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Neural 39 > p.16 >

e-music

>news

Soplarte, enchanting glass orchestra

Soplarte is a performance by an orchestra of wind instruments built using the technique of glass blowing. Performed at the EMAF festival 2011, this unique ensemble was born out of the passion of Charlotte Van Wouwe. All the instruments have a conical shape but with different levels of curvature, which came out of the artist’s specific design choices but also by the arbitrary trend of blown glass to curve in different ways. Consequently, each instrument has its own particular tone and despite the use of a classical trumpet mouthpiece, the sound variations offered by each model are quite limited. This limitation is redeemed by the sounds created by the instruments. The most significant rhythmic variations trigger changes in the position of the musicians on stage, in a welldesigned harmony of bodies and sounds. The result is a charming and magnetic choreography in which musicians come together with delicate, transparent instruments, vibrating rare sounds and creating a magical refraction of light. > Chiara Ciociola

Disc.o, optical loop temple

Disc.o is a plastic representation of the unit length of repetitive contemporary music: the loop. The author, Andreas Haider, is explicitly referencing the SuperPiano of Emerick Spielmann, invented in 1929 as the first photoelectric sound synthesizer. The installation consists of two parallel circular planes positioned at head height and connected to the ceiling. The lower disc consists of 8 CD players, which correspond to as many mirrored LEDs mounted on the second disc, supported by thin columns. Reflected by the underlying paths and scratched cds, the light of the LEDs is converted into sound by the photodiodes and amplified by eight speakers positioned on the ceiling around users. The round shape of the installation and the small columns give the structure a sense of an ancient "monoptero" temple, a sacred circular building that was erected in ancient Greece for only the most important deities. This reference covers the work with a mystique air, with repetition (from rosaries to the ohm) being practiced to alter mental states, just as with music. > Chiara Ciociola

Quintetto, sounding goldfishes

Neural issue #37 came with a booklet where Zachary Lieberman asks the question: "How can we use code to create real-time animation that is lifelike and organic?" Since 1986, Craig Reynolds’ "Boids" algorithm, is one of the most frequently employed methods to camouflage silicon-based processes as carbon-based ones. Quiet Ensemble suggests that life is the best model of itself. In their work Quintetto, developed together with Fabio Sestili, five goldfish swim in five separate fish tanks. The movement of the fish is captured with a video tracking system and the acquired data is used to feed a number of sound synthesis units. The result resembles a generative audiovisual piece, but there is something in the arbitrary decisions of five goldfish that appears to have a different quality than the seemingly similarly random decisions of an algorithm. Even though the authors are here definitely outsmarting their performers, it transpires that using real specimens can be more compelling than coding simulations. > Matteo Marangoni

Lotto Beats, betting the rhythm

Deciding which lottery numbers to play is always a difficult choice. Generally the categories of thought are two: one is trusting in coincidence, the other is probability theory using mathematical systems. Through the work Lotto Beats, Arturas Bumsteinas proposes a new (exotic) method for playing the lottery. He noted the curious resemblance between the visual interface graphics of Lotto cards and the sequencer software for creating electronic rhythms. Starting from this point, the Lithuanian musician has composed a series of twenty simple rhythms, applying them to the numerical structure of the Swedish lottery tickets. Twenty of the tickets made using the beat method were then exhibited with the chance of listening to the recorded rhythms. Three of them were also lottery winners. It is clear that the combination of the two fields was caused by a purely aesthetic visual similarity and the illusion of a possible third playing philosophy. Yet surprisingly the random winner was that total unpredictability can sometimes be harmonious. > Chiara Ciociola Neural 39 > p.17 > e-music

>reviews

Tristan Perich 1-Bit Symphony, Cantaloupe Music Ca21042

Lawrence English Site-Listening: Brisbane, Room 40 ISBN: 978-0980814903

Show Me How [not] To Fight, music and virtual murders

The Rare Hymn Oil group made a performance in a warehouse in Pittsburg. In Show Me How [not] To Fight four gamers play a first person shooter over a LAN. The game is projected on a screen placed behind them and appears to be a simulation of urban guerrilla warfare in the Middle East. The actions of the gamers are used to generate a graphical score that is overlayed on a projection screen, providing cues to an ensemble of four percussionists. The mix of laptops and acoustic instruments seems to question the nature of music itself as ritualized murder, in the terms described by Attalì in his book "Noise". He argued that music serves as a channeling force and a sublimating symbol of the sacrifice of human life, which is necessary for the conservation of social structures. Then war games and music can be understood as two alternatives for the same purpose, and the apparent contrast between media observed in the instance of this recorded performance could be interpreted as concealing a deeper affinity. > Matteo Marangoni

Coming a few years after the first Perich's 1-Bit Music "circuit album", this 1-Bit Symphony never ceases to amaze. The first problem is: how to define such a musical product (electronics in a transparent jewelry box which "executes" music)? The only reference that quickly comes to mind is the Buddha Machine, but that was made on top of something already used for other purposes. Despite its familiar cd case, this is an electronic object that performs every time the listener turns the switch on. And it's an official (and affordable) label release, although manually assembled by Perich. Its 1-bit digital microchip produces the lowest possible quality of digital audio, but its symphonic intensity and the emotional involvement comes through the intentional harshness of audio. Listening to the music requires plugging in headphone or speakers and once it starts to play the only controls are a button to change track (only in one direction, and with no way to pause) and a small wheel to regulate the volume. The whole programming code (pure Assembly for both software and music) is printed in the folded booklet and the smell of electronics in use (similar to old analogue hi-fi systems) reaches the nostrils once the case is open. The five symphonic movements are exquisitely constructed and the last one functions as an infinite loop. It's a brilliant work, intimately playing with contrasts (like the sumptuousness of the symphony composed in 1 bit), and fragility (glued electronics fed by a 20-hour battery).

Collaborative sound mapping, random field recording, sonic memory and live transmission from specific sites are various approaches that have been explored and used in the recent past, especially in connection with enormous potential of active audience contribution of recordings and networked microphones. Lawrence English here uses a different approach, making use of his own substantial experience. With the first in a series of "SiteListening" guides published on his own label Room 40, he's implicitly reaffirming the central role of the editor (or curator), who is able to select a small but extremely meaningful set of audio materials. In his own words SiteListening is "the act of attentive listening in any chosen location, privileging the auditory environment as the focus of awareness. (...) it's about privileging the ears over the eyes." Brisbane, with its varied terrain, urban and rural settings and consequent ambiences, is a good place to start. David Toop, Nick Earls and Lawrence English himself are the authors of three essays included in the book, reflecting on their daily sound experience. The seventeen locations chosen in the city are described as a representative though nonetheless personal sound map, including photographs, notes and GPS locations, and printed in a pocket guidebook (perfect to be carried around and consulted when needed) while recordings from each site are hosted in the included 3" cd. Audio tourism or contemplative awareness of one's own territory? Enthusiastically both, probably.