We are fortunate enough to have the results of Raviv Ganchrow’s annual Aural Tectonics workshop broadcast on 18 international radio stations on-air and online. The programme will premiere this coming weekend, Sunday 18 April 2021 on Resonance FM in London at 23:00 (00:00 CET). Show broadcast listing can be found here: https://frameworkradio.net/broadcasts/.
The participating students were David Andriani, Mehrnaz Khorrami Ghaziani, Richard Hughes, Marco Manconi, Ghaith Qoutainy, Farah Rahman, Ján Solčáni and Hilde Wollenstein.
On 23 March there was a Sonology concert in the Arnold Schönbergzaal dedicated to Gabriel Paiuk’s The Construction of an Imaginary Acoustic Space, a composition for ensemble and electronics performed by New European Ensemble. The performance was followed by a lecture, after which the work was performed for a second time. The lecture was about the PhD research on this topic that Gabriel Paiuk is conducting for ACPA. Gabriel tells us about his research, his composition and the performance by New European Ensemble. The performance was recorded and will be published at a later time.
photo Alex Schröder
“My PhD research is mainly concerned with how the ways in which we listen are not fixed, but rather mutable. It explores how listening is an activity informed by diverse conditions. More specifically, it delves into how listening is influenced by the technologies we use. This entails a focus, not only on how technologies allow us to produce sounds differently, but on how they affect the ways in which we listen. In this case I’m understanding technology in a wide sense, thus: technology is as much the latest-generation machine-learning algorithm as a violin bow.
I’m fascinated with the material/sensorial (almost tactile) experience of sound. My PhD research both explores theoretical concepts that allow us to think how listening takes place and also produces artistic works that experiment with how these sensorial experiences of sound are modulated. My work takes the form of sound installations as well as works for instruments and electronics. I’m currently in the last year of my PhD trajectory, which means that I’m looking forward to finishing my dissertation by the end of 2021.”
Research and Artistic Creation “I’ve always considered research as a fundamental part of my work, since I believe it is inherent in any inquisitive approach towards artistic creation. Being involved with research means understanding artistic creation as fundamentally entwined in a living, social and material context which exceeds the fields of artistic practice and one’s own singular experience. A research perspective enables an investigation into how the notions, tools, ways of knowing and ways of relating to each other intrinsic to our art-making practices are informed and have implications on multiple domains: historical, geographical, material, technical, even geological, among others. Research implies understanding every art-production as embedded in a complex network rather than as the product of an isolated mind.”
The Construction of an Imaginary Acoustic Space “The Construction of an Imaginary Acoustic Space, the work which was performed for the first time in the Netherlands on Tuesday 23 March 2021, was commissioned by the Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik in 2018 and premiered in Salzburg in 2019. The work explores how the diverse ways in which sound is materially produced play a role in the ways we engage with it.
The work is based on the familiar presence of the sound of string ensembles across a wide array of auditory and cultural contexts, from the concert hall to pop music to the realm of audiovisual spectacles. Interestingly, it is probable that a great majority of people have heard the sound of string ensembles mediated through a myriad kind of recordings and technological devices, rather than in a live context. The way these string ensembles are experienced in their mediated forms is shaped by the acoustic and material qualities of the processes of recording and sound reproduction. The sensorial and affective traces that these processes create is at the basis of the work.
The Construction of an Imaginary Acoustic Space superimposes the sound of a live salon string ensemble with diversely mediated versions of the ubiquitous sound of string ensembles and investigates the acoustic and material imprint of these mediations. This is produced by superimposing different technologies, where one of the ensemble members operates a tape recorder on stage and a four-channel digital soundtrack explores the acoustic qualities of the Arnold Schönbergzaal.”
Performance on 23 March “I’ve been in touch with the New European Ensemble since a bit more than a year ago about the possibility of performing this work at some point. Evidently, the conditions prompted since a year ago by the pandemic made plans to present it much more difficult. Fortunately, the opportunity came up of presenting it within the Sonology Discussion Concert that happened on Tuesday, and it was made possible thanks to the generous contribution of Stichting De Zaaier.
The work was performed to an audience of 30 students and staff members from the school and a recording was made. Although the work emphasises the irreplaceable nature of the embodied acoustic experience which occurs in the concert hall – and thus it is essentially non-reproducible – we embarked on a sophisticated recording plan, in collaboration with the Art of Sound Department, that resulted in a document of the acoustic experience of the concert in the best possible way.”
Slowly rising from hibernation, The Hague’s Grey Space in the Middle is collaborating with sound artist Hilde Wollenstein for this first online edition of Moving Downstairs.
Moving Downstairs is a bimonthly programme that focuses on concerts, auditory performances and experiments, immersive sound pieces and collective experiences. Depending on the setting, the audience might be seated, standing, dancing, behind a screen, or specifically placed inside the basement of The Grey Space.
With the intention to explore a particular, individual sense of sound within a clear, collective structure, Hilde has written a score for eight performers, following a continuous dream narrative.
Richard Barrett: ‘To me, music is a way of understanding the world’
28 January 2021. Text: Myrthe Timmers.
A new chair has been added to the partnership between Leiden University and the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. Richard Barrett has been appointed Professor of Research in Creative Music (ACPA) as of 1 December 2020. ‘For me it is important that music and academia are not placed in an ivory tower.’
Barrett’s career is atypical for someone at the humanities. After studying Genetics and Microbiology, he made the switch to music at the age of 20. He became a composer and performing musician, but did not forget about science. ‘When I write about music, I always do so with scientific precision. It helps me to think in details.’
A long track record
This approach is useful to him at the Royal Conservatoire, where he has a long track record as a teacher at the Institute of Sonology. According to him, his new appointment ensures that he and his students can develop themselves further. ‘At the conservatoire, I sometimes mentor people who, after their two-year master’s, feel that their research has only just begun. As a professor, I can start building a community, giving them the opportunity to develop themselves further and to add more depth to their subject.’
Community and collaboration
The word ‘community’ comes up more often during the conversation. According to Barrett, music and academia are disciplines that are preferably practiced together. ‘The past year I have been researching improvisation in various disciplines, from dance to technology. I translated the results into music. The coming year I want to test these ideas with a group of improvising musicians from the conservatoire. This way we can arrive at new insights together.’
Academia as a bridge
The exchange between music and academia is useful to a position that includes the goal of strengthening the collaboration between the university and the conservatoire, but for Barrett it is more than a mandatory part of his job. Barrett: ‘To me, music is a way of understanding the world, but this is probably an unfamiliar idea to a lot of people. One of the reasons for “research in creative music” is to find ways to express and explain things like this to a wider audience, so I see the university as a platform from which to build bridges between the music and the public.’
The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) provides artistic research and education in the arts. ACPA is a research institute of the Faculty of Humanities and part of a partnership between the University of the Arts The Hague and Leiden University. This ensures, among other things, that students can combine an academic study with art courses at a university of applied sciences.
All those who are interested in the Audio Communication & Sonology double degree master’s programme are invited to attend an information session on 2 February 2021 at 3 pm. The meeting will take place via Zoom.
Kees Tazelaar and Richard Barrett (Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatoire, The Hague) and Stefan Weinzierl (TU Berlin) will be available to answer questions about the content and administration of the programme.
Sonology student Farzaneh Nouri (Iran) was interviewed for the Royal Conservatoire’s website: “the knowledge transfer is extraordinary”. The complete interview is available here:
The new label “ovaal” has released its first album on bandcamp today with music by Sonology student Aleksandar Koruga. Ovaal is dedicated to experimentation and improvisation in a live setting. The concerts take place in intimate locations, where the aim is to catch the performer in their habitat. Ovaal hopes to be a traveling platform, weaving together various streams of sound and people. all performances are curated and released by Sonology student Hilde Wollenstein.
0 01 was performed and recorded in November 2020 at Annastate, Den Haag. Aleksandar Koruga is a musician, composer and software developer born in Osijek, Yugoslavia. His work focuses mainly on human-machine interaction and its applications in live performance, compositions and installations.
Aleksandar has developed his own algorithmic system for improvisational practices, in which all sonic elements evolve continuously, weaving together sections of long climatic arcs. He combines his knowledge of acoustics, mathematics and computer science with a conscious musical instinct, synthesizing gritty, raw and high tension performances.
Electroacoustic Music Days 2020 is the 19th annual festival of electroacoustic music in Greece and is co-organised by the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA) and the Computer Music Lab of the Department of Music Technology and Acoustics of Hellenic Mediterranean University on 11, 12 and 13 December 2020.
The festival due to covid-19 travel restrictions will be instead live streamed through HELMCA’s youtube channel.
This year we have invited the long friend of HELMCA, composer Simon Emmerson to talk and present his work. We will present a video of his talk and a concert dedicated to his music.
The program consists of ten (10) concerts in 3 days, 54 compositions, 2 of which includes music by members of ICEM (International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music). The international part of the festival this year includes also music from the honorary and the founder members of CIME/ICEM: Francis Dhomont, Elzbieta Sikora and Barry Truax.
The organizing committee Katerina Tzedaki, Nikolas Valsamakis
Sonology Alumnus Billy Johnny Bultheel would like to invite you to his new work The Minutes of Olomouc, developed for the PAF film and performance festival in Olomouc, CZ. It is a music performance for a live stream, featuring Steve Katona and Alexander Iezzi. The work will be streamed on the following platforms on Friday 4 December 2020 at 9pm. Please tune in! Facebook WEB TWITCH IG LIVE @billjohnbultheel.
Bjarni Gunnarsson’s latest album Cendres has just been released on SØVN Records and consists of two electroacoustic compositions with a total duration of 42 minutes. the album can be found here: https://sovnrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cendres
Cendres was premiered on GRM’s Acousmonium in Paris on 18 October 2019. The work highlights the relation between high-level control processes and purely computer-synthesized sounds. Polytree was first performed at the Institute of Sonology in June 2018. The piece is created within a custom algorithmic environment and through extensive use of waveshaping processes. It focuses on using composed waveforms for movements in time and formal structures that emerge from lower-level synthesis methods. The album versions have been heavily reworked and extended since the original concerts. The pieces are an outcome of my research into algorithms, especially regarding interrupts, intervention, and dynamic, adaptive environments. The research has been documented in the links here below, although the two final pieces stand very much on their own. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/540350/540351https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/543155/543156
A few weeks earlier, Volume & Void was released on the Superpanglabel. Volume & Void was composed through experimental scheduling algorithms that explore the duality of immediate, direct events with gradual and evolving processes. The music was created during the summer of 2020 in Scheveningen, The Hague. https://superpang.bandcamp.com/album/volume-void
