CHAMBERS 23–27/03/09
Entr’acte and Musarc presented a week of exhibitions, lectures and performances charting the boundaries between sound, space, music and architecture. Read more about the Chambers series of events here.
All events took place in the Forum, Department of Architecture and Spatial Design (see venue information).
Free admission.
Download event programme (pdf)
MON 23/03/09 18:30, LECTURE, MARC BEHRENS
Marc Behrens. Photo A F Soholt
From small-town Hessia to small-town China via a Norwegian glacier, calving
Marc Behrens is a composer and sound artist living in Germany. His work occupies several cerebral and physical areas. It mainly consists of electronic music and sound installations, often accompanied by photography or video. Read more about Marc Behrens.
A number of examples from Behrens’s sound, installation, and visual work will be given and discussed in the framework of perception, experience and motivation. Much of the work is connected to specific locations and their context, such as a mountain village on the border between Italy and Slovenia, the Norwegian Nordfjord area and the Western Chinese province Qinghai.
Besides multichannel sound the installations feature three-dimensional objects, sometimes video projections and a basic implementation of interactivity. Behrens will show the processes that lead to the work, both in his own personal experience and motivation, as well as concerning the works’ technical realization.
Admision to this lecture is free, but seating is limited. Arrive early to avoid disappointment.
TUE 24/03/09 18:30 PERFORMANCE ASD CHOIR/BEHRENS/EMERY/KOHLMAIER/GOUGH
Helena Gough. Photo David Beckley
In recent years, the computer as an instrument has challenged the distinct presence of the human voice and the sound and scope of traditional musical instruments. The coincidence of live and pre-recorded sound, its visualization, manipulation and dissemination in space is raising new questions about how music is made, performed and heard.
The performance event in this first series of Chambers presents a diverse programme of traditional and experimental repertoire that illustrates this transition. It marks the first public performance by the ensemble of the ASD Choir, premieres of new works and solo performances by Marc Behrens, Helena Gough, Joseph Kohlmaier and Racheal Perrin.
Performances by the ASD Choir
The ASD Choir formed in November 2008, bringing together a group of students and professionals who share an enthusiasm for experiment and singing and an interest in music, sound and architecture. The choir, conducted by Cathy Heller-Jones will perform works by Steve Reich, William Cornyshe, Meredith Monk, Johannes Brahms, John Tavener and Veljo Tormis, transversing six centuries of musical styles and approaches to choral composition.
Marc Behrens: Rabies
Rabies, a composition for voices and electronics, was commissioned by the ASD Choir for the first series of Chambers. For Behrens, who has been concentrating his career as a composer on working with field recordings and electronics, it is the first work for traditional instrumentalists and musicians in 15 years.
A four-channel arrangement of electronic sounds generated from close-up recordings of the mouth will be the base for this piece. The singers will be divided into four groups in different places in the performance space and will partly interfere, partly blend their voices with the electronic arrangement. The electronics are not based on a timeline and both main elements, singers and electronics, work with a conceptual score and set of rules. Rabies is performed by Marc Behrens and members of the ASD Choir.
Listen to a recording of the performance
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Marc Behrens introducing Rabies. Photo: Fraser Muggeridge
Joseph Kohlmaier, Paul Emery and Rachael Perrin: Anima
Anima is an improvisation piece in four movements for bass clarinet and live visualization. It is based on an animation model which responds directly to the sound generated by the performer, translating music into movement; but the animation is unpredictable and operates on both fixed and random parameters, forcing the performer to react to the visualization in turn. Anima is based on a concept by Joseph Kohlmaier and was developed in collaboration with film maker and video artist Paul Emery for Chambers.
Anima is performed by Joseph Kohlmaier and clarinetist Rachael Perrin.
Joseph Kohlmaier, animation diagram for anima
Helena Gough – solo performance
Helena Gough is an English sound artist based in Berlin. Initially trained in violin and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, Junior Academy, Helena went on to complete a BMus at Birmingham University. Her work involves the collection and manipulation of ‘real-world’ sound material and the exploration of its abstract properties. Each new sound piece is created by taking everything possible from the tiniest element – working to create something from nearly nothing. Her live sets are intended for dark spaces and involve recombining and improvising with her sound materials in order to create a unique environment for each new performance.
“The germinations of Gough’s complex connections of decomposed frequencies and impenetrable permanences produce superb aural emulsions of otherwise extraneous substances, keeping us suspended between a surgical reviviscence of our secret fears and a special kind of ecstatic indecision…”
Read more about Helena Gough.
WED 25/03/09 18:30 LECTURE & PERFORMANCE ESTHER VENROOY
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Esther Venrooy (1974, Rosmalen, The Netherlands) is a composer and sound artist working in the field of electronic music. After completing studies in classical saxophone, Venrooy attended the European Dance Development Center in Arnhem as a composer in residence, where she began using electronic and digital techniques in pieces for choreography and stage performance. Her music gradually evolved into an independent means of expression, and she continued her work with electronics at the IPEM (Institute for Psycho-acoustics and Electronic Music) in Ghent, where she still resides. At this time she started utilising film editing techniques as a foundation for her compositional methods.
Her works range from purely electronic composed music to improvised combinations of electronics with traditional instruments such as piano, flute and satsuma-biwa. She has created site-specific works as well as multimedia performances and installations.
Apart from her artistic activities, Venrooy is a lecturer on 20th century music and experimental arts at the Ghent school of fine arts, where she also runs the audio workshop. Venrooy also presides the board of the (k-raa-k)3 organisation.
Esther will give a lecture on recent work and perform Vessel. Admision to this lecture is free, but seating is limited. Arrive early to avoid disappointment.
More info on http://www.entracte.co.uk/esthervenrooy/
23–26/03/09 EXHIBITION SAM BELINFANTE: DRIP PIECE
Sam Belinfante, Step Piece, ASD 2009
Sam Belinfante (b.1983) is an artist living and working in London. In his projects he endeavours to bridge the gap between the visual and the audible. This is most evident in his graphic scores where drawings offer an interface between a performance and its direction. Whilst recently completing his Masters at the Slade Belinfante has shown both nationally and internationally – including group shows in Stoltzestrasse 11 Frankfurt, TactileBOSCH Cardiff and Tate Britain for Late at Tate. Read more about Sam Belinfante.
Drip Piece was a six channel sound installation first shown at the Wolburn Research Centre in 2007. For Chambers, Belinfante’s piece will be recreated in a hidden but busy back staircase at the ASD which connects the main ground floor corridor with the studio and teaching spaces on the floor above. A set of piezo transducers and a condenser microphone suspended above the stairs will route the sounds created by people circulating through the space to a laptop, which manipulates the sound in real-time and replays it through six speakers.
Admission & tickets
Admission to all events is free, but seating is limited.
Arrive on time to avoid disappointment.
You can make an advance reservation for the performance on Tuesday 24 March, 6.30pm and collect your tickets up to 15 minutes prior to the performance.
Venue information
All events take place in the Forum
Department of Architecture and Spatial Design
London Metropolitan University
Spring House
40–44 Holloway Road
London N7 8JL
Directions
Nearest tube: Highbury & Islington
Wheelchair access to the premises is provided.
