Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, Barcelona,
Spain, 5-9 September 2005.
Reviewed by David Kim-Boyle
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
With the theme free sound, this year’s International Computer
Music Conference 2005 (ICMC) took place at the Escola Superior de Música
de Catalunya (ESMuC) in the dynamic city of Barcelona. As in previous ICMCs,
a wealth of musical works representing various different styles and performance
genres were presented. Each day saw two formal concerts take place, one
in the afternoon and one in the evening. In addition, two separate listening
room sessions in which a large number of “tape” and some DVD
works were presented, were running daily, and several interactive installations
ran throughout the course of the conference. Notable this year was the
particularly interesting off-ICMC program. This increasingly popular and
equally stimulating part of the ICMC, representing artists whose work is
not typically intended for the concert hall, often presents a more publicly
accessible face of computer music and such was no less the case this year,
with a large number of artists participating. As these are not official
ICMC events, however, they will not be reviewed here.
In all, 67 works were
presented in concert and 58 in the listening rooms from a total of 372
submissions. The listening panel included José Manuel
Berenger (Spain), Ali Momeni (USA), Joao Pedro Oliveira (Portugal), Michael
Alcorn (UK, ICMA representative), Jøran Rudi (Norway), and Elsa
Justel (Argentina). From these works, eight were selected for publication
on the Conference CD. The compositions chosen include: Ricardo Climent’s The
last castrati, Henry Vega’s Idoru in Metals, William
Kleinsasser’s (HO)2
C6H3 - CHOH - CH2NHCH3 (Adrenaline), Agostino Di Scipio’s Audible
Ecosystemics n. 2 (Feedback Study), Arturo Parra and Francis
Dhomont’s Sol
y sombra... L’espace des spectres, Chikashi Miyama’s Density,
Kim Suk-Jun’s What the bird saw, David Berezan’s Styal, and
Marc Ainger’s Annotations.
Given the quantity of music
presented at this year’s conference,
and the space limitations of this review, the author will only mention
some of the works that were to his ear particularly enjoyable.
Sunday, September 4. Opening Night Concert, L’Auditori—Sociedad
General de Autores y Editores (SGAE)
With two performers bent over a reacTable
and another participating through a network connection from Linz, Austria, TeleSon:
Invention #8 by
Chris Brown had an interesting premise. Appearing to be largely improvised,
the performers moved various different objects on the table with these
movements applying different types of modulations to a number of primitive
sound sources. The movements of the objects were projected for the audience
to see which helped to make the relationships between sound and processing
more explicit.
José Manuel Berenguer’s On Nothing explored
the musical and visual potential of particle systems. Using OpenGL-rendered
graphics and drawing heavily on granular synthesis techniques, the work
was in three distinct sections, each of which explored various different
types of movement and formation. The image and sound generation and the
transformational techniques applied to them were controlled by the composer
with a game pad. The overall result proved to be a striking synthesis.
Monday, September 5. Afternoon Concert, ESMuC Concert Hall
Henry Vega’s Idoru in Metals for three singers and computer
generated sounds received a memorable performance from Gonnie van Heugten,
Natasha Morsink, José Kamminga, and the composer. With the latter
standing adjacent to the performers and providing several rhythmic cues
throughout the performance, the work explored various vocal textures with
subtly modified timbres helping to blur the distinction between the real
and the synthetic. Synthetic resonances, reminiscent at times of a Greek
chorus, and breath-like tones were seamlessly blended into the natural
voices, especially effective during some of the sustained vocal textures.
Horaccio
Vagionne’s Harrison Variations, for tape, was another
highlight of this concert. With source material taken from Jonty Harrison’s ‘...et
ainsi de suite...’ the composer articulated a texturally rigorous
work with timbral transformations and contextual shifts continually engaging
the listener. Other highlights of this concert included Jon Nelson’s Gerry
Rigged for clarinet and computer, beautifully performed by Gerry
Errante.
Monday, September 5. Evening Concert, L’Auditori
This concert was composed entirely of works presented on DVD. While the
program could perhaps have benefited from the inclusion of some video
work with live performers, there were nevertheless several interesting
pieces. Gordon Delap’s Light body corpuscles was particularly
striking, with rapid intercuts of a male and female figure creating afterimages
that emerged from the interstices of the film. Ricardo Dapelo’s 2
Studies was also very enjoyable, with complex visual patterns liquefying
and absorbing into each other in various generative forms. Chien-Wen
Cheng’s Samsara was another especially striking piece with
some beautiful transformations of synthetic floral images.
Tuesday, September 6. Afternoon Concert, ESMuC Concert Hall
Massimo Fragalà’s L’uomo, for tape, applied various
processing techniques to a female voice to create sonorous textures exploring
not only the literal meanings of words but also their inner mechanisms.
Antonio Ferreira’s A romance of rust also explored textural
movements with the metaphor of rust being realized in the decay of sounds
and gestures while Joao Pedro Oliveira’s Letania for saxophone,
guitar, and CD playback explored the juxtaposition of various imitative
musical gestures not only against themselves but also against the sustained
sonorities established in the electronic domain. Javier Garavaglia’s Ableitungen
des Konzepts der Wiederholung (for Ala) for viola and computer, performed
by the composer, brought the concert to a close. Repetitive gestures were
gradually transformed in timbre and pitch to contrast physical stillness
with musical busy-ness.
Tuesday, September 6. Evening Concert, L’Auditori
This concert was one the highlights of the conference with a diverse display
of various performance styles featured. Damian Murphy and Peter Heaton’s Reconfigured for
DVD juxtaposed various everyday images of offices, schools, government
buildings, etc., to explore the effects of contextual displacement. Accompanied
by a rich, minimalist-style score, the overall effect was particularly
enjoyable. Valerio Murat’s Nuvolari for voice and images
received a wonderfully charismatic performance by Gianni Fontana. Particularly
refreshing was the use of various extended vocal techniques reminding
listeners of the musical power of non-synthetic sounds. Subtly processed
at times, the voice was complemented by images of vintage car races,
adding to the work’s overall appeal.
Mama Cedar and Liubomir Borisov’s Autopoiesis was
a visually stunning piece with a dancer/violinist “dressed” in
luminescent tubes incorporating overt physical movements into the performance.
With only the outline of the body visible at times the work presented
an interesting contrast between the skeletal lines of the musical gestures
and the amorphous sonic textures and visual afterimage blurrings. Yuta
Uozumi’s Chain for
laptop and projection was a particular highlight. With the compositional,
performance process exposed for all to see, using the composer’s
own software Gismo, Mr. Uozumi’s work set up an environment where
various musical agents bounced around and interacted on a two dimensional
surface. While the work was musically simple, it had a refreshing whimsicality.
Shawn Greenlee’s Needles(s) for laptop and projection could
not have provided a greater contrast to the Uozumi piece, with the performer
launching himself into an aggressive exploration of sonic interruption,
noise, and fragmentation. The concert concluded with Ludger Brümmer’s Temps
du Miroir for piano, computer, and projection. With images of various
human forms as a backdrop, pianist Maki Namekawa gave a wonderfully nuanced
performance with her sounds sometimes used as a trigger for the various
video streams projected.
Wednesday, September 7. Afternoon Concert, ESMuC Concert Hall
With a program comprised mostly of tape pieces, Arne Eigenfeldt’s Stream for
computer injected a real sense of physicality into the concert. With the
composer controlling the spatialization and processing of various sounds
through the use of a data glove, the literal and figural meanings of the
title were sonically explored. Kim Seung Hye’s Fluctuations for
flute and computer received a striking performance from flutist Kyungmi
Lee. Ms. Kim’s work established various fluctuating relationships
between the live flute sounds and the computer-generated ones, some of
which were captured from the live performance while others seemed to be
generated from prerecorded material. The opening was especially effective
with the computer spatializing dynamic, breath-like textures in response
to the simple gestures articulated by Ms. Lee.
Wednesday, September 7. Evening Concert, L’Auditori
David Berezan’s Styal for tape took its name from the location
of an old mill which provided much of the source material for this very
enjoyable work. The mechanical, and sometimes noise-like qualities of the
source were amplified through various fragmentary techniques but at the
same time beautifully contrasted with sustained resonant tones the composer
was able to extract from the space. Lars Graugaard’s Concealed
Behaviours for bass clarinet and interactive computer established some
hypnotic textures in which the timbre of the bass clarinet, performed by
Naüm Monterde, was used to control the rhythmic qualities of the sound
space. Ioannis Kalantzis’ Antiparastaseis for string quartet
and tape was also particularly enjoyable as it explored, like many works
before, the aesthetic contrasts between real and synthetic sounds with
the latter so hard to distinguish at times from the live sounds that the
work almost approached the form of a double quartet.
Thursday, September 8. Afternoon Concert, ESMuC Concert Hall
Thursday afternoon provided another especially enjoyable concert, notable
for a diverse display of instrumental resources. Gabriel Brncic’s ...que
no desorganitza cap murmuri and Elsa Justel’s Midi de Sable both
received wonderfully subtle performances by recorder virtuoso Joan Izquierdo.
The first made evocative use of the performer’s breath, very soft
pedal tones, and various multiphonics in contrast to a synthetic sound
world characterized by gestural precision and dynamic activity. Ms. Justel’s
work used a variety of instruments from the recorder family, exploring
the timbral space of each. Particularly interesting were the growl-like
qualities of the rarely heard bassett recorder, and the wonderful skittering
electronic textures that seemed to be comprised of short recorder samples.
Chikashi Miyama’s Density for harp and computer was also
most enjoyable. Using a granular technique developed by the composer,
the various nuances of the harp were arpeggiated and spectrally processed
in various ways. The contrast of harp harmonics against sustained granular
textures was especially effective. William Kleinsasser’s brief (HO)2
C6H3 - CHOH - CH2NHCH3 (Adrenaline), for trombone quartet and computer
provided a complete contrast in sound quality. With dynamic, fanfare-like
bursts, the sounds of the quartet were imitated, and transformed by the
computer into background resonances and sound masses which evoked the
equally transformative effects of memory.
Thursday, September 8. Evening Concert, L’Auditori
Arturo Parra and Francis Dhomont’s Sol y sombra...L’espace
des spectres for guitar and tape employed various extended techniques
including taps, scrapes, and detunings, as well as making some overt reference
to idiomatic guitar techniques. In what appeared to be a carefully improvised
performance against an electronic texture that made extensive use of transformed
resonances and other guitar sonorities, Mr. Parra’s performance was
powerful and musically compelling. Panayiotis Kokoras’ Shatter
Cone for violin and tape was a very enjoyable piece. With subtle timbral
transformations achieved by various different bow pressures and positions,
the natural violin sounds were complemented by a tape part that seemed
to extend these spectra in the delineation of new forms.
Mention should
also be made of saxophonist Xelo Giner who delivered wonderful performances
of Yasuhiro Takenaka’s Séparé et invisible,
Stefan Klaverdal’s Prayer of a King, and Alfonso Garcia de
la Torre’s Un caracol manchado.
Friday, September 9. Afternoon Concert, ESMuC Concert
Hall and Evening Concert, L’Auditori
The author was unable to attend the Friday concerts. The following works
were programmed: Machine Game by Jun Mizumachi, Trois moments
précédant la genèse des cordes by Eduardo Polonio, Taedet
Animam meam by Colby Leider, O que a menina ouve by Diego Garro, Reflections by
Petra Bachratá, Studies for BoSSA: The Lobster Quadrille and
Tetha by Dan Trueman, Octant by Jean-Claude Risset, Flute
Melt by Robert Mackay, Annotations by Marc Ainger, Dubh Bringlóid
(Black Dream) by Troy Rogers, Swallow by Haruka Hirayama, Treno by
Carlos Duque, and Tiento by Roberto Mosquera’s.
Listening Room
An enormous variety of work was presented in the conference’s listening
room sessions. While there was one session during which DVD works were
presented, the remainder of the works heard were either tape pieces or
recordings of works for instrumental resources and electronics. The author
particularly enjoyed Kyoko Kobayashi’s Wish for DVD, where
simple graphic transformations and acrostics were supported by whispered
vocal enunciations, Mario Verandi’s Klang-Film, which explored
the concept of exits with some well known footage including Lumiére’s
seminal “Workers Leaving the Factory,” Dmitri Voudouris’ L22P08M02
[Scene 1 + 3], a politically engaged work with a variety of voices
and shouts emanating from full sonic textures, Thomas Gerwin’s Computer
Music in which the sounds of computer hardware was used as source material,
and Kari Besarshe’s quietly meditative Signs.
Conclusion
For a European ICMC, it was perhaps not surprising that a large number
of acousmatic tape works were programmed. It was pleasing, though, that
these works, which, however musically rich, are often not as engaging
in concert as works requiring live performers, were counterbalanced by
a variety of pieces for a diverse assortment of instruments with electronic
processing.
Andres Lewin-Richter, Xavier Serra, and the rest of the organizing
committee are to be congratulated for putting together a stimulating
six days of music. Kudos should also be extended to the technical team
for their seamless production on programs that were often complex and
demanding. The author hopes that the tradition will continue at ICMC
2006.
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