|
innova 117 Sonic Circuits
VIII
John von
Seggern (Hong Kong): Hyper Erhu (5:19) Katherine
Gordon (NY): Holding Patterns (6:36) Francis
Dhomont (Canada): En Cuerdas (11:29) Preston
Wright (AK): Carpenter Ant Blues (6:19) Malte
Steiner (Germany): Drahtwelt (6:27) Philip
Mantione (NY): Sinusoidal Tendencies (9:57) Michael
Kosch (NY): Colatudes (3:50) David
Jaggard (France): Mary and Ann (14:30) Antun
Blazinovic (Croatia): Elements (3:39)
John von
Seggern: Hyper Erhu
Hyper Erhu
is an unfolding of musical possibilities inherent in a short sample
of erhu (Chinese violin) playing recorded on my laptop
computer at a rehearsal in Hong Kong. Every sound in this piece
except for the pulsating bass drum was created by applying various
software-based transformations to the same erhu sample and
then creating larger shapes and structures out of the resultant
sounds. I think of this more as a process of exploration and
discovery rather than self-expression, and I am constantly surprised
by the sounds I find when composing via this method.
John von
Seggern is a performer and composer based in Hong Kong. He currently
is active as an mp3/computer DJ with his band Digital Cutup Lounge
[http://www.digitalcutuplounge.com]. Together with fellow laptop DJ
Stephen Ives, John uses computers to mix together dance tracks,
ambient noise, jazz solos, Internet radio broadcasts and music from
all over the globe, following a massive multicultural collision
course with our hyperaccelerated future. John and Stephen frequently
perform together with live musicians as well, exploring the
possibilities of human/computer improvisation.
John also is a
graduate student in music at the University of Hong Kong, where he is
doing thesis research on mp3s, online music, and the far-reaching
effects the Internet is likely to have on the future development of
music and the music business. johnvon@digitalcutuplounge.com
Katherine
Gordon: Holding Patterns
Holding
Patterns slowly circles an unknown destination, waiting
indefinitely for the signal to descend. Fragmented streams of encoded
information are intercepted, embedded in waves of AM static and radio
transmissions. Riding evanescent currents, the sounds give the sense
of both stasis and turbulence, as they gradually emerge and then
dissipate into the air.
Katherine
Gordon makes electronic music for recordings and live performance.
Her work ranges from abstract, textural soundscapes to song-like
pieces that express an idea more directly through text. A recording
of these text-oriented pieces is scheduled to be released by 2001.
She is finishing a degree in music composition as well as a degree in
philosophy at Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she has studied
with John Luther Adams, Pauline Oliveros, and Brenda Hutchinson. Her
next project is a multimedia installation piece centered on themes of
technology and existential angst. katherine.miller@oberlin.edu
Francis
Dhomont: En Cuerdas
En Cuerdas
is the acousmatic version of a work for guitar and tape co-written by
the guitarist Arturo Parra and myself; but it is completely
independent from the instrumental version. Its sonic environment
however remains that of strings that are plucked, rubbed and struck,
made virtual and transformed by computer processes and expanded by
the use of "electroacoustic writing".
I wish to
thank Arturo Parra, as well as the INA-GRM who were kind enough to
make the SYTER studio available to me. En Cuerdas won First
Prize at the "EAR 1999 Electroacoustic Music Competition,"
Hungarian Radio, Budapest, Hungary, and was a prizewinner at the
Second International Contemporary Music Contest "Citta di
Udine," Italy, 1998. The piece was commissioned by Arturo Parra
and realized with the assistance of the Canada Council. It was
premiered on May 15th, 1998 during the International Festival Musique
Actuelle Victoriaville (Quebec, Canada). SACEM, France. En Cuerdas
also is released on empreintes DIGITALes compact disc produced by
DIFFUSION iMeDIA.
Francis
Dhomont (b Paris, 1926) is a leading French and Canadian
acousmatic composer. Five-time winner at the Bourges International
Electroacoustic Music Competition (France)--where he was awarded the
Magisterium Prize in 1988--he has received a Second Prize at the Prix
Ars Electronica '92 and numerous international distinctions and
awards (in 1999, five First Prizes: Sao-Paulo, Budapest, Prague,
Valencia, and Pescara). Since 1978, he has divided his time between
France and Quebec, where he has taught electroacoustic composition at
the Université de Montréal. fdhomont@mlink.net
Preston
Wright: Carpenter Ant Blues
Carpenter
Ant Blues was composed in a tiny computer studio in Saint Paul,
Minnesota, from samples of PVC pipe, plastic diet coke bottles, pots
and pans filled with water, flower pots, metal signs, a variety of
Latin, Chinese, African and Native American percussion, and Korg's
physically modeled Wavedrum. It was sequenced in Cubase VST and
processed in Kyma.
Preston Wright
is a self taught musician/artist/computer hack who works outside the
commercial and artistic mainstream, and supports his habits by
working odd seasonal jobs in New Orleans and Alaska. He is currently
working on a full length album with Yu 'pik storyteller Jack Dalton
of Anchorage. preston_wright@hotmail.com
Malte
Steiner: Drahtwelt
Drahtwelt
is a computer-based piece made with Csound. The peaks of a
prerecorded stochastic sound sample excite a complex network of
virtual strings. The results of the waveguides are later filtered,
reverbed and composed into a whole piece. Drahtwelt was
produced in my own studio and premiered in Cuba in March 2000 on the
Spring in Havana festival for electroacoustic music.
Malte Steiner
began making electronic music in 1983, initially as a background for
his own performances and environments. Several music projects
followed, such as Das Kombinat and Elektronengehirn
which were released on CD. Steiner also does digital art and 3D
videos, computer programming, and constructs sound installations with
custom-built equipment. The next projects besides a new CD album are
a series of installations with Das Kombinat in different
places and some new sound software. steiner@block4.com
Philip
Mantione: Sinusoidal Tendencies
"I am
interested in the architecture of a piece and in exploring listener
derived models of form. I randomly juxtapose discrete sections of
equal duration in time. Each section is a mini-drone that evolves
slowly until it is abruptly interrupted by the next. Without an
imposed formal template or narrative, the listener is free to enjoy a
structure based on perceived activity and the "interestingness"
of individual sections. Having used this approach successfully in
Radiator with sample-based material, I decided to explore the
use of sine waves (the original seeds of electronic music).
Manipulation was limited to amplitude variation, time
expansion/compression, and varying the number of sine waves used at
any given moment."
Philip
Mantione is a New York City-based composer who has written music for
orchestra, chamber ensembles, multi-media performance art,
experimental video, computer interactive projects, and sound
installations. His piece, Radiator, can be heard on the CEC
(Canadian Electroacoustic Community) web site as part of Radiophonic
Works of Long Duration. You can visit his website at
http://www.geocities.com/philmantione/ manti@earthlink.net
Michael
Kosch: Colatudes
Colatudes
is three short musique concrète studies: "Barranca,""Djibouti", and "Vienna." The sound sources are
empty Coca-Cola cans, bottles (plastic and glass of various sizes),
and bottle caps (plastic and metal), recorded using a four-track
variable-speed cassette deck. The composer performed all the parts,
which he overdubbed, equalized, and remixed extensively. Colatudes
premiered in December 1994 as music for the dance Three Things,
choreographed and performed by Rachael Milder at the Martha Graham
School of Contemporary Dance, New York City.
Michael
Kosch's music has been performed by the Saint Paul Orchestra, the
Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble, Zeitgeist, the Buffalo New Music
Ensemble, and his own group, UNSTUCKE, and has been featured at such
venues as the Kitchen, Roulette, the Alternative Museum, and the
Walker Art Center. He has received awards from the Bush Foundation,
the McKnight Foundation, and Meet The Composer. He was born in
Paterson, New Jersey and attended the University of Miami and the
University of Illinois, where his teachers included Ben Johnston,
Salvatore Martirano, and Dennis Kam. He lives in New York City.
David
Jaggard: Mary and Ann
Mary and
Ann is based on a text taken from Samuel Beckett's novel Watt.
The composition was made over a two-year period at the Sonology
Institute in Utrecht, the Netherlands, using a hodgepodge of
old-fashioned analogue equipment dating back to the1950s. I
supplemented the ring modulator, variable speed tape recorder,
low-pass filter and forty-five-pound sine wave generator with a sound
effects disc from the public library, the in-house telephone, my
housemate's guitar, some handmade musical toys, and the toilet in the
third floor men's room. Thanks to John Calder Publications Ltd.,
London, for their kind permission to use this text.
David Jaggard
was born in 1954 and grew up in a small town in Iowa. He studied
composition with James Sellars, and in 1980 moved to Europe to work
in electronic and computer music. His Elastic Tango for piano
has been recorded by Ursula Oppens and Yvar Mikhashoff. David Jaggard
is the author of Quorum of One, a humor site on the World Wide
Web. djaggard@choppingedge.com
Antun Toni
Blazinovic: Elements
The
composition Elements, recorded in April 2000, represents the
style I use with my band Only Bass and Drum (www.onlybassdrum.com).
The composition was recorded combining programming and computer
processing with live recording.
In the piece,
there is a distinctive sound of the sopila--a wind instrument
characteristic to the Croatian coastal region, along the northern
part of the Adriatic Sea. The history of the region where I live has
always been tumultuous. The sopila has been present throughout
the turbulent times, its sound--like that of a siren--embodying fear,
but also combating it.
Thanks to
Adrijana Mamula (vocals), Stjepan Veckovic (sopila) and Nenad Persak
(recording).
I was born in
1965 in Croatia. I made the decision to become a professional
musician in1990, during the war in Croatia. I have participated in
some twenty CDs, both as composer and performer. In public, I am
mostly present in company with my band Only Bass and Drum. I am also
the owner of the music label ARION specializing in experimental,
alternative and film music. In l999 I won two Croatian music awards
for PORIN, in the film and theatre music categories. I
currently am preparing a polyrhythmic ethnic-drum and bass project
for European and World markets. obad1@yahoo.com
Sonic Circuits
is supported by the Jerome Foundation and the National Endowment for
the Arts. Executive
Producer: Philip Blackburn Sequencing:
Chris Strough Mastered by:
Brian Heller Cover art and
details: Circuitthinkershighway by Gregory Lee Euclide Thanks to the
following curators and helpers: tim Donahue, Fred Langenfeld, John
Jindra, Shaun Kadlec, Jan Gilbert, Bill Synder, Chris Strouth.
|
