Category: Concert

Mei-ling Lee’s Sonic Horizons

Mei-ling Lee: composer, performer, storyteller & assistant professor at Haverford College

 
Music professor Mei-ling Lee was recently featured in the Haverford College blog highlighting her new course offering: “Electronic Music Evolution: From Foundational Basics to Sonic Horizons”, a course that provides students with an in-depth introduction to the history, theory, and practical application of electronic music from the telharmonium to present-day interactive live performances driven by cutting-edge technologies. Along the way, her students also cultivate essential critical listening skills, vital for both music creation and analysis.

 

 

In addition to introducing new courses this year, Dr. Lee also presented her paper “Exploring Data-Driven Instruments in Contemporary Music Composition” at the 2024 Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) National Conference, held at the Louisiana State University Digital Media Center on 5 April 2024, and published as a digital proceeding through the LSU Scholarly Repository. This paper explores connections between data-driven instruments and traditional musical instruments and was also presented at the Workshop on Computer Music and Audio Technology (WOCMAT) National Conference in Taiwan in December 2023.

Lee’s electronic music composition “Summoner” was selected for performance at the MOXSonic conference in Missouri on 16 March 2024 and the New York City Electronic Music Conference (NYCEMF) in June 2024. Created using the Kyma sound synthesis language, Max software, and the Leap Motion Controller, it explores the concept of storytelling through the sounds of animals in nature.

Danksagmüller at the Orgelpark

Virtuoso organist / composer / live electronics performer, Franz Danksagmüller is presenting an afternoon workshop followed by an evening concert of new works for “hyper-organ” and Kyma electronics at the Orgelpark in Amsterdam, Friday 7 June 2024, as part of the 2024 International Orgelpark Symposium on the theme of ‘interfaces’ (in the broadest sense of the word).

In his symposium, “New Music, Traditional Rituals“, Danksagmüller wrestles with the question of how new music might play a role in liturgy and religious rituals. While the development of the so-called hyper-organ reveals the strong secular roots of the pipe organ, which, after all, spent the first 15 centuries of its life outside the church, the pipe organ has also been significantly formed by its six centuries within the church, a church which inspired organ builders and organists to create the magnificent instruments that remain an important part of Europe’s patrimony today.

Is there a role for new music in the church? In their pursuit of “truth” do scientists and theologians share any common ground? Danksagmüller does not shy away from the “big questions”!

Vogel a finalist for the 25th Weimar Spring Days for Contemporary Music Prize

Cristián Vogel’s “The Siege of Mariupol” is a finalist for the 2024 International Composition Competition for Orchestra. All finalists — Thomas Gerwin, Ludger Kisters, Philipp Waltinger and Cristian Vogel, will be at the MON AMI YOUTH AND CULTURAL CENTER in WEIMAR 23-26 May 2024 to present their works to the audience as part of the 25th Weimar Spring Days for Contemporary Music. In addition to the jury prizes, the audience will have an opportunity to vote for the Audience Choice Award.

“The Siege of Mariupol” confronts the brutal realities of conflict through the sounds of modern warfare, electronic manipulations, and a melodic motif symbolizing lost souls. It is written as a testament to the memory, bravery and profound suffering of individuals caught in the relentless terror and conflict and implores the audience to bear witness to the brutality faced by those on the frontline.

“The Siege of Mariupol” is the final piece in a trilogy highlighting the interconnectedness of human experience, the impact of geopolitical events, and the life-saving and life-destroying potential of technology — all against a backdrop of survival in the face of mortality.

Click here for details on how you can attend the concert and cast your vote for the Audience Choice Award.

NeverEngineLabs sets off car alarms in Santiago

Circle 6 of Dante’s Inferno contains the fiery tombs of heretical souls, and in the venue for NeverEngineLabs (Cristian Vogel) 6 April octaphonic concert — a car park six floors beneath the Earth’s surface in the Providencia area of Santiago Chile — the lighting appears eerily appropriate.

Pacamara Ristretto audio processing unit in the foreground, several people running mixing consoles in the background
NeverEngineLabs’ live setup in Santiago Chile 2024

Vogel, whose work focuses on experimental electronic music, electroacoustic music, and pushing compositional boundaries beyond style and convention writes “The sound check was a veritable wall of noise, never heard Ambisonics sound so intense… the subs were so full, car alarms were setting off on the floors above!

Cristian’s goals for 2024 and beyond are to explore socially relevant musical narratives that challenge the listener and expand the boundaries of what is possible in experimental electronic music.

Coypu meets Paca in Shanghai

Coypu, photo by Basile Morin CC BY-SA
Paca, photo by Hans Hillewaert CC SA

 
A coypu (aka nutria) is a semi-aquatic rodent and is the name given to a Pharo package for live coding developed by Domenico Cipriani (aka Lucretio). At the end of May, Lucretio will be performing with two rodents — his Paca and the Coypu package — at the 2024 International Conference of Live Coding (ICLC) in Shanghai, generating sounds and parsing OSC to control graphics in Kyma and using Coypu to program music on-the-fly.

 
Lucretio describes his 30 minute live coding performance for Pharo, Kyma and Processing as “a social experiment with euclidean geometries, hexadecimal beats and post-jungle patterns drifting from sparse broken drums and essential scaled-down soulful chords to bass-driven percussive timelines and recursive frequency modulated quirks… heavily influenced by the sound from South London and Detroit.”

ligeti center launches Artists and Scientists in Residence with Spatial Audio premiere

The inaugural event of the ligeti center “Artists and Scientists in Residence” program and christening of their brand new spatial audio system was the 4 April 2024 world premiere of Fredrik Mathias Josefson’s spatial audio composition “Above a Sea of ​​Fog,” an immersive electroacoustic environment that employs recording, Kyma synthesis, and “negative space” to weave a spatial soundscape. Josefson also provided insights into his creative processes and spatial audio methodologies and discussed his two-month residency at the ligeti center.

For more of Josefson’s music, visit: https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-distant-past-resounds

Bringing together expertise from the realms of art, science, and technology, the “Production Lab” at the heart of the ligeti center serves as a presentation venue and an open production space for creative exploration. From immersive spatial audio to haptics, from cyber instruments to music therapy, and beyond, it is designed as a hub for interaction, collaboration, and critical discourse. As a fully equipped studio space, “Production Lab” provides creators with a range of options for immersive sound production and performance, including motion capture technologies, VR/XR solutions, and a free space for creative thinking and experimentation.

Frozen time

Listen to composer/performer Anne La Berge sustained by the Kyma infinite reverb during a joint performance of Orphax & MAZE Ensemble at the the Rewire Festival in Den Haag 7 April 2024.

 

Orphax’s recent work, En de Stilstaande Tijd, explores the concept of “frozen time”, and MAZE is all about “real time” — interacting with acoustic instruments and electronics in the moment. Check out this interview with Anne La Berge, Dario Caldrone and Garth Davis to find out how these time-bending artists managed to find a common language for their live collaboration.

John Paul Jones at Big Ears Festival 22-24 March

“I used to have 30 guys helping me do this,” quips Jones as he adjusts a mic stand. “…but here I am.”

And indeed, there he was, all alone on the stage, performing a dizzying variety of instruments, from lap steel, to mandolin, to triple-neck guitar, grand piano, pipe organ, Kyma electronics, and of course his signature bass. Winning the prize for the festival’s most audacious entrance, Jones rose from the orchestra pit playing “Your Time Is Gonna Come” on a bright red-painted theater organ, to delighted squeals of recognition, masterfully tweaking his audience’s collective memories and, alternately coaxing them along with him into the future with live electro-acoustic performances like this one:

Bassist, keyboardist, mandolinist, composer (and much more), John Paul Jones – once in a little band called Led Zeppelin — has more recently toured as Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl and Joshua Homme, appeared in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera ‘Anna Nicole,’ toured the US with Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, released Cloud to Ground (debut album of Minibus Pimps), and made several guest appearances with acclaimed Norwegian avant-garde group Supersilent.

John was also one of the first adopters of Kyma (on the original Capybara), and he continues to expand the frontiers of live interactive electronics performance today using the newest incarnation of the APU hardware — the Pacamara Ristretto — in conjunction with his bass, piano, and a menagerie of tiny controllers and other instruments (expect the unexpected).

At the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville 22, 23, 24 March, Jones is presenting not one, not two, but three performances:

John Paul Jones playing a grand piano in an orchestra rehearsal room
John Paul Jones Solo Concert at Big Ears 2024
Sons of Chipotle: Anssi Karttunen & J P Jones
Thurston Moore & John Paul Jones

1. John Paul Jones solo concert on Friday, March 22

2. Sons of Chipotle, with cellist Anssi Kartunnen on Saturday March 23

3. John Paul Jones with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) on Sunday March 24

Other festival headliners and events include Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, André 3000: New Blue Sun Live, Rhiannon Giddens, Adrianne Lenker, Laurie Anderson, a Blacktronika workshop exploring how Detroit Techno, Chicago House and Jamaican Dub contributed to the advancement of electronic music, and a film festival including Ancient Voices: a film for George Crumb, Sisters with Transistors, and more!

“One of the world’s biggest music bashes” (NYT), the Big Ears Festival features visionary composers and musicians on concerts that transcend genre — bringing together trailblazers and iconoclasts, blending classical and contemporary composition, jazz, rock, world music, pop, avant-garde, ambient, experimental, and beyond.

Big Ears offers 200 performances during the festival situated in historic downtown Knoxville — at restored historic theaters, churches, refurbished warehouse spaces, museums, galleries, and clubs — with pop-up events and performances, exhibitions, films, literary readings, workshops, markets and talks taking place in cafes, bars, hotels, restaurants, all within walking distance or dedicated trolley service to nearby hotels.

Live Kyma electronics at MOXsonic

The 2024 MOXsonic (Missouri Experimental Sonic Arts Festival) March 14-16, 2024 is an exploration of sonic possibilities and includes several opportunities to hear live Kyma electronic performances:

  • Mei-ling Lee’s “Summoner” is a mythical narrative that evokes the nocturnal summoning of peacocks and owls.
  • Mark Zaki’s “Masks” explores identity in the digital age, using violin, Kyma, and live video to delve into themes of self-curation and virtual anonymity.
  • In Mark Phillips’ “Dream Dance”, dreamy vocoders give way to an algorithmic synth groove, but only partially … and not for long.
  • Chi Wang will perform AEON on a new instrument she designed — the Yuan, a bamboo round-shaped interactive, data-driven controller and connected the sensors

Experience innovative music and engage with the creative minds shaping the future of sound! Tickets to all events are FREE and OPEN to the general public.

Live electronic music performers on stage with projection of computer screen behind them
Photo by Jeff Kaiser, courtesy of MOXsonic.org

 

A Plague of Doves

Tom Baker performing guitar and Anne LaBerge performing flute in front of a close microphoneAnne LaBerge (flute & text) joins forces with guitarist and electronic musician Tom Baker (guitar & Theremin) on a concert tour exploring themes of racism and resilience. Their improvised performances, enhanced by Kyma electronics, will take place in Brussels (March 13), Rotterdam (March 17), and Amsterdam (March 18).

LaBerge and Baker draw inspiration from Louise Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves, a novel exploring the enduring impact of a racist act committed against four Ojibwe people in North Dakota in 1896.

Anne La Berge’s passion for the extremes in both composed and improvised music has led her to the fringes of storytelling and sound art as her sources of musical inspiration. Tom Baker is a composer, guitarist, improviser, and electronic musician, active in the Seattle new-music scene.