, Roger Marsh and Ambrose Field. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, undertaking research in both composition and creative audio programming. His works have been performed in the UK, France, USA, Denmark, Switzerland and Korea.

Thoughts crystallise, become atmosphere. Ambiences contract, seize up, splinter. Everything within; the eye sees in all directions.

Fractures seeks to bring together previously disparate strands of my musical life, the roles of performer, programmer, engineer and improviser. All the material was ’performed’ in the studio, either instrumentally, or electronically via the use of hardware controllers and audio analysis-driven control. Sample manipulation was carried out in custom-written software allowing explicit gestural control in combination with strongly parameterised pseudo-random processes. This flexible hybrid approach enabled the creation of sophisticated and distinct sonic behaviours in a highly immediate and organic manner. Underlying the transparent interaction with the computer in the studio is a sophisticated audio engine capable of radical warping of samples, dynamic filtering and real-time audio descriptor matching of sample material.

The musical forms concern the intertwining of multiple layers musical material; some sonic, some harmonic, others strongly gestural and yet more largely textural in nature. Out of these layers constellations emerge suddenly, only to recede moments later as an unexpected gesture spins out into a new musical space, leaving the material surface fractured…

Maria Lindström Trana 8.56

Maria Lindström studerar EAM/komposition på Musikhögskolan i Stockholm.

Trana – ett stycke för kontrabas och elektronik. Materialet till musiken bygger på 45 kortare inspelningar från kontrabasen. Utklippta fragment från dessa inspelningar har sedan placerats ut i ett collage. Ovanpå detta collage vävs en melodi in som har utvecklats med inspiration från trakter i Västergötland och flyttfågeln trana.

Birgitte Alsted (DK) KL4 5.00

Birgitte Alsted er inspireret og fascineret af lyd og støj fra hverdagen. Af stemmer i videste betydning, som udtryk for liv og følelsers meddelelser fra alle skabninger, i tonefald og i fortællende form – men også af påvirkninger fra lydmiljøet omkring os. Elementer, som hun indarbejder i sine elektroniske og instrumentale musikværker; nogle gange til direkte associationer, andre gange bearbejdet til tydlig ”transformation” inspireret af surrealismen fra drømmeverdenen.

Komponist Birgitte Alsted (f 1942) er eksperimenterende musik- og lydkunstner, uddannet violinist fra Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium med debut i 1971, master i komposition af elektronisk musik fra Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium i 2006, og med kompositorisk virke fra 1972. Hun har modtaget adskillige priser og stipendier.

”KL4” (2006) er fra en periode hvor jeg i adskillige verker arbejdede intenst med optagelser af kirkeklokkerne i Elias-kirken, København. Hvorfor jeg gjorde det er en lang historie, men den meget korte version er at jeg bor i nærheden af den kirke, og at klokker altid har rørt mig ved deres pragtfulde ”sound”. Klarinet og klokker ikke bare begynder med samme 2 bogstaver, men er også overtonemressigt i slægt. Så da (bas)klarinettisten Fritz Gerhard Berthelsen fra det navnkundige avantgarde ensemble ”Contemporanea” opfordrede mig til et samarbejde, resulterede det i værket KL1-KL2-KL3-KL4 – 4 satser med bearbejdede lyde fra hans basklarinet sat sammen i collage med bearbejdede lyde fra Eliaskirkens klokker. Alle 4 satser kan stå for sig som separat værk, således også aftenens værk, ”KL4”. De er alle skabt i DIEM-studiet i Aarhus, Dam11ark (DIEM = Dansk Institut for Elektronisk Musik).

Girilal Baars Call of the Lonesome Quarkboy 6.35

Girilal Baars är tonsättare och sångare baserad i Uppsala. Han är aktiv både inom den elektroakustiska musiken och inom vokal musik. De senaste åren har Girilal utforskat olika aspekter av vokal folkmusik medelst den nutida musikens estetik och metoder. Han avslutade nyligen sin doktorsavhandling i komposition på temat ”Ballads and Ohms”. 2008 komponerade GB stycket ”Litanies in Zero Kelvin”, utvalt som ett av Sveriges bidrag till de Nordiska Musik Dagarna i Oslo, 2009. 2009–2010 ledde Girilal ett projekt för att skapa ett sceniskt verk för två röster baserat på Karin Boyes Kallocain. ”Kallocain – an Opera for Two Voices” hade premiär på Kalvfestivalen in augusti 2010. Under 2013–2015 har han han blivit inbjuden att framföra sin musik vid festivaler i bl.a. Toronto, Belfast, Perth (Australien), Tanjung Malim (Malaysia), Kaunas), Vaasa, Guadalajara (Mexico), Riga, Lissabon, Berlin, Ghent, Fu!lerton och New York (USA), Turin (Italien) och Hedesunda.

”Call of the Lonesome Quarkboy” är tillverkad av 100%-igt kravmärkt yodel som har destillerats genom kompakta Euromoduler och en gigantiskt Telefunken Magnetophon. Musiken vill verka som en påminnelse om att i framtiden likväl som förr, på makro- likväl som på den kvantmekaniska skalan, kommer livet alltid att vara ett sökande efter något, vare sig det är boskapsdjur eller förlorad kärlek. Och inget kan ropa så långt som en modulär yodel. ”Call of the Lonesome Quarkboy” hade sin premiär i maj 2014 på Deep Wireless Festival (Toronto och Montreal).

Vlatko Georgiev (MK) Elevator 7.04

Vlatko Georgiev is a composer, music producer and educator. He is classically trained musician with musicianship and production credits for over 20 years. Since 1987 he has performed live at different stages and festivals. He has composed many pieces in various genres, for different settings in different formats, from Radio and TV commercials, music and sound designfor computer games, to music for documentaries, theatre plays and children’s ballets.

Special part of his creative work is dedicated ta experimental electronic music, which has been rewarded on a couple of occasions.

”Elevator” is based on 3 take recordings of elevator’s movement:

  • 2 takes (from the interior of the elevator) recorded sounds produced by elevator going up and down for 7 floors
  • 1 take recorded sounds in the elevator’s machine room

Recorded sounds are structurally layered and have different spatial positioning. The rhythmic elements are arranged mostly symmetrically with the polyrhythmic variations. Spectral editing and combination of selected resonating frequencies gives tonal character and opportunity to build chordal structure.

The Story: Elevator traveling starts as awakening from a beautiful dream. Sudden intrusion of imaginary and unpredictable characters transforms dream inta nightmare. Going up and down symbolises ups and downs in our life, and many floor stops as crossroads in real life and difficulties in making decision for our final destination. Polyrhythmic structure (4/4 vs 5/4) represents hesitancy to continue traveling (dreaming) or to exit (waking up) the elevator. In a very few moments, elevator shows its artificial intelligence and ability to make decisions on its own, as sometimes in real life, direction where the things are going are not up to us. Finally, travel ends on a pleasant and desired place… or maybe not.

Monty Adkins (UK) Clockwork Cities 6.40

Monty Adkins is a composer and performer of experimental electronic music. His work is characterised by slow shifting organic textures often derived from processed instrumental sounds. Inhabiting a post-acousmatic sensibility, his work draws together elements from ambient, acousmatic and microsound music. Adkins has worked collaboratively on a number of audio-visual projects, including Four Shibusa with the painter Pip Dickens and mast recently with composer/ digital artist Julia d’Escrivan and composer/recorder player Terri Hron. Adkins’ work is published on Audiobulb and Cronica – including a free download EP here: www.cronicaelectronica.org/?p=O86

Clockwork Cities is a track from the album Rift Patterns and is about the psychogeographical exploration of places and how they impact on our identity and feelings. Psychop.,eography has historically been associated with the exploration of our cities and the ’drift’, and has been described by Joseph Hart as ”a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape”. In Rift Patterns, Adkins continues the drift from the city, into the country and into our inner world of thoughts and relationships. Following on from Adkins’ previous albums on Audiobulb there is a delicate balance between abstract electronic sound and melody. On this album he uses found objects from the many locations visited, placed in the piano to prepare the strings and produce strange sonorities.

Ethan Hayden (US) Bats with Baby Faces in the Violet Light 7.12

Ethan Hayden is a composer, performer and author based in Buffalo, NY. He has written music for various performing forces, ranging from solo instruments to large ensembles, often involving electronics. Recent works reflect an ongoing interest in language, phonetics, and sound poetry, as well as large-scale explorations of timbre, resonance, and sonic spectra. His music has been performed at conferences and festivals around the world, most recently at INTIME (Coventry, UK), Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium (Toronto, ON), and E-Poetry (Buenos Aires).

”Bats with baby faces in the violet light” was created using the sounds of various objects the composer found around his home. The sounds are arranged into various gestural contexts, often with very little signal processing. The primary aesthetic aim of the piece is to exploit the unplanned and frequently unpredictable pitched sounds which often burst forth from, or which are components of, noisier, percussive gestures. The title comes from a line in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land:

A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
And upside down in the air were towers
Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours
And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells

  • Finalist for ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition (2014)
  • 2nd prize in Musicworks Magazine Electronic Music Composition Contest (2012)

Thommy Wahlström 2015 invention for EA no.24 6.00

(excerpts and fork from a rhythmic figure, derived from a recording)

Thommy Wahlström, tonsättare inom nutida musik/EAM. Utbildad i komposition/EA på Musikhögskolan i Stockholm. Utvecklar i sina kompositioner ”alternativ representation för ljud och musik” i kombination med traditionell notation. Musiker inom improviserad musik och folkmusik. Har samarbetat med musiker från olika delar av världen såsom Väst-­ och Östafrika, Indien, Iran etc. Är nu verksam i: Två Cirklar – improviserad musik, Trio Quatuor – musik från 1450-talet. Barkbröder – folkmusik på sopransaxofon och slagverk, Wahlström!/Allard Duo – halvjazz/folkjazz.

Boris Bezemer (NL) Spring 6.00

Boris Bezemer’s music strikes a balance between structure and chance, the standing leg and the playing leg. He prefers basic ideas but to shape and process them with great care. The emphasis on working like this is that the (sonic) world is makable. The composer aims to create new worlds filled with joy and beauty.

Ruis explores articulations with sine waves.

Manfredi Clemente (IT) Il habite partout 6.25

I am an ltalian composer of musique concrete. Based in Birmingham, UK, I am an active member of B.E.A.S.T. - Birmingham ElectroAcustic Sound Theatre. My music can be seen as an attempt to create a purely sonic poetry and is very much based on the consideration of space as main dimension of perception and then of evocative processes involved in listening experience.

”Il habite partout” represents a personal hommage to musique concrète. Although it is a totally independent piece of music, I think about it as part of a cycle of three compositions (the others being ”Les dimensions du reel” and ”La boucle”) that has a total duration of about 37 minutes. They all revolve around the idea of paradox as foundation of being and question what perception and reality are.

The piece was composed at composer’s own studio in Palermo (IT). Mastered at Birmingham Electroacoustic Studios (UK).

James Andean (CA) Maledetta 6.48

James Andean is a musician and sound artist. He is active as both a composer and a performer in a range of fields, including electroacoustic music, improvisation, sound art, and audiovisuals. He is a founding member of several groups and ensembles, including Rank Ensemble, LOS duo, and Plucié/DesAndes. He has performed throughout Europe and North America, and his works have been presented around the world. He is a lecturer af the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre of De Montfort University.

”Maledetta” (2011) – the idea for this piece began with my work with Panos Balomenos and Gaile Griciute on a contemporary reimagining of Cherubini’s opera ”Medea”, which was presented at the Helsinki Design Museum in August 2011 as part of the Helsinki Night of the Arts. The sound material for Maledetta is built primarily from treatments of Callas’ performance, and from my recording of Gaile’s performance of the piano reduction, as well as additional sound material which had originally been prepared for the Design Museum performance.

”Maledetta” intends to present a portrait of the title character of Medea, primarily through a portrayal of her psychological state – shifting back and forth between calm and maternal, and vengeful, violent and disturbed. This is most clearly achieved through the processing and treatment of the sound material, but also through the dislocated formal structure: while certain sound materials act as both themes and structural markers, the work proceeds in a series of alternating states, with the sense of formal development regularly frustrated and ruptured, although the work regularly makes reference to the C minor chord of the opening and closing phrases.

”Maledetta” was selected for performance at Nuit Blanche, Futura Festival 2013, France; SFCMP Festival, San Francisco, USA, April 2014; World Electroacoustic Listening Room Project/ 12th Annual CSUF New Music Festival, California State University, Fullerton, USA, March 2013; 2012 International Computer Music Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Lightworks new media festival, Grimsby, UK, March 2012; and the Korvat Auki. 35th anniversary concert, October 2012, Helsinki. It was premiered October 20th 2011, Black Box, Musiikkitalo, at the concert Acousmatica I.

Andrea Mancianti (IT) We Are Lost 7.00

Andrea Mancianti is an electric guitarist, composer and performer. He studied composition with Rosaria Mirigliano and electronic music with Marco Ligabue in the conservatory of Florence . He also studied with Pierluigi Billone, Tristan Murail, Beat Furrer and Yan Maresz among others and participates in the IRCAM’s Cursus 1 in Paris (2013–2014). He is interested in exploring the social and aesthetic boundaries between popular and contemporary music questioning the roles of composer, performer and public. In the music he seeks for an ecosystemic relationship between instruments, technology and performative space and an intersection of improvisation and writing.

His latest pieces include ”No Heroics, please”, for electric guitar and accordion, ”Epäjärjestelmällisyydestaköhän”, for viola and low-fi electronics and ”Prosthesis”, for viola d’amore and electronics written for Marco Fusi, presented in 2013 at the Biennale Musica in Venice. In 2012, ”We are lost”, remix of Fausto Romitelli’s ”Dall’alto dei giorni immobili” wins the Sincronie remix contest.

www.andreamancianti.com

Luca Turchet (IT) 2008Tibet 5.25

Luca Turchet (1982), is an Italian musician and composer. He holds master degrees in composition, electroacustic music, classical guitar, and computer science, as well as a PhD in media technology. Currently his artistic research focuses an building and playing conventional acoustic instruments augmented with sensor technology. He is author of several compositions for these instruments, such as hyper-hurdy-gurdy, hyper-zampogna, and hyper-guitars. Recently he cofounded in Stockholm the company MIND Music Labs which produces smart guitars. His music has been played in Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and lreland.

”2008Tibet” was written in 2008 as a response to the cruelty and injustice suffered by Tibetan people after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. The author’s hope is that this piece of music could contribute to not forget those happenings.

Per Åhlund Kryssar över Åsön 6.06

Per Åhlund är född 1976 i Eskilstuna, men bor sedan ett tiotal år i Stockholm där han är involverad i ett flertal experimentella musik-, improvisations- och ljudkonstprojekt, ofta med Fylkingen och Elektron Musik Studion (EMS) som bas. Han undersöker gränserna mellan stillhet och hysteri, mörker och ljus och skapar kompositioner som ofta befinner sig i mellanrummet mellan musik och ljudkonst. Fokus ligger på stämningar och texturer, snarare än tonalitet och rytm.

www.perahlund.se

Mathias Josefsson Resedagbok 9.50

Mathias Josefsons arbete spänner mellan digitala och analoga medier ofta med fokus på ljud som en del av en rumslig installation. Att tänja eller stoppa tiden, repetitioner och olika mytologier är centralt i Mathias Josefsons konst. Han har en examen i fri konst från Kungl. Konsthögskolan och en civilingenjörsexamen från Kungl. Tekniska Högskolan i Stockholm. Som medlem i Fylkingen och verksam på EMS har han de senaste tio åren verkat på en internationell experimentell musikscen.

Pär Johansson Nyarlathotep 9.50

Pär Johansson (f 1972) komponerar elektronmusik och arbetar som musikbibliotekarie. ”Min musik är ofta berättande, narrativ, och innehåller ibland omedelbart igenkännbara ljud, men den är knappast programmusik i traditionell mening, även om jag ofta hämtar inspiration ur litterära eller filosofiska källor. Inte heller är den konceptuell ljudkonst, eftersom det estetiska utförandet för mig är lika viktigt som de bakomliggande idéerna. Avsikten är att musiken skall kunna avnjutas också utan kännedom om idéinnehållet.”

www.parjohansson.se

Kommentar: ”…the crawling chaos…”

Jones Margarucci (IT) 3 Degrees of Inner Motion 6.20

Jones Margarucci (12-12-1986) began studying electric guitar at 12 years old. Later he studied music composition in various Italian conservatories and electroacoustic music composition at the State Conservatory of Music ”G. Martucci” with M. Silvia Lanzalone and at KMH (Royal College of Music Stockholm) with Bill Brunson as exchange student. His music has been played in several festivals in Europe and North America.

”3 Degrees Of Inner Motion” is based on the concept of algorithmic composition. Although the general shape of this piece has been determined in a conventional way, every sound that one can hear are selected in real time by different algorithms written in SuperCollider. These algorithms choose randomly audio files from different folders and play them at different speeds and in different moments. It is as if we had placed several different objects in several boxes (that represent our shape), but every time we open one of these boxes the objects placed inside are positioned differently from how we had left them previously.