TechnoSonics XIX: Voices Concert 2

2018-09-22 (Creation date: 2018-09-22)

Ouroboros          Becky Brown
mouthfeel          Alex Christie
weaving broken threads          Heather Frasch

Intermission

Coluber sono          Heather Mease & Ben Luca Robertson
Códigos Obsesos v1.7          Omar Fraire
Dulcimer Flight          Dan Joseph

Program Notes

Ouroboros - Becky Brown
walk circles round the morning and 
choke down again tomorrow, too
I would like to introduce the
days all crawling out of you
yawn those teeth a little wide
next year’s last week’s burnt anew 
yesterday’s stuck on your tongue 
you’ll try today, but then forget to

mouthfeel - Alex Christie
mouthfeel uses the performer’s human, fleshy mouth as a component in a greater circuit of noise. The mouth both actuates sound and acts as filter, moving the system through states of stability and chaos.

weaving broken threads - Heather Frasch
“How can secret rooms, rooms that have disappeared, become abodes for an unforgettable past?” Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, pg. xxxvi.

weaving broken threads is the realization of an open text-score, Housed memories, that was inspired by the writings of Gaston Bachelard who uses the memory of “houses as a tool for analysis of the human soul” (The Poetics of Space, Bachelard pg. xxxvi). Both the score and the realization explore
the memory of past spaces by using objects (sonic, text, physical) as source material. In the performance it weaves varied aspects of the distinctive places together (e.g. chronologically, most secretive, longest duration etc.). The digital instrument intentionally hides actions to emphasize the notion of interiority and how exterior physical places that no longer exist have become personalized inner notions of self.
The digital boxes are a versatile digital instrument constructed from cigar boxes. With microphones, sensors and objects hidden inside, the instrument serves as a vessel for hiding/revealing material during the pieces that it interprets.

Coluber sono - Heather Mease (video) & Ben Luca Robertson (sound)
This collaboration between Heather and Ben has been realized through in- tense dedication to detailed processes and a love of snakes. Heather’s video combines the physical, time-intensive processes of scraping away at and applying India ink to a 16mm education film titled “Snake’s Alive.” Snakes make up both the content and the medium—as piles of colored film look quite serpentine! The aural component of the piece consists of sonorities generated through electro-magnetic actuation of six strings tuned in 7-limit just intonation. This instrument (‘Rosebud’)—designed and constructed by Ben—responds to electronic signals, whose frequencies correspond to the first seven harmonics of each string. Resultant resonances from the six strings comprise two overtone series’ (Otonalities) and a single undertone series (Utonality). A simple program analyses RGB data from the video, assigns a color value to each overtone/undertone series, and activates sym- pathetic string vibrations according to the average intensity of a given color. The resulting system combines movement, color, and physicality in sound.

_Códigos Obsesos v1.7 - Omar Fraire
Collaborative piece with the composer Jorge David, inspired by a Samuel Beckett poem. The material is generated by the composer and uploaded in score and audio fragments to be scrambled or manipulated by the collabora- tor: http://codigos-obsesos.hotglue.me

Fin fond du néant
au bout de quelle guette l’oeil crut entrevoir remuer faiblement la tête le calma disant ce ne fut que dans ta tête.

Dulcimer Flight - Dan Joseph
In his solo and collaborative works for electroacoustic hammer dulcimer, Dan constructs contemplative soundscapes that slowly unfold over the course of 30-minutes to one-hour. With roots in early minimalism, ambient music and acoustic ecology, these long-form “journeys” combine composed elements, often in the form of a fixed melodic pattern, with extensive improvisation and field recordings while exploring the dulcimer’s rich harmonic properties. Us- ing both traditional and experimental (extended) performance techniques in combination with his self-designed computer-based processing system, Dan gives this ancient instrument and entirely new and contemporary identity.

Becky Brown (Composer); Alex Christie (Composer); Heather Frasch (Composer); Heather Mease (Composer); Ben Luca Robertson (Composer); Omar Fraire (Composer); Dan Joseph (Composer)

University of Virginia Concert Recordings

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