ZKM | Musik Aktuell

Woche 37-42 / 8.09. - 19.10.08

Slot 1: Niblock / Schubert / Koenders / 1:53:25

01. Phill Niblock: Hurdy Hurry / 15:22
    Jim O'Rourke, hurdy gurdy samples
02. Phill Niblock: Nataliawork / 21:03
    Natalia Pschenitschnikova, bass flute and voice, recorded samples
03. Phill Niblock: Universe Premier / 20:49
    Thomas Ankersmit, alto saxophone, both live and recorded samples
04. Phill Niblock: Sethwork / 21:48
    Seth Josel, unamplified guitars played with ebow, recorded samples
05. Alexander Schubert: Der Grenzübergang zwischen Norwegen und Turin / 10:39
06. Michèl Koenders: Bound I / 10:13
07. Michèl Koenders: Helm en Slinger / 13:31
    Trompete: Marco Blaauw



Werkbeschreibungen:

Phill Niblock: Hurdy Hurry/Nataliawork/Universe Premier/Sethwork
Niblock's music is an exploration of sound textures created by multiple tones in very dense, often atonal tunings (generally microtonal in conception) performed in long durations. The layering of long tones only very slightly distinct in pitch creates a multitude of beats and generates complex overtone patterns and other fascinating psychoacoustic effects. The combination of apparently static surface textures and extremely active harmonic movement generates a highly original music that, while having things in common with early drone-based Minimalism, is utterly distinct in sound and technique. Niblock's work continues to influence a generation of musicians, especially younger players from a variety of musical genres. (Wikipedia).

Alexander Schubert: Der Grenzübergang zwischen Norwegen und Turin
für Klarinette, Klavier, Geige, Schlagzeug, Posaune und Elektronik
Live-Mitschnitt vom 27.04.2008 im Rahmen des "Blurred Edges Festivals" in Hamburg

1. Morgenaufstieg
2. Personelle Fragen einige Stunden zuvor
3. Norwegen verspricht gebrochen aufzugehen
4. Während wir schliefen kam die Abenddämmerung zurück
5. Bezüglich der Statik der vergangenen Tage

Ein Grenzübergang zwischen zwei nicht benachbarten Orten symbolisiert ein gedankliches Terrain, das zwei gegensätzlichen Plätze verbindet und eigentlich nicht existiert - es soll mit diesem Stück musikalisch und inhaltlich beschritten werden. Kompositorisch treffen klassisch notierte Passagen auf transkribierte, im Vorfeld improvisatorisch gewonnene Geräuschaufnahmen. Akustische Instrumente treffen auf ihre prozessierten, spektral manipulierten Varianten. Differente Formteile, mit eigenem musikalischem Vokabular stehen sich gegenüber. Diese Komponenten zu verbinden, verweben und zu kontrastieren ist der Grundgedanke des Stückes - die verschiedenen Sätze des Stückes kennzeichnen die unterschiedlichen Ansätze.

Der Titel und die Namen der Sätze beschreiben aber ebenso einen narrativen Erzählstrang, der sich im kompositorischen Verlauf des Stückes herauskristallisiert hatte. Eine romantische Grenzüberquerung, in einem gebirgigen Landstrich, an einem nicht definierten Ort, zu einer nichtlinearen Zeit, die zwischen den Dämmerungen springt, vor- und zurückläuft. Begonnen im Morgengrauen, in einer unklaren persönlichen Beziehung, Fragmente eines Landes entdeckend, das mit zerklüfteten Bergspitzen aus dem Dunst hervorbricht, nur um wieder in sich selbst zu zerbrechen, zeitlich zurückzusacken. Diese Unklarheit wird zum Ende des Stückes doch überpräsent greifbar, um ein Schlusswort zu erreichen. Angekommen an einem Ort, von dem nicht klar ist, ob er örtlich und zeitlich vor oder nach dem begonnen Morgenaufstieg liegt, nur emotional scheint er zu folgen.

Interpreten
Klarinette: Nora-Louise Müller
Klavier: Tanja Noters
Geige: Isabel Würdinger
Schlagzeug: Ki-chul Jang
Posaune: Lisa Katharina Stick

Michèl Koenders: Bound I
Tape-composition

Composed fort he sculptrist Robin Kolleman, as part of the exhibition 'Gathering' at the Paviljoens at Almere (Netherlands) in January to March 2000. The exhibition consists of 5 sculptures with a human shape. Each sculpture contained a small loudspeaker: therefore voice manipulation was a central theme. After this exhibition there was a total make-over of the composition: many tracks and sounds have been added to make it into a 4 channel tage composition. Central ist the poem of Robin Kolleman:

She closed her head
Within her the sound of crooning woman
She walked through
In spite of herself
She turned her body off
Facin the world
She saw the moon affected
Undecided she changed her name

Voice and voice manipulation are central ingedients for this composition. Phasevocoder analyses and (re-)synthesis techniques are being used to create a rich timbral pallet. The sounds are sometimes isolated in space and sometimes in dialogue with each other. Vioces and sounds are moving through space. (Pantophonic). The whole composition consists of three major movements whih are linked together

Michèl Koenders: Helm en Slinger Trompete: Marco Blaauw At some stage we all have to aim ourselves and in any case it's handy to be able to withdraw from a treaty if it doesn't suit one any more isn't it? Aside from this... This is the last piece in my "Armamentscycle" of three pieces for solo instrument and computer (cello: "Bow and arrow", piano: "Spear and Shield", trumpet "Helmet and Sling"). I thought it would be a good idea to use this piece to provide Theater Kikker with appropriate armaments for the future, being commission for the festive reopening of this theatre in September 2001. "Helmet and Sling" is, as are the other pieces in the armamentscycle a so-called Algorithmic composition. In short: complex calculations form the basis of the pitch, dynamics and duration of the notes. The use of microtonality (quarter-tones) is interwoven with tonal and chromatic elements in the composition and serves as coloration only. The computer provide the rest of the colour. Harmonizers and time variable delays are used for this as well as convolution and through this techniques such as cross-synthesis in combination with for example, additive synthesis. Because pitch detection in combination with fractal calculations is constantly being applied to determine the exact progression of the signal processing, the precise development of the signal processing (in order to modify the sound) is recalculated by each new note. As such "Helmet and Sling" is a so-called "Eventdriven" composition, whereby much of the precise sound manipulation falls back in the hands of the performer.

Biographien

Phill Niblock Phill Niblock is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video and computers. He makes thick, loud drones of music, filled with microtones of instrumental timbres which generate many other tones in the performance space. Simultaneously, he presents films / videos which look at the movement of people working, or computer driven black and white abstract images floating through time. He was born in Indiana in 1933. Since the mid-60's he has been making music and intermedia performances which have been shown at numerous venues around the world among which: The Museum of Modern Art; The Wadsworth Atheneum; the Kitchen; the Paris Autumn Festival; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Akademie der Kunste, Berlin; ZKM; Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard; World Music Institute at Merkin Hall NYC. Since 1985, he has been the director of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York where he has been an artist/member since 1968. He is the producer of Music and Intermedia presentations at EI since 1973 (about 1000 performances) and the curator of EI's XI Records label. In 1993 he was part of the formation of an Experimental Intermedia organization in Gent, Belgium - EI v.z.w. Gent - which supports an artist-in-residence house and installations there. Phill Niblock's music is available on the XI, Moikai and Touch labels. A DVD of films and music is available on the Extreme label.

Alexander Schubert Alexander Schubert, geboren 1979 in Bremen, studierte in Leipzig Informatik und Biologie mit den Schwerpunkten Neuroinformatik und Kognitionswissenschaften. Parallel dazu war er als Musiker und Komponist in verschiedenen Kontexten tätig. Nachdem er ein Jahr am ZKM in Karlsruhe am Institut für Musik und Akustik gearbeitet hat studiert er seit 2007 Multimediale Komposition an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.
Grundsätzlich beschäftigt er sich genreübergreifend mit der Schnittstelle akustischer und elektronischer Musik. Formal notierte Live-Elektronik-Kompositionen und Tonbandwerke gehören genauso zu seinem Arbeitsfeld wie der Entwurf von Software-Setups und Manipulation / Entwurf von Instrumenten für eine intuitive Bedienung im improvisierten Kontext. Als konstanter Schwerpunkt zieht sich die Arbeit mit geräuschhaften Klängen durch seine Arbeit, realisiert durch unkonventionelle, Präparationen nutzende Spielweisen und die Verwendung von Fieldrecordings. Seine technische Ausbildung bietet die Grundlage für differenzierte Nutzung und individuellen Entwurf von Klangsynthese- und musikalischen Steuerungs-Programmen (z.B. in der Installation "A Set of Dots"). Neben seiner Tätigkeit als Komponist und Solo-Instrumentalist gründete er folgende Ensembles: "Schubert-Kettlitz-Schwerdt" für ausschließlich auf Geräuschen basierende Improvisation, das vollständig elektronische Trio "Trnn", welches im Spannungsfeld zwischen dichten Lärmteppichen und akzentuierten Klangfarben- und Dynamikbrüchen arbeitet. Die Formation "Ember" (Saxophon, Schlagzeug, Piano, Elektronik) bewegt sich in einem zumeist reduzierten, polyrhythmischen Raum zwischen Free Jazz und zeitgenössischer Kammermusik. Schubert hat zu verschiedenen szenischen Projekten als Musiker, Komponist und Programmierer beigetragen (z.B. für das von den Wiener Festspielwochen in Auftrag gegebene Theaterstück "151 Meter über dem Meer"). Alexander Schubert kuratiert das Musikfestival für Zeitgenössische Elektronische Musik in Leipzig und betreibt den Ahornfelder-Verlag für experimentelle Audio- und Buchveröffentlichungen.

Michèl Koenders Born 1961 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Already from an early age he was interested in sound, music and theatre. After first following the course in Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, he continued his studies in Music Technology at the Faculty of Art and Media Technology of the Utrecht School of Arts (Netherlands). In 1996 he obtained a Diploma with Honours in both the fields of Music Software Development and Computer Composition. During this period of study he spent time at a number of institutes: City University (London, UK), Franklin College (Lugano, Switzerland), LIEM-CDMC (Madrid, Spain), and finally at ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany), where he completed work on his own composition software and composition portfolio with an interactive composition, "Spear & Shield". (Piano and computer: Next/ISPW). After his studies he worked for a short period as Technical Support with the Utrecht School of Arts, as Curator with the Impakt Festival and as organiser for contemporary music concerts at Theatre 'Kikker' in Utrecht.
Following this in 1998 he was employed by IRCAM (Paris, France), working mainly on the application SVP and AudioSculpt - appearing as version 1.91ß at the 1999 Ircam Forum CD. Since then he has been engaged in compositional activities: in collaboration with the composer Harry de Wit he worked on two dance films for television - "Enclosed" and "Breath Crystal" (BBC/NPS) - as well as two theatre productions - "India Song" (produced by Ivo van Hove, Zuidelijk Toneel) and "Stalker" (produced by Gerard-Jan Rijnders, Toneel Groep Amsterdam). Further he developed the Sound Design for the production of "Geen Lied" by Ramsey Nasr (Zuidelijk Toneel) as well as for the exhibition of the artist Theo van Doesburg in collaboration with the pianist Kees Wieringa at the Kroller Müller Museum and the Utrecht Central Museum (Feb - March 2000). And he worked on the production of "Oedipus" by Pierre Audi and the Amsterdam Theatre Group (Feb.-Oct. 2001). in the Autum/Winter of 2001/2002 he was composer in Residence at the ZKM, Karlsruhe Germany, working on a composition for Marco Blaauw (Trumpet and computer). In 2003 he collaborated with the composer George Lopez in his 'Gebirgskrieg project', to 'spatialize' the Orchestral Sound (co-production: Ruhr-Trinale, SWR, ZKM, …RF and Klangforum Wien - The Gebirgskrieg 5.1 DVD which he made as wel, has been released in 2007, Wergo).
After that he worked on the Music-theatre piece 'Cyclotron' (pianoduo and computer) (2004-2005) and most recently he has completed a composition for the Zephyr stringquartet (2006): 'OP=OP', for computer and stringquartet, which has received several performances in The Netherlands. The last 2 years he also teaches computer programming skills (C/C++) for music and sound at the Faculty of Art and Media Technology of the Utrecht School of Arts (Netherlands).

Most of his workes are for instruments (percussion, piano, string-instruments, trumpet, voice, saxophone) and computer (realtime DSP) but he also made music for filmscores, musictheatre, computer graphics and tape -solo-compositions.

Pieces have been performed during the 'Nederlandse Muziek dagen' (Muziekcentrum Vredenburg) and divers concert halls such as Theatre Kikker, the IJsbreker, Lantaarn de Venster as well as having been broadcasted on television and radio (Netherlands and abroad (SWR - Germany, ISMEAM - Hungaria, ÖRF - Austria, Tjech republik, Canada, USA, Australia etc.). Works appearing on CD: 'Dreams of transformation' (DJC CD 221) and Electro-acoustic music from the Netherlands 2000 (PEM CD 1).



Slot 2: Sean Reed: Oracle Sequence 01-16 / 1:57:73

01. Oracle Sequence 01 / 07:16
02. Oracle Sequence 02 / 07:11
03. Oracle Sequence 03 / 07:13
04. Oracle Sequence 04 / 07:10
05. Oracle Sequence 05 / 08:08
06. Oracle Sequence 06 / 07:26
07. Oracle Sequence 07 / 07:13
08. Oracle Sequence 08 / 07:07
09. Oracle Sequence 09 / 07:20
10. Oracle Sequence 10 / 07:08
11. Oracle Sequence 11 / 07:05
12. Oracle Sequence 12 / 07:10
13. Oracle Sequence 13 / 07:08
14. Oracle Sequence 14 / 07:31
15. Oracle Sequence 15 / 07:33
16. Oracle Sequence 16 / 07:52


Werkbeschreibung:

Sean Reed: Oracle Sequence 01-16 / 1:57:73

The music for these "Oracle" pieces came about as part of an audio-visual-text project produced in collaboration with Robert Darroll for the ZKM PanoramaScreen in 2007. The original installation allows the user to enter a question through a type-screen interface and be presented with an immersive audio-visual sequence in response. Each sequence consists of 10 segments, and every time a sequence is requested, it is constructed anew from a pool of up to 8 possible sound and image clips designated for each segment.
One structural goal of this collaborative work was to create ten groups of sound and image files - one for each segment - that were interchangeable with any of the other files from that given group, such that every resulting sequence would maintain the same overall form and effect while still being an independent, individual construction, much like the concept behind Mozart's Musical Dice Game.
The 16 pieces in this playlist are 16 possible constructions resulting from this modular approach to compositional form, each resulting piece having a duration of between 7 and 8 minutes. Although the original sound for the Oracle/Orakel installation contained three elements of spoken voice per sequence (the oracular statements spoken to the user), the speech component has been left out of the versions presented here for the sake of a purely "concert" variant of the electro-acoustic composition.
Sean Reed

Biographie:

Sean Reed [*1970, Camden, Maine, USA] studierte an der Eastman School of Music in den USA und an der Hamburger Hochschule für Musik und Theater bei Manfred Stahnke. Als Komponist realisiert er Werke sowohl für traditionelle Besetzungen als auch für interaktive Werke und Computer-/ Tonbandkompositionen sowie interdisziplinäre Arbeiten in Zusammenarbeit mit Künstlern aus den Bereichen Tanz, Theater, bildende Kunst, Video und Raum-Klang-Installationen._Internationale Aufführungen seiner eigenen und kollaborativen Arbeiten fanden statt u.a. innerhalb der "zeitoper"- Reihe der Hannover Staatsoper, der Münchener Biennale, dem CYNETart Festival Dresden, der ISEA Tagung 2002 in Nagoya, dem CEAIT-Festival der California University of the Arts, der Tagung "cast_01" der Medienplattform netzspannung.org sowie der transmediale in Berlin.
Reeds Arbeit wurde mit verschiedenen internationalen Preise und Stipendien ausgezeichnet, u.a. beim Nachwuchsforum der GNM, mit dem Asolo Preis für Computerkunst, von dem Kulturkreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI, dem Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt und dem ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe.

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