Category: Concert

Composer Bruno Liberda sets up complex systems of silent analog feedback loops and communicating between Kyma and analog electronics through voice and an Obi-gong in his new work, Buddha cannot sit quietly anymore, premiered at 21h on 4 March at Elektro Gönner Mariahilfer Straße 101/1060 in Vienna. In analog electronics, exploring resonance phenomena, self-oscillation, over-driven filters can fling us either into the abyss, or into Seventh Heaven, depending on tiny variations in initial conditions and control signals. However, with Kyma in the cockpit, one gains (intuitive) control over this supersonic flight. In Buddha… there are in fact no sound-producing sources in the analog domain, but only a whispering speculation: what happens if some feedback loops are short-circuited through the winding paths and controlled from Kyma?

In the last few days, a rapidly aged circuit diagram illustrates the main issue: a 4-pole resonant filter, whose input is fed by analog delay.  As the latter needs some material to delay, it is fed by the resonant filter itself.   In order to avoid a simple short-circuit, the delay travels through a bit- and sample-shredder, before getting injected back into its own feedbackloop…. So the dance is not simple short-circuits; it is the feedback of the delay, sharpening the edges of the filter cutoff, losing a few bits, changing the sample rate. This in turn has interesting implications for the input of the resonant filter, and a complex dance is set in motion; the dance leads to new vibrations, more or less under the composer’s reins.

In Liberda’s new work, it’s not just that Buddha cannot sit quietly anymore; he is sitting on a powder keg!

TOUCH, a multimedia tour de force featuring Helge Sten (Kyma), Arve Henriksen (trumpet), Terje Isungset (percussion) and Therese Skauge (dance), was the first concert of the 2012 NOTAM Tuesdays series, taking place on 31 January 2012 at the National Stage (Schou quarter).

Arve Henriksen is an innovative artist in a wide range of music genres and TOUCH gave him a chance to show off his compositional side: the premiere of a new work commissioned by NOTAM. Helge Sten is linked to a number of different bands and projects, including Motorpsycho, Supersilent, and Minibus Pimps, as an artist making music at the intersection between noise, jazz, contemporary music, electronic music and rock. Terje Isungset is one of Europe’s leading innovative percussionists. The three musicians were joined by dancer Therese Skauge, visual artist Anastasia Isachsen and sound processing engineer Asle Karstadt.

In November 2011, the Henie Onstad Art Center in Høvikodden Norway, commissioned a new immersive experience to be performed by Helge Sten (Kyma, guitar, and Haken Continuum) and Hans Magnus Ryan (Guitars & Hurdy Gurdy) with visuals designed by Pekka Stokke. The mind-altering visual-auditory immersion was further enhanced by a full surround system created out of vintage guitar amps.

In fall 2011, Supersilent played 2 concerts in the Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo.  The hall, designed by artist Emanuell Vigeland to house his ashes, is an enclosed space with an incredible 17 seconds of natural reverb and intricate paintings depicting conception, birth, life, and death.

The concerts featured Arve Henriksen (trumpet & electronics), Staale Storloekken (Minimoog & electronics) and Helge Sten on Kyma and guitar.  Below is a meditative segment captured by a mobile phone:

Composer Michael Wittgraf‘s Autogenous Mining for four double basses and Kyma will be premiered by the Chicago Bass Ensemble February 3rd 2012 at 8:00 p.m. at the Experimental Sound Studio 5925 North Ravenswood, Chicago and reprised on February 5th in Bennett-Gordon Hall at Ravinia as part of the Chicago Bass Festival in Highland Park, Illinois.  On February 5th at 2 pm, the Chicago Brass Ensemble will be joined by Mike Wittgraf and several other composers for a demonstration and Q&A on the subject of contemporary music for bass ensemble.

Autogenous Mining is a seven-minute work for four double bassists and a computer operator using Kyma X. The work exploits the size and weight of double bass strings, which afford an enormous variety of timbres and dynamics. The performers are asked to “mine” their own strings for all the sound that they can find. The computer assists this task by finding even more sounds. Autogenous Mining is about listening, reacting, and forging new paths in order to maximize the amount and variety of sounds extracted from the ore in the strings.

All four double basses are mic’d and fed through Kyma for manipulation. The resulting interactive output is broadcast to the audience over quadraphonic speakers.