Category: Event

Experiencing the near-universe as sound

Robert Jarvis‘ sound art installation aroundNorth allows listeners to experience the near
universe as they have never heard it before. As the Earth spins on its axis, and day becomes night becomes day, our view of the near universe changes in terms of the changing positions of the stars in the sky. One star appears to stay stationary (the North Star); and the rest take about 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds to complete a full revolution.
‘aroundNorth’ offers listeners an opportunity to hear this phenomenon in real time. As each star crosses equally spaced virtual lines emanating from Celestial North Pole, a corresponding sound is heard that maps the star’s position in the sky, size, distance from Earth, brightness and temperature, creating a mesmerising sound map of the universe as viewed by our turning planet.

‘aroundNorth’ humanizes the astronomical, giving us an emotional key to help us relate the unfathomable heavens to our own experiences of time and space. With echoes of a Neolithic monument of ancient myth, the installation introduces us to a universe full of interest, encouraging us to think differently about the cosmos and our place within it.

Jarvis presented his installation on 15 October 2016 in a rather neolithic setting — the Beaghmore Stones Circle complex, preceded by an installation performance at Antrim Castle Gardens.

For more information, future showings, or to invite Robert Jarvis to create an aroundNorth experience in your city, see the aroundNorth web site.

Resistance & irritation in Berlin

So-called new music is an aesthetic of resistance, of irritation, and self-reflection. In contrast to the visual arts, in which abstract and contextual works have long been accepted as a matter of course, the analogous musical experience continues to be difficult. So Schoenberg’s prognosis that his works would be understood 50 years down the road has remained illusory.


Bruno Liberda is a composer, promoter and performer. His lecture UNERHÖRT! 3000 (0) years new music is a tour de force through the history of sound systems, instrument developments and notation, and leads us to a new focus on hearing.

Text and Lecture: Bruno Liberda
Idea, development and scenic means: Fanny Brunner

A co-production of dreizehnterjanuar Wien and Wiener Klangwerkstatt. Funded by the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin

TMIE — mediating the inner and outer sound worlds

img_0304

Carlos Alberto Augusto’s new opera “TMIE, on the threshold of the outside world” just had a successful premiere in Lisbon on Thursday September 8th, 2016, at the O’culto da Ajuda; so successful in fact, that they added two additional performances! Apparently, the sound quality of the 10-track Kyma-generated score also attracted attention and appreciation from composers in the audience.

The 51 minute work was entirely composed in Kyma and is dedicated to Portuguese soprano Marina Pacheco who performs three roles over the course of the opera — Meretseger, who loves silence; Selene, who drives her silver chariot through the skies and vibrates to the beats of the stars; and Corypheaus who listens and tries to interpret their dialog.

The TMIE gene (Transmembrane Inner Ear) is implicated in the development of the cochlea and in the synthesis of a protein that mediates between the outer acoustic environment and the inner sound world of the auditory nerve and the auditory cortex of the brain; in the opera, TMIE serves as a metaphor for the interface between the inner and outer self.

For more details and contact information on how to program this work, please see Augusto’s fascinating program notes and news site.

How technology & music mutually influence each other

What would happen if you sat the designers of Reaktor, the LinnStrument, Ableton Live, and Kyma down together on a couch and asked them to talk about how music influences technology, how technology influences music, and what exactly is a musical instrument anyway? That’s what happened at the 2015 Loop Summit. Dennis DeSantis (author of Making Music and moderator of the discussion) wrote this summary with video clips.

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 9.09.18 PM

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.

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 8.31.39 PM

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.

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 8.35.28 PM
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!
Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 8.35.55 PM

Composer on a NASA mission

Composer Roland Kuit was recently interviewed on the prime time news program SBS 6 Hart van Nederland to discuss his Kyma sound explorations that will be launched into space on September 8, 2016 on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to the near-earth asteroid Bennu.

While his music is being launched into space on September 8 2016, Kuit will be at the Kyma International Sound Symposium in Leicester, UK presenting his music and ideas along with filmmaker Karin Schomaker so you’ll have an opportunity to meet and talk with him at KISS2016.

Silvia Matheus at CMMR in Brazil


Composer/sound designer Silvia Matheus is one of the presenters on the scientific program of the 12th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research (CMMR2016) in São Paulo, Brazil on 05-08 July 2016. Matheus’ talk, State of Art in Sound Design, Production and Synthesis will include an opportunity for conference attendees to learn more about how Silvia uses Kyma in her sound design and composition work and to interact directly with her Kyma 7/Pacarana system.

KISS2016: Emergence

Emergence — it’s what a complex system of interconnected agents can do collectively that they could not do in isolation. Emergence goes beyond the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts — emergence arises from the relationships among those parts. Emergence is that seemingly magical moment when an unanticipated novel behavior or dynamic pattern arises from a complex network of simple components and rules.

Symbolic Sound, in partnership with De Montfort University’s Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities; the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, and the Performance Research Group, invite you to participate in the eighth annual Kyma International Sound Symposium and to explore emergence with an international gathering of Kyma practitioners ranging from experts to aspiring experts and including many who have never used Kyma before and are simply curious.

Get the inspiration, support and professional connections to motivate and energize you for the rest of the year. Join us at the Kyma International Sound Symposium (KISS2016) — 7-10 September 2016 in Leicester, UK — as we explore the concept of “Emergence” through 4 days and nights of words, live musical performances, open labs, and interactive discussions.

Unique features of this year’s program include an improvised conduction performance by the Emergent Ensemble; a 3-D sound immersion lecture/concert in De Montfort University’s 20+ speaker DOME; a 3-D film with a live sound track; workshops on ecosystemic composition; collaborations across international and disciplinary borders; and a celebratory club concert featuring live Kyma with acoustic instruments, vocals and analog synthesis.

Live performances featuring some of the most cutting edge music composed with Kyma this year, lectures where Kyma practitioners share their insights and reveal a few of their secrets, master classes and labs led by the creators of Kyma; and the unparalleled camaraderie and inspiration from your fellow sound and music explorers — these are some of the regular features of KISS that inspire people to return to KISS year after year.

Explore the full program here: http://kiss2016.symbolicsound.com/program/

Register now to immerse yourself in the fun, hands-on creative technology environment that will inspire you for years to come! http://kiss2016.symbolicsound.com/kiss2016-registration

Based on current registration levels, we are anticipating a record turn-out this year. So please be sure to reserve your spot by registering as soon as possible. Do it today so it doesn’t get forgotten on your to-do list. (Please be advised that there is a strict upper limit on attendance based on the venue sizes). Thanks!

Photos by Belinda B Carr.

Lectures & Concerts at BYU

Composer/performer, Steven Ricks invited Carla Scaletti to Brigham Young University for the week of March 7 to work with his students, present lectures, and participate in two concerts. Here’s the full schedule:

Tuesday, March 8
Barlow Lecture: “Data-driven”
3PM at BYU (E400 Harris Fine Arts Center, 50-minute lecture)

Wednesday, March 9
“Computer Music” Looking back/looking forward
11AM E400 HFAC, 50-minute lecture

Thursday, March 10
Overview of Kyma 7
11AM at BYU Electronic Music Studio

Thursday, March 10
Group for New Music, featuring works by Scaletti, Adler, Cage, Pärt
7:30PM BYU Madsen Recital Hall

Friday, March 11
Concert
7:30 PM Art 270 Gallery
Salt Lake City

ICMC2015 keynote smiling at laptop2

The ear as an organ of knowledge

Unerhört! 3000(0) Jahre Neue Musik

So-called new music employs the aesthetic of resistance, of irritation, of reflection. But why, in comparison to the visual arts, is the abstract and contextual musical work still so difficult? Schoenberg’s prediction that his work would be understood in 50 years is today still an illusion…

The ear develops over time from mere alarm organ via the detour of seduction toward the organ of knowledge, a harrowing perspective on the inner and outer world.

Liberda is a composer, promoter and performer. His Lecture Performance is a tour de force through the history of sound systems, instrument development and notation systems towards a new theory of hearing.

Text and Performance: Bruno Liberda
Idea, development and scenic design: Fanny Brunner
Dramaturgical assistance: Hans-Jürgen Captain
Graphics: Klemens Wihlidal
Duration: 80 minutes

Premiere: March 12, 20:00 // Ateliertheater, Burggasse 72, 1070 Wien // 12 Euro
Box office at 19:00 // Reservations at 0681 819 630 or 62 office@ateliertheater.eu
A co-production of january thirteenth Vienna and Wiener Klangwerkstatt.