Category: Festival

Live percussion and electronics in Coimbra market square

Carlos Alberto Augusto‘s new piece — ECOS (Coimbra version) for 6 percussionists and 6 electronic tracks — will be performed for the first time on 23 June 2018 in the old market square in the city of Coimbra Portugal.

Commissioned by Sons da Cidade, a festival that annually celebrates the city of Coimbra (Portugal) as a UNESCO heritage site, Augusto’s ECO will have musicians and loudspeakers distributed in circles along the full length of the 106m square. The electronic tracks were produced entirely in Kyma and are based on processed recordings of melting ice and an old fog horn’s rotating mechanism. Percussion, performed by the Portuguese percussion group Simantra, and electronic sounds will be further processed by the large square’s own natural distinctive resonances and reflections.

Verlingieri in real time

Composer/sound artist Gianluca Verlingieri utilized Kyma in two new pieces featured in two different events in Italy and UK: a world premiere fixed-plus-live electronics performance in Florence at the Tempo Reale Festival 2018 in May and a fixed-media acousmatic performance in Manchester at the EASTN-DC Week in late June 2018.

Verlingieri presented the world premiere of his 30-minute Requiem da Ballo for live electronics, poet, fixed-media sound projection and custom-made “loudspeaker pipes” in Florence on 26 May at Tempo Reale, the institute founded by Luciano Berio, on a concert named Klang Musica Sperimentale #10 Parola.

The second performance, Suite from Requiem da Ballo, will be 25-30 June 2018 at the EASTN-DC MANCHESTER Festival in Manchester UK. Verlingieri will perform live sound projection in 32-channel surround sound using the MANTIS diffusion system in the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall.

Verlingieri teaches electroacoustic composition at the “G. F. Ghedini” State Conservatory of Cuneo, Italy, where he also coordinates the Department of New Technologies and Musical Language.

Displacement

Photo by Dr. Javier Alejandro González Ortega

After the 2010 El Mayor Cucapah 7.2 magnitude earthquake in northern Mexico, seismologist Alejandro González Ortega interviewed Don Chayo, a Cucapah native who witnessed the surface rupture. When Don Chayo drew parallels to the origin stories of the Cucapah people, González began to wonder if these stories may have recounted earlier seismic events that had been passed down over the generations.

Over the next several years, González and his colleague, choreographer/physicist Minerva Muñoz, created a performance piece based on 3D seismological data collected by 12 measurement stations during the event. Muñoz enlisted the help of composer Carla Scaletti to map the data to sound using Kyma and artist David Olivares to map the data to video using Unity.

As Muñez and González conducted further research and interviews with the Cucapah elders, a much more disturbing story began to emerge — that of a displaced people whose livelihood was being cut off and whose very language was being forgotten. What had originally been intended as a science/art collaboration about seismic activity began to morph into a deeper metaphor for displacement, disruption and loss.

The result — Wí Shpá, A journey in bare feet — is a poem in movement, images, sounds and words that explores pilgrimage, displacement, change, the relationship of humans with the environment, transformation and resilience.

The sound and visuals were created from seismological data and satellite geodesics of the El Cucapah Mw 7.2 earthquake that occurred on April 4, 2010. Consistent in many details with the cosmogony myths narrated by Don Chayo that had been passed down over generations, El Mayor-Cucapah Mw 7.2 was the most intense earthquake recorded in this region over the last century.

Wí Shpá, A journey in bare feet is an elegy to the ancestors and to the women and men of today; to the people of the river, of the earth, fire and wind. It is a glimpse into a universe in which animals are gods, and meaning is associated with each of the four cardinal directions, colors, the power of nature and of the land.

“Cosmogony of an Event, El Mayor Cucapah Mw 7.2” is an inter and trans disciplinary dialog of artistic creation and research combining the myths of Cucapah cosmogenesis and the scientific studies of El Mayor-Cucapah Mw 7.2, weaving a network of collaboration, tradition, scientific research, knowledge and experiences, but above all, creating a dialog between scientists, artists, native community, collaborators and the general public who participate in this live performance/ritual.

Credits:

Direction, stage creation and interpretation: Minerva Muñoz *
Production: Alejandro González, Minerva Muñoz / La Machina Productions
Scenic Advisor: Jorge Folgueira
Lighting: Minerva Muñoz
Composition and sound design: Carla Scaletti
Visual Art: David Olivares
Video: Marco Meza, Rommel Vázquez
Aerial Video (drone): Alejandro González
Photography: Alfredo Ruiz and Rommel Vázquez
Science: Javier González-García and Alejandro González
Audio Engineer: Rommel Vázquez
Scenography: Leoncio García
Makeup: Rosario Martínez
Lighting technician: Miguel Tamayo
Communication and networks: Stephanie Lozano
Support: Juan Sánchez

Call for Proposals: KISS 2018 — Altered States

The Arts Division at the University of California Santa Cruz and Symbolic Sound invite proposals for talks, live performances and workshops for the 6-9 September 2018 Kyma International Sound Symposium — KISS2018: Altered States (and Ecosystems).

Altered States

State spaces, state of mind, state of the art, deep state, state machines, state of the nation, state variable filters, topological state, head of state, solid state physics, state of grace, state transitions, spin states, state of the union — whatever your definition of state, one thing is for certain: Sound and music can alter states.

Join us in the state of California as we explore the multifaceted concept of Altered States through talks, workshops, and live musical performances at KISS2018, 6-9 September 2018 on the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Ecosystems

Atop a forested hill overlooking the Pacific ocean and Monterey Bay, on the tectonic boundary between the Pacific and North American plates (aka the San Andreas Fault), accessible from the San Jose or San Francisco Airports, Santa Cruz is shaped by the economic/technology ecosystems of Silicon Valley, the biological ecosystems of the Pacific ocean and the Santa Cruz mountains, and a continuation of the counterculture lifestyle and political protest movements of the 1960s — hence the sub-theme of the conference: Ecosystems. Whether “Ecosystems” inspires ideas for environmental music & field recording, ecosystemic feedback control systems, the human microbiota, or more abstract political/economic/social ecosystems, we welcome proposals involving “complex networks or interconnected systems” of sound and music.

Important Dates

26 March: Deadline for submissions
15 April: Notification of acceptance & start of early registration

For more information and to make a proposal, visit: https://kiss2018.symbolicsound.com/call-for-proposals/

VR_I: social, free roaming virtual reality


Gilles Jobin’s VR_I — an immersive virtual reality contemporary dance experience with a 3D sound track created entirely in Kyma.7 — has its world premiere from 6 to 10 October 2017 at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal. Unfolding on multiple, parallel space and time scales, VR_I immerses you in a wordless experience of the continuum from infinite to infinitesimal, leaving you with a new sense of perspective on your place in the universe.

In partnership with Artanim Foundation and utilizing their motion-capture and VR technology, VR_I is a pioneering work in social, free-roaming virtual reality. As many as five people can enter the experience together and see their own and each other’s bodies as avatars sharing the same virtual world as the characters (the dancers).

In VR_I, music emerges from the environment: wind in the desert transitions to a humming chorus sung by giants; wind chimes in the art-filled loft organize themselves into 5/8 rhythms as columns rise up from the floor, only to dissolve back into wind chimes again as the columns recede; in the city park, bird songs are echoed in flute melodies, and cicadas transform themselves into rhythmic patterns over tambura-like drones.

Each spectator hears an individualized soundscape, and there is no way to really know what everyone else is experiencing (just like in real life). Sounds and musical elements are positioned in space and attached to objects, giving each spectator a unique mix as they move through the space, culminating in upwardly spiraling Shepard-tones that swirl around and lift up the listeners as they contemplate their own place in the continuum from infinite to infinitesimal.

In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk

— from the Native American Diné Blessing Way

Choreography: Gilles Jobin
Dancers: Susana Panadés Díaz, Victoria Chiu, Tidiani N’Diaye, Diya Naidu, Gilles Jobin
3D Music & Sound Design: Carla Scaletti
Costumes: Jean-Paul Lespagnard
3d modeling: Tristan Siodlak
Animation: Camilo de Martino
3D Scans & Motion Capture: Artanim
VR Platform: Artanim

For tour dates and booking information, visit: vr-i.space

Bach meets Kyma

On 30 September 2017 Franz Danksagmüller performed the premiere of his newly commissioned work “Kyrie” at the Hildebrandt-Tage in Naumburg on an historic pipe organ that was once examined by Bach and Silbermann.

Besides being the first performance of “Kyrie”, this was the first time in history that the organ had been processed through live electronics (Kyma) and the first time it was accompanied by a Minimoog. The Minimoog is a nod to Walter Carlos’ «Switched-On Bach» LP which was produced using a Moog synthesizer and is now considered an important historical instrument, so the historic pipe organ entered into dialog with an historic synthesizer.

According to Danksagmüller, “It was a strange feeling when I placed my mics into the organ, knowing that Bach was also inside the instrument inspecting the pipes etc. So, somehow between space and time, Bach meets Kyma and Minimoog!”

Part of Danksagmüller’s Broken Bach project, “Kyrie” begins with the compositions of J.S. Bach and several of his contemporaries, and reworks them using the techniques and means at our disposal today: sampling, remixing, digital sound manipulation and more. In this way the original compositions are taken apart and their rhythmic or harmonic essence is extracted. Then new pieces of music are constructed using these newfound building blocks.

Last month, Franz performed a live sound track for the silent film Phantom of the Opera to a sold out audience of over 2000 at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg Germany.

Sound & Music for Augmenting Reality

KISS2017 in Oslo Norway 12-15 October 2017 — a symposium on new opportunities for sound designers & musicians in virtual, augmented and mixed reality creation

Sound and music are the original augmented reality technology. Throughout human history, sound and music have played an essential role in transforming the mundane into the sublime, turning everyday events into memorable milestones, and enhancing the flow of experience.

Sound designers, musicians, museum curators, game developers, researchers and others interested in the power of sound to create and augment reality are invited to participate in the Kyma International Sound Symposium, KISS2017 in Oslo Norway 12-15 October 2017. Join fellow participants exploring the uses of sound in Augmenting Reality through talks, live performances, hands-on sessions, and informal conversations over meals (which are included with your conference registration).

Program
The full KISS2017 technical and creative program is available here: http://kiss2017.symbolicsound.com/complete-program/

Here are a few highlights from the international lineup:

• Tour and reception at the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, including a special lecture on computer music pioneer Knut Wiggen’s musical innovation during the early years of the EMS Electronic Music Studio in Stockholm (presented by NOTAM’s founding director, Jøran Rudi), followed by a science/art-themed concert at the museum.

• An evening at Norway’s premiere jazz venue Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene featuring Deathprod/Supersilent members Helge Sten & Arve Henriksen (Norway) performing live Kyma electronics on a program that also includes sets by SØS Gunver Rydberg (Denmark) and Michael Wittgraf (USA)
http://nasjonaljazzscene.no/arrangement/helge-sten-arve-henriksen-wittgraf-sos/

• Presentations on designing sound for planetarium-presentation; listening to the past in museum exhibitions; learning how to listen with cochlear implants; sound and music for calming dysregulated children; cooperation between musicians and machines

• Technology talks including pitch-tracking of live audio signals to control game avatars in real time, multidimensional audio, ambisonics, head-tracking, sonifying geo-spatial data, Open Sound Control, connections between Kyma 7 and the Unity3d game engine, live performance of electroacoustic music for an audience wearing VR headgear, using physical objects to interact with digital sound synthesis and processing, using wireless sensors to control and manipulate sound, and integrating live dance with generative sound and video for mixed reality performances.

• Desktop Demo Sessions where you can speak to the presenters one-on-one and ask them questions about their work

• An Open Lab where you can ask questions and consult on your Kyma projects with fellow practitioners and the creators of Kyma 7

• Live mixed reality performances including:

• A performer running through the streets of Oslo & transmitting a live video feed to the audience as his geospatial data generates and controls quadraphonic processing of a live ensemble
• A live musical performance of a computer game where acoustic audio controls real-time decisions leading to a distinctive outcome on each play-through
• Mixed reality performances where physical objects, like Tibetan bells or balloons, control digital sound and image generation
• Performances utilizing new musical inventions like the Electronic Bull Roarer and a new input device inspired by Ssireum Korean wrestling
• Citizen journalism and crowd-sourced news as an augmented reality performance
• A performance that looks at how organizations can use language to alter reality and neutralize our position as workers
• A mixed reality performance where long-distance communications augment time and space and magnify our stories
• The sounds of writing create sound fantasies in the minds of the audience & then mutate into other sounds that augment and clash with those imagined by the audience

Summary
KISS2017 is an opportunity for anyone interested in creating sound for augmenting reality to immerse themselves in new ideas and experiences and to meet and learn from like-minded colleagues.

Registration includes talks, concerts, reception, lunches & dinners (Student discounts are available): http://kiss2017.symbolicsound.com/kiss2017-registration/

For travel and lodging information: http://kiss2017.symbolicsound.com/travel-lodging/

Official KISS web site: http://kiss2017.symbolicsound.com

To follow the latest KISS news and developments:

Facebook
Twitter

Organizers and Sponsors

The Norwegian Academy of Music
University of Oslo Department of Musicology
NOTAM
Symbolic Sound Corporation
The Research Council of Norway

Contact the organizers

See you in Oslo!

Cloud to Ground Strikes Again!


John Paul Jones and Helge Sten will be performing together as the Minibus Pimps on April 16, 2017 as part of a Présences Electroniques concert in Paris.

Since their first performance in 2011, Minibus Pimps — a unique and unconventional UK/Norwegian collaboration featuring John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin’s legendary multi-instrumentalist), and prolific electronic musician, improviser and producer Helge Sten (Deathprod, Supersilent) — have, in the words of Mark Roland, been creating a “dense, disturbing primordial world of dread and awe.”

Their debut album ‘Cloud To Ground‘ includes seven tracks, each recorded live at a different venue, from London’s Café Oto to venues in Norway and Denmark. The secret of Minibus Pimps’ colossal sonic gas giants is their use of the Kyma computer system (created by Symbolic Sound). Instruments such as guitar, bass and violin are fed into the system and radically transformed by self-designed digital instruments and processors until their sources are barely recognisable.

More info here: http://www.inagrm.com/presences-electronique-2017-0

Transformation of fear

Kurt Schwitters Ursonate is a testament against war, nationalism, protectionism and establishment. In Landscapes of a voice, Roland Kuit seeks to transform his own fears into beauty by combining Schwitter’s poetry processed through Kyma with visuals by Karin Schomaker. In the face of his fears that progress has come to an end and the only thing left is degradation, Kuit seeks to create disruptive art, creating a peregrination through the human soul, finding new values in an impellent quadraphonic terrain of vocal spectra.

Roland Kuit – Kyma, voice 
Karin Schomaker – visuals

Hear it December 3-4 2016 at the Festival Internacional de Música Experimental en Vallecas, Sonikas XIV, Centro Cultural Lope de Vega, Madrid, Spain

One man’s junk is another man’s musical instrument

Since childhood, composer/performer Franz Danksagmüller has been fascinated with the rich, interesting sound palette one can create from broken, discarded and so-called unplayable instruments. In 2013, on a visit to a local junkyard, he noticed a strange metal object that immediately captured his attention.

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Read the story of how he added contact mics and sensors and developed a bowing technique to transform this strange object (which he later discovered was part of a device for food preservation) into a new musical instrument that sends both audio and MIDI control data to Kyma.

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You can hear this mysterious and beautiful instrument performed live at KISS2016, when Danksagmüller and composer/performer/computer scientist John Mantegna perform their new piece — The Artificial Brain!
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