Category: Event

Sounding the ocean

graph that depicts changes in the bottom pressure of the ocean over one month. The data was taken from sensors on the Juan de Fuca plate in the NE Pacific Ocean. The changes in bottom pressure in the graph depict daily fluctuations of the tidal cycle across the entire graph, but is marked by a large shift in bottom pressure in the middle of the data on April 24, 2015. The bottom pressure shifted as a result of the volcanic eruption — an indication that the seafloor dropped.In June 2024, Jon Bellona presented a paper at the 2024 International Conference on Auditory Display in Troy, NY on behalf of the NSF-funded Accessible Oceans project team. The paper, Iterative Design of Auditory Displays Involving Data Sonifications and Authentic Ocean Data, outlines their auditory display framework and their use of Kyma for all of their data sonification. Program with links to all papers are accessible online at https://icad2024.icad.org/program/

During the presentation, Jon played the full 2015 Axial Seamount Eruption. When an audience member asked about his use of earcon wrappers around each sonification, Jon shared a story about how his interviews with teachers at Perkins School for the Blind led him to include this feature.

In the coming year, Bellona plans to continue his work doing sonification with Kyma as part of a new project funded through NOAA: A Sanctuary in Sound: Increasing Accessibility to Gray’s Reef Data through Auditory Displays with Jessica Roberts, director of the Technology-Integrated Learning Environments (TILEs) Lab at Georgia Tech.

Willful Devices in Dublin

Composer Scott Miller’s Kyma control surface

Ecosystemics — the guiding principle for much of composer Scott L. Miller’s work over past two decades, constitutes an ecological approach to composition in which form is a dynamic process that is intimately tied to the ambience of the space in which the music occurs. In a live ecosystemic environment, Kyma Sounds are parametrically coupled with the environment via sound. As Miller explains in his two-part article for INSIGHTs magazine — Ecosystemic Programming and Composition:

In ecosystemic music, change in the sonic environment is continuously measured by Kyma with input from microphones. This change produces data that is mapped to control the production of sound. Environmental change may be instigated by performers, audience members, sound produced by the computer itself, and the ambience of the space(s) in general.

Sam Wells and Adam Vidiksis, collaborators on Miller’s new album of telematic ecosystemic music, Human Capital, describe performing with Miller’s Kyma environments as “like interacting with a living entity”.

On 2 August 2024, Scott will be joined by clarinetist Pat O’Keefe to perform as Willful Devices (a clarinet plus Kyma duo) at ClarinetFest in Dublin.

Collaborators since 2003, the duo’s name derives from the fact that both of them manipulate devices — one a clarinet, one a computer — to generate music. And that, despite their best efforts, these devices are never fully under their control, at times almost seeming to have a mind of their own. Rather than bemoaning this fact, Scott and Pat welcome the potential for unimagined sonic discoveries inherent in this unpredictability.

Friday’s setlist includes:

  • Piano – Forte I, Piano – Forte II, and Piano – Forte III telematic collaborations
  • Semai Seddi-Araban by Tanburi Cemil Bey, the premiere of the duo’s take on a classic Turkish semai.
  • Mirror Inside from Shape Shifting (2004), for clarinet and Kyma
  • Fragrance of Distant Sundays, the duo’s tribute to Carei Thomas, the Minneapolis improviser/composer who passed away in 2020

A Frisson of Danger

Imagine yourself in Brighton, relaxing in the audience as you enjoy the trio improvising on stage when suddenly, someone points to you at random and orders you up on stage to replace one of the members of the ensemble.

Alan Jackson playing his Kyma “tilt whistle” at a recent improv night in Brighton.

No, this is not a recurring nightmare like the ones where you have to take the final exam for a class you forgot to attend, it’s what’s known as a “rotating improvisation session”, and Kyma consultant Alan Jackson is here voluntarily! In fact, it’s the reason his whole Kyma setup is battery powered (from a single PD battery) — primarily to make it easier to carry it up on stage and plug into an amp.

As Alan explains, “I don’t take the computer on stage. This adds a frisson of danger to the performance!” [Editor’s note, we’re sensing a theme emerging here]

“There are two power connections: battery to ‘Mara and battery to eurorack case containing the ‘Mara’s sound card (ES-8). And there are two USB connections: ‘Mara to ES-8 and the midi-controller-tilt-sensor to the ‘Mara. If any of these drop connection while I’m carrying the setup to the stage I would need to restart the Sound which needs the computer attached. So I carry it very very carefully.”

Jackson is always on the lookout for longer-lived batteries because, due to the nature of the performance, he never knows when he’ll get called up.

When he’s not subjecting himself to stressful performance situations, Alan Jackson consults with film, game, and television sound designers. He’s also organizing an informal Kyma “show and tell” weekend, 1-3 November 2024 in Amsterdam. See the Discord Kyma Community for details.

Samy Bardet delivers AFSI keynote in Paris

César and Golden Reel Award-nominated film sound designer Samy Bardet, was invited to present a keynote lecture/demonstration in Paris on 15 June 2024 for the members of L’AFSI (Association Française du Son à l’Image)*. Sound editor, sound designer and composer, Bardet is renowned in the world of cinema for his aesthetic and innovative sound creations. He has also developed a reputation as a specialist in Kyma which he uses to create, transform, combine and interact with sound (and which he describes as “one of the best sound creation tools in the world”).

In his keynote, Bardet guided an audience of sound professionals through the various ways he uses Kyma to create sounds for films such as Babies, Persepolis, Mami Wata and Sébastien Vanicek’s Vermines, including the signal flow editor, the Timeline, the Multigrid, and spectral analysis/resynthesis tools. One of the most important parts of the keynote, according to Bardet, were the live demonstrations of how one can use the Haken Continuum, iPad and Wacom Tablet as interactive sound design controllers.

Bardet describes Kyma as a language, an instrument that one can learn to play and to master. Each user will develop a different interpretation and this is what makes Kyma unique!

Le Kyma est un langage, un instrument qu’il faut apprendre à jouer, maîtriser. Chaque utilisateur aura une interprétation différente et c’est ce qui fait que le Kyma est unique!

Bardet concluded with a list of some practical benefits of working with Kyma, including:

  • Qualité audio
  • Possibilité créative infinie
  • Librairie de sons
  • Stabilité et performance
  • Communauté
  • Suivi & Mise à jour Logicielle gratuite

Through his atelier, SYMA: sound design, Bardet has worked with contemporary artist Laurent Grasso on several exhibitions (for example Uraniborg at the Musée du Jeu de Paume and Soleil Double atthe Perrotin gallery, in Paris. He collaborated on installations at the Musée des Confluences in Lyon for the Antartica and Terra Incognita exhibitions by Luc Jacquet, and has done sound design for augmented reality in collaboration with The Overlap Factory.

Here, he is pictured during the final mix for the 2017 film To the Top:

black and white image of a team intently concentrating on mixing the soundtrack
Mixing for the film “To The Top” (L to R) Samy Bardet, Sound Editor, Sound Designer, Laurent Perez Del Mar, Composer, Serge Hazanavicius, Director, Thierry Lebon, Recording-mixer

* L’AFSI (Association Française du Son à l’Image) is a professional organization whose aim is to develop relationships, exchange information, discuss methods, contribute to solving common problems, monitor technological progress, and organize meetings to highlight and communicate the importance of the creative and technical contribution of sound professionals in film audiovisual production, and related media.

Soundtrack for a Lost World

Performing with Kyma and a huge (but very soft) pipe organ, Franz Danksagmüller generated a live soundtrack for the silent film The Lost World (think silent-film Jurassic Park from the 1920s) on 25 May 2024 at the National Radio Symphony Concert Hall in Katowice Poland for an audience of 1600 people.

Franz Danksagmuller monitoring the VCS, the film, the Multigrid (on the iPad) and his pencil notes

The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice seats an audience of 1800 people

In a gravity-defying stunt, Danksagmüller placed two mics within the swell boxes of both Manual V and Manual III, at the apex of the organ pipes, so he could process the pipe organ through Kyma without danger of feedback. He and his sound engineer worked until 2:30 am fine-tuning the setup.

 

Poster for the film “The Lost World” (1925) * First National Pictures – Source, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12690702

* Note that, according to Wikipedia, “This historical image is not a factually accurate dinosaur restoration. Reason: Pronated hands, real T. rex did not have more than two fingers (unlike in this image), outdated posture, tail dragging, lack of possible feathers”

A Movable Beast

In his role at BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre), Simon Smith works with massive multi-speaker array concert systems on a daily basis. These experiences inspired him to design a system of his own that could generate moving sound sources and immersion without the need to carry around large amps and speakers.

When Smith came across the Minirig loudspeaker — a small Bluetooth speaker typically used for small parties and “annoying people on the beach” — he bought 4 of them and, using standard microphone mounts and gooseneck microphone stands, he started experimenting with various configurations. Initially using tea coasters and cable ties, he eventually found drainpipe mounts that fit the Minirigs perfectly. Now he’s able to flexibly angle the loudspeakers toward nearby reflective surfaces (walls, windows, ceilings, panels), creating an impression of the sound coming from the room and not just the loudspeaker.

 

 

 

The speakers are just loud enough that he can play along with acoustic instruments without overwhelming them. Smith’s initial setup has now grown to 8 speakers with 2 subs, and by design, the entire rig (Pacamara, Laptop, and Minirigs) can be battery powered, opening the possibility for impromptu off-grid performances in interesting acoustic spaces. He christened his modular sound spatialisation system the Portable Immersive Sound System intentionally, because he knew he was destined to take it places.

During a recent performance at PAN-PAN, Simon used his MYO armbands to control a concatenatenative synthesis patch routed through Kyma (running a custom delay line designed by Alan Jackson and workshopped by the Kyma Kata), then through an Eventide H90 which sent quad out to his portable spatializing speakers.






See you in Seoul

Video frame from a performance of Testimonio Objetivo by composer Jeffrey Stolet

International Computer Music Conference
“Sound in Motion”
7-13 July 2024
https://www.icmc2024.org/

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 Lin When Dandelion Whistles
Fang Wan Song Yun
Chi Wang Transparent Affordance
Jeffrey Stolet Testimonio objetivo
Oliver Kwapis Lucky
Jinshuo Feng Listening to the Deep: An Interactive Music Exploration of Oceanic Soundscapes and Climate Change
Tao Li 枯山水 Beyond Landscape
Hector Bravo Benard Nowhere

On the paper sessions:

Jeffrey Stolet Music-Centric Description of Performance with Data-Driven Musical Instruments

Tipping Point

As part of the 2024 International Orgelpark Symposium on 7 June 2024, Franz Danksagmüller invited Carla Scaletti to talk about her piece misfold for hyper-organ and Kyma, which was composed specifically for Danksagmüller.

During the round table wrap up on the final day of the conference, Randall Harlow described misfold as an example of “music for and of our time”

Here’s a performance of misfold recorded by Franz Danksagmüller at St. Nikolai Kirche in Hamburg earlier this year.

La Berge and friends

Anne La Berge posted a photo of her live performance setup for the Tell me more concert at Splendor in Amsterdam, 29 June 2024, featuring her flute processed through Kyma controlled by Continuum mini, iPad and enhanced by a hand-cranked siren:

La Berge had performances throughout the month of June:

Saturday 15 June: The Day of the Composer in The Netherlands
Ensemble Oihua performed La Berge’s composition RAW as part of a varied program at the Batavierhuis in Rotterdam (La Berge performed with them).
Pieter de Hoochweg 108, Rotterdam


Wednesday 26 June
Anne Wellmer, Matt Rogalsky and Anne La Berge (not pictured, but her flute, Pacamara, laptop, Continuum mini controller, and iPad are on the left edge of the table)
Performance with electronics, objects, instruments and inventive musical friendliness.
Zaal 100, De Wittenstraat 100

Saturday 29 June: Tell Me More
Anne La Berge performed a new version of Up Until Now, using old and new material all in one breath as the story of her life.
Splendor Amsterdam, Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 116

Zero mass reflections at the EICAS Museum

Sound artist Roland Kuit has three sonic installations currently showing at the EICAS Museum Deventer in the Netherlands, all of which use Kyma.

ZERO = Language – Roland Kuit
Nonversation – Roland Kuit, 2024

Two video screens, each with an alphabetical circle. The circles are traversed by Brownian Walks to generate random letters. The letters are named on one side by Roland Kuit and on the other by artist Karin Schomaker. The found meaning lies in the process of discovering random synchronicity.

Mass – Roland Kuit, 2024

A laboratory with six thousand table tennis balls representing people using social media. Ideas that are pushed through with good or bad intentions in a chaotic world. Visible in this field, is the movement of this chaos. Chaos will always move towards equilibrium. That is looking for a balance and fixing yourself there. This balance may be called polarization. Fixed, and not free. Then it is up to the attendant or spectator to direct the fan(s) differently as new input of an idea to restart this chaos, until a new balance is found. This repeats as long as there are people willing to share ideas.

Reflections with textless paper – Roland Kuit, 2024

Because people disappear into the bubbles of social media, the news fades. The algorithms of the Internet do everything they can to keep people in the bubble. In this installation one sees the newspaper texts fading, newspapers crumpled and thrown away, torn. Cramming memories of something new. This installation shows that a different reality emerges. The fragility of the works on the wall symbolize our democracy and the rule of law. Values on which one could build. These values, seem to fade, lie on the ground. As a reminder, one hears the crackling, crumpling, crumpling and tearing from the loudspeakers on the wall. Like an infinite loop of fading into something that was once reality.

From 4 February to 26 May
Museum EICAS
Nieuwe Markt 23
7411 PB Deventer