A highlight of this year’s Cortona Sessions for New Music will be Special Guest Artist, Anne La Berge. Known for her work blending composed and improvised music, sound art, and storytelling, Anne will be working closely with composers and will be coaching performers on improvisation with live Kyma electronics!
Anne La Berge at KISS2017
The Cortona Sessions for New Music is scheduled for 20 July – 1 August 2025 in Ede, Netherlands, and includes twelve days of intensive exploration of contemporary music, collaboration, and discussions on what it takes to make a career as a 21st-century musician.
Anne is eager to work with instrumentalists and composers looking to expand their solo or ensemble performances through live electronics, so if you or someone you know is interested in working with Anne this summer, consider applying for the 2025 Cortona Sessions!
Applications are open now (Deadline: 1 February 2025). You can apply as a Composer, a Performer, or as a Groupie (auditor). A full-tuition audio/visual fellowship is available for applicants who can provide audio/visual documentation services and/or other technological support.
Future Music Oregon composers — past and present — brought their signature brand of live interactive electronic music performance to the Musicacoustica Hangzhu 2024 conference in September.
Characterized by custom controllers, exceptional Kyma sound design, live interactive graphics, and virtuosic stage presence, their performances left a lasting impression on the audience of fellow electroacoustic music composers. So much so, that rumor has it that the University of Oregon Summer Academy for electronic music (on hiatus due to pandemic disruptions) may resume this summer, opening the door to future collaborations among US and Chinese musicians.
Some highlights follow (photos, courtesy of Musicacoustica Hangzhu):
“Realm” composed and performed by Fang WAN, professor at Hangzhou Conservatory of Music“Summoner” for Leap Motion and custom software created with Max and Kyma, composed and performed by Mei-ling Lee, professor at Haverford College“Balance” for Kyma, Max, and GameTrak composed and performed by Jeffrey Stolet, professor at University of Oregon“Dimension reduction approach in the context of real time sound synthesis” a talk by Chi WANG, professor at Indiana University“Beyond Landscape” for contact microphone, Dry Garden, and Kyma, composed and performed by Tao LI, doctoral student at University of Oregon“Fusion of Horizons” for Nintendo Ring-Con, Joy-Con, Max & Kyma, composed & performed by Chi WANG, professor at Indiana University“Summoner” for Leap Motion and custom software created with Max and Kyma, composed and performed by Mei-ling Lee, professor at Haverford College“Developing Musical Intuition as a Pathway for Creating Artificial Intelligence Models” a talk by Jeffrey Stolet, professor at University of OregonGametrak Trio: Jeffrey Stolet performs with his former graduate students, Fang WAN (currently professor at Hangzhu Conservatory CN) and Chi WANG (currently professor at Indiana University)
There will be multiple opportunities to connect with fellow Kyma artists during the ICMC 2024 in Seoul, South Korea, where you’ll hear them performing on several concerts and presenting their ideas on paper sessions. Here are just a few of the composers using Kyma who will be participating in the ICMC during the week of 7-13 July 2024:
Shuyu LinWhen Dandelion Whistles Fang WanSong Yun Chi WangTransparent Affordance Jeffrey StoletTestimonio objetivo Oliver KwapisLucky Jinshuo FengListening to the Deep: An Interactive Music Exploration of Oceanic Soundscapes and Climate Change Tao Li枯山水 Beyond Landscape Hector Bravo BenardNowhere
On the paper sessions:
Jeffrey StoletMusic-Centric Description of Performance with Data-Driven Musical Instruments
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.
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.
misfold is a piece for pipe organ and Kyma electronics, commissioned by Franz Danksagmüller for org_art_lab in Hamburg 6-12 November 2023, a workshop dedicated to collaborations involving art, science, and the pipe organ. But not just any pipe organ…
The HyperOrgan that Franz helped design for St Nikolai church has been augmented with new timbres, percussion sounds, enhanced touch sensitivity and air-flow control, microphones placed among the pipes for electronic signal processing, speakers in the loft so you can blend the organ sound with electronic sound synthesis, and bidirectional MIDI control. The console in the loft has five manuals and a pedal board, each one controllable by a separate MIDI input channel, with the ranges and timbres controlled by the stops.
In keeping with the theme of the workshop (hyper-organ-art & science collaborations), the composer employed data from protein-folding simulations computed at Martin Gruebele’s lab at the University of Illinois to generate the sound and structure of the piece.
Why is it named misfold?
It feels like we’re at a tipping point, and it’s unclear which direction things will take. There’s a pervasive sense of instability across multiple spheres — political, cultural, technological, economic, climatic:
Will these instabilities continue to increase, resulting in a catastrophic breakdown?
Will we “mis-fold” into a familiar & somewhat comfortable, but sub-optimal state?
Or could we use this time of instability to explore possibilities that we haven’t thought of trying before and maybe discover a better way forward?
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.
“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).
“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.
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.
Sound designers, electronic/computer musicians and researchers are invited to join us in Busan South Korea 29 August through 1 September 2019 for the 11th annual Kyma International Sound Symposium (KISS2019) — four days and nights of hands-on workshops, live electronic music performances, and research presentations on the theme: Resonance (공명).
“Resonanceâ€, from the Latin words resonare (re-sound) and resonantia (echo), can be the result of an actual physical reflection, of an electronic feedback loop (as in an analog filter), or even the result of “bouncing†ideas off each other during a collaboration. When we say that an idea “resonatesâ€, it suggests that we may even think of our minds as physical systems that can vibrate in sympathy to familiar concepts or ideas.
Photo by Belinda J Carr
At KISS2019, the concept of resonance will be explored through an opening concert dedicated to “ecosystemic†electronics (live performances in which all sounds are derived from the natural resonances of the concert hall interacting with the electronic resonances of speaker-microphone loops), through paper sessions dedicated to modal synthesis and the implementation of virtual analog filters in Kyma, through live music performances based on gravity waves, sympathetic brain waves, the resonances of found objects, the resonance of the Earth excited by an earthquake, and in a final rooftop concert for massive corrugaphone orchestra processed through Kyma, where the entire audience will get to perform together by swinging resonant tubes around their heads to experience collective resonance. Sounds of Busan — two hands-on workshops open to all participants — focus on the sounds and datasets of the host city: Busan, South Korea. In part one, participants will take time series data from Busan Metropolitan City (for example, barometric pressure and sea level changes) and map those data into sound in order to answer the question: can we use our ears (as well as our eyes) to help discover patterns in data? In part two, participants will learn how to record, process, and manipulate 3d audio field recordings of Busan for virtual and augmented reality applications.
Several live performances also focus on the host city: a piece celebrating the impact of shipping containers on the international economy and on the port city of Busan; a piece inspired by Samul nori, traditional Korean folk music, in which four performers will play a large gong fitted with contact mics to create feedback loops; and a live performance of variations on the Korean folk song: Milyang Arirang, using hidden Markov models.
Hands-on Practice-based Workshops
In addition to a daily program of technical presentations and nightly concerts (https://kiss2019.symbolicsound.com/program-overview/), afternoons at KISS2019 are devoted to palindromic concerts (where composer/performers share technical tips immediately following the performance) and hands-on workshops open to all participants, including:
• Sounds of Busan I: DATA SONIFICATION
What do the past 10 years of meteorological data sound like? In this hands-on session, we will take time series data related to the city of Busan and map the data to sound. Can we hear patterns in data that we might not otherwise detect?
Photo by Belinda J Carr
• The Shape Atlas: MATHS FOR CONTROLLING SOUND
How can you control the way sound parameters evolve over time? Participants will work together to compile a dictionary associating control signal shapes with mathematical functions of time for controlling sound parameters.
• Sounds of Busan II: 3D SOUND TECHNIQUES
Starting with a collection of 3D ambisonic recordings from various locations in and around Busan, we will learn how to process, spatialize, mix down for interactive binaural presentation for games and VR.
Photo by Belinda J Carr
Networking Opportunities
Participants can engage with presenters and fellow symposiasts during informal discussions after presentations, workshops, and concerts over coffee, tea, lunches and dinners (all included with registration). After the symposium, participants can join their new-found professional contacts and friends on a tour of Busan (as a special benefit for people who register before July 1).
Sponsors and Organizers
Daedong College Department of New Music (http://eng.daedong.ac.kr/main.do)
Dankook University Department of New Music (http://www.dankook.ac.kr/en/web/international)
Symbolic Sound Corporation (https://kyma.symbolicsound.com/)
Busan Metropolitan City (http://english.busan.go.kr/index)
