Borderline Festival 2018

Maria Papadomanolaki will be performing with Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) as part of Borderline Festival in Athens on the 21st of April 2018.

Does it make sense to talk about borders in music? How can you fence in sound, a physical phenomenon that travels through solids, liquids and gases alike? Can we get to grips with something that’s in a state of constant flux, with what dominates the here and now?

Starting out with these questions, Borderline invites us to surrender to the infinitude of sound and experience live music free of barriers and compartmentalization. Song and noise, composition and improvisation, live dj sets and sound installations, talks and other activities at the 8th iteration of the Athenian festival that continues to support experimentation, new collaborations and sonic quests of every sort. At the OCC and beyond.

More info: http://www.sgt.gr/eng/SPG2023/

DMSA Feature: Jade Gunner (Y1 Student)

Jade Gunner is the first of our first year students to contribute her thoughts to our features series. Jade’s entusiasm for experimentation has allowed her to create some fascinating work as part of the course but also outside it as it is clearly documented on her soundcloud page.

DMSA: Three important words that represent you as a creative person?

JG: Unique, Unafraid and Experimental!

DMSA: When did you start working with sound and music?

JG: I have always been interested in Sound and music throughout my life, I’ve always been fascinated by how it’s made. When i was 14 I started to learn guitar, then later on moved onto the ukulele. In college I studied creative Media Production, and started working with digital music/sound design through that. The project I did that made me realise I wanted to do this course was removing all the Sound from a game clip and re creating all the atmospheric music, Sound design, ADR and Foley. I feel in love with it from there.

DMSA: What made you choose the course and in what ways has the course supported or helped you so far to develop creatively?

JG: I chose this course as I was looking around for courses that focused on experimental music and working with sound. This course looked perfect for me, and when I went to an open day I realised it had everything i was looking for. I have been given so many opportunities to be creative, which is what i wanted. I have been able to do so much more than I imagined studying here so far, from learning how to use different studio set ups, Surround Sound, how to make atmospheric sound and Sound in Space. I am very excited with more boundaries I can push with my creativity!

DMSA: What are your plans for the near future? projects, events, visions

JG:I want to expand my portfolio more and create different styles of digital music. I am also looking for different artists from other courses that I could collaborate with, for either music purposes or sound design/art. I have also been very interested to visit the event: Splitting The Atom, as I know they do experimental music nights there which would been brilliant to experience.

Listen to more sounds from Jade via her soundCloud.

Maria Papadomanolaki to participate in Tuned City Messene 2018

DMSA course leader and senior lecturer will be participating in this year’s Tuned City Messene 2018.

The event asks questions about listening and politics and has invited 50 international artists to work with the site and produce original works in response to it.

Tuned City’s previous milestones Berlin 2008, Tallinn 2011, and Brussels 2013 used to take place in central European metropolises. This year, Tuned City visits Ancient Messene May 31st – June 3rd and seeks out the exemplary ‘ideal city’, the ancient Greek polis.

‘The urban landscape of Messene was constructed in the Early Hellenistic era, according to certain architectural and town-planning principles of spatial organization, which reflected the political and social values of the period applied to the demands of this programmatic city founded by the Thebans in 369 B.C. on the south slopes of mount Ithome. The city was famous for its mighty fortification walls, the monumentality of its public buildings and the Hippodamian town-plan. The cityscape preserves evidence related to its successive constructional phases in the course of time from the 4th century BC to the 14th AD. The character of the landscape is defined and transformed by human activities and ideologies; it is a cultural product subject to constant re-interpretation.’ – Petros Themelis, director of the excavations

The archaeological site and active excavation with all it’s layers of history is the ideal place to reflect about ‘city as a construct‘ and explore the sensual aspects of space as well as social and political dimensions of the city.

What do we project on a site like this? How do we trace and preserve history and how does this shape contemporary and future culture identities? What lays underneath and in between the monumentalized obvious findings? How can we decode sedimented memories? What is the difference between local and distant, past and present modes of memory? How can we access or activate different modes of perception?

Listening seems passive, but it is an activity, a ‘silent production’, involving translation, decoding, abstraction, improvisation, the use of memory to recognize and connect elements from other things heard, subconscious filtering… The acoustic world surrounds us like the fabric of architecture in an urban city environment. Listening is a constant interaction.
Under this particular contingency, sound suggests a form of negotiation, listening partakes action, and hearing is always more than a simple perceiving of sound by the ear. With a focus on hearing’s emplacement and the pronounced situatedness of listening, Tuned City explores the ways in which oscillations enact a sense of place that also senses us back.
Each day of the proceedings will be focused around a central theme with the following provisional titles: Listening Politics, Media Matter, Spectral Ambience

Sound artists, performers and researchers meet for two weeks in the ancient place to establish a dialogue between the ruins that once hosted a vibrant city to be inspired by it’s conception and history, traces and findings and the special atmosphere. Questioning it’s proper function, and the different definitions of what an ideal city was and should be, the works range from sound installations, walks, lectures, concerts and participatory events.
Tuned City is going to listen underneath the surface and in between the obvious findings. In a weekend long event, the ancient Greek city of Messene will be transformed in to a vast platform for artistic production and presentation, discussion and intermediation of sound art and music in public spaces through a variety of site specific formats in a direct interrelation with the local context and a vital exchange with a local and international audience.

The invited artist will all present new commissioned works, among the confirmed artist and researchers are:

Petros G.Themelis (GR) / Savina Yannatou (GR) / Dimitris Tigkas (GR) / agf – Antye Greie Ripatti (DE/FI) / Yannis Kozantzas (GR) / Kosmas Koteas (GR) / Justin Bennett + Roelf Toxopeus – BMB con (NL) / noid (AT) / Gilles Aubry (CH/DE) / Nathalie Mba Bikoro (GA) / Hanna Hartman (SE/DE) / Dimitris Plantzos (GR) / Shannon Mattern (US) / Caitlin De Silvey (GB) / Douglas Kahn (AUS) / Eric Lewis (CA) / John Grzinich (US/EST) / Jens Brand (DE) / Raviv Ganchrow (US/IL/NL) / Els Viaene (BE) / Mario de Vega (MX) / Yann Leguay (BE) / Maria Papadomanolaki (GR/GB) / Michael Gallagher (GB) / Will Schrimshaw (GB) / Sylvain Perrot (FR) / Aggeliki Poulou (GR) / Marinos Koutsomichalis (GR) / Cevdet Erek (TR) / Steve Bates (CA) / ILIOS (GR) / Nikos Veliotis (GR) / Coti K (GR) / Martin Howse + (UK/D) + shiftregister / Marc-Alexandre Reinhardt & Eric Mattson (CA) / Vicky Bisbiki (GR) / Alexandros Drymonitis (GR) / Panos Amelides (GR) / Eleni Kavouki (GR) / Yiorgis Sakellariou (GR) / Stelios Giannoulakis (GR) / Rene Rissland (D) / Florian Tuercke (D) / Franziska Windisch (D) / Fernando Godoy (CL) / Nicolas Spencer (CL) / Christian Espinoza (CL) / Barbara Gonzales (CL) / Pablo Saavedra Arevalo (CL) and many more …

Aki Purser selected as a participant for this years RBMA in Berlin

Third year student Aki Purser has been selected to participate in this year’s Red Bull Music Academy to be taking place in Berlin. RBMA is an internationally acclaimed event where an eclectic group of emerging artists are given the chance to collaborate, create and learn from a series of sessions led by world-known music producers and industry specialists. The competition is often high and it not unusual to see participants from the Academy becoming professionals soon after their graduation. Aki’s unique approach to sound, image and dance made here stand out and in their own words

‘From the refined piano of Chilly Gonzales to the elegance of modern dance icon Pina Bausch and the precisely engineered music of producer Alva Noto, there is a certain delicacy connecting the influences of Brighton-based artist Akiko Haruna. Trained as a pianist, violinist, flautist and dancer, she is fluent in the rules of music and composition, which she now breaks with her experimental noise output. Akiko’s current project comes after two years as a professional dancer, during which she appeared in music videos for artists including AlunaGeorge and John Newman. Now a full-time music student, Akiko flexes her myriad abilities in her own work, including the 2017 video for “i, omega,” a surreal black-and-white pastiche in which she dances, stretches and smiles eerily at the camera over the glitches and fuzz of her far-out soundscape.’

Well done Aki!

‘resounding’ – a new piece by Jean Martin to be premiered on April 6th

Jean Martin will be premiering ‘resounding’ a new piece for piano, vibraphone, and flute on 6 April at 7.30pm as part of the Broken Line event.

The performance will be held in St. Luke’s Church, Brighton

Musicians:
Adam Bushell (vibraphone/percussion), Adam Swayne (piano) and
Helen Whitaker (flute)

Programme
Vetrarþoka (Winter Fog) (2015) – Helgi Rafn Ingvarsson (b. 1985) – Trio
Vibra Elufa (2003) – Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) – solo vibes
Invisible Worlds (2009) – Nicholas S. Omiccioli (b. 1982) – flute & piano duet
Resounding (2018) – Jean Martin – Trio

Interval

Adagio from Sonata No.1 for violin, transcribed for alto flute – J. S. Bach
Broken Line (2006) – Alvin Lucier (b. 1931) – Trio
For Morty (1987) (- Christian Wolff (b. 1934) – piano & percussion duet
LRL Anthem (after Gopi Sander) (2017) – Dave Smith (b. 1949) – piano solo
Carillon ( 1998) – Martin Butler (b. 1960) – Trio

DMSA Alumni Ben Hall to present work in Festival ZERO1, La Rochelle, France

DMSA graduate Ben Hall was invited in Festival ZERO1 in La Rochelle, France to present ‘Threshold’, an audiovisual installation he created as part of his final degree project.

‘Threshold’ challenges the audience’s perception with a series of cross-sensory interactions between unusual sounds of frequencies on the threshold of human perception and computer generated visuals.

ZERO1 is an annual international festival in La Rochelle, France focusing on audiovisual digital arts. This year it takes place on 28/03-01/04. More info.

No Hollows and No Projections: Part 2

No Hollows and No Projections: Part 2
Monday 19th March 2018 | 6-8pm | Performance Studio

No Hollows and No Projections: Part 2 is a workshop led by Ingrid Plum exploring composition for ensemble performance, deep listening exercises, sonic meditations, improvisation and extended vocal technique following the teachings of Pauline Oliveros and Meredith Monk as well as a wealth of techniques gathered from other teachers and traditions around the world. In Part 2 we will review some techniques and also look at compositional methods for working with listening and performance using the voice as our instrument, with a focus on ensemble performance.

This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience and is best suited to those with an interest in contemporary composition, sounding the voice, sound art, experimental music and sonic meditation, but previous practice in those fields is not necessary. Learn a range of listening exercises to benefit production and performance skills along with breathing and vocal exercises with a focus on deep listening and harmony, involving discussion and working with the natural voice to develop confidence, plus compositional exercises for ensemble performance.

About Ingrid Plum

‘Gorgeously atmospheric vocal techniques woven around field recordings & electronics’ – The Guardian

Plum uses her voice with extended technique, improvisation, field recordings and electronics, to create layered soundscapes, spoken word and songs. Having performed and exhibited installation sound art and visual art since 2002, and studied with Meredith Monk, she creates work that sits between sound art, improvisation, multi-media installation, neo-classical and contemporary Nordic folk music.

www.ingridplum.com

International Women’s Day Special

Digital Music and Sound Arts doesn’t mean a men-only club: we support equal participation to the course by male and female artists and producers; an aim that is still difficult to achieve as female students often either choose more safe pathways or are not confident enough to choose a creative sound course.

It needs to be said that some of our most exceptional work in this course has been created by female students and some of our notable alumni are female who hold competitive posts in the field. We want to make our students feel empowered through the course to explore their unique creative perspectives, to take risks, to feel inspired and to be self-driven.

In celebration of International Womens Day, we would like to use this space to precent some of the work produced by our students and alumni which we feel give a well informed perspective of the breadth of creative outputs that the students have developed over the years. There are of course many notable student works missing from this feature and we hope to be able to bring it to the foreground in another occassion in the near future!

We begin with Jade Gunner who is a student currently in her first year in the course. Jade’s ‘Watercolour Spaceship’ is a fascinating exploration of colour, texture and timbre reminiscent of expressionist painting.

Merging music with dance as well as other forms of art and media is something that we encourage our students to do as part of their learning process. Aki Purser is a student currently in the third year of the course who has been developping an intersting and unique body of audiovisual work. Her piece I, Omega encapsulates the intensity of her work combining contemporary dance aesthetics, electronic collage and experimental visuals.

Olivial Louvel, currently in her second year in our course, is exceptional in creating fascinating synapses Facross voice, computer music and digital narrative. You can enjoy her work in situ at the Roayl Pavilion Gardens via the ReHear audiowalk.

'My Crown' by Olivia Louvel from Cat Werk Imprint on Vimeo.

Rebecca Davis aka Ecka Mordecai is the artist behind our beautiful banner but also an alumni of the course. Ecka, currently a freelance artist, cellist and curator, has developed a subtle yet texturally layered palette of sounds, images, objects and actions while studying in the course. Sand:blink is a wonderful audiovisual experience into her unique world of microsounds and textures.

Guoda Diržytė is an experimental music instruments designer, composer and sound artist living between the UK and Lithuania. A recent graduate from our course, Guoda received the Nagoya (Partner University, Japan) Award of Excellence for her excellent piece Kokon Dansetsu Ma [古今 伝説 間] which she developped during a residency in Nagoya.

Beth Chesser is an artist experimenting with sound, noise and music and how they work combined with moving image and new media. ‘Enso’ is her final degree piece for our course, a beautifu stop motion animation film.

Amanda Brooks is a musician, composer and sound artist currently in the second year of our course. She is the lead singer of the band Undercover Agends and her work has been featured in Lewes Light Festival, ReHear Audio Walk (Brighton Digital Festival 2017) and more recently in a fantastic ‘Christmas’ compilation entitled ‘View from a hill’ by the eclectic label Linear Obsessional.

Last week’s DMSA feature presented the work of currenty third year student Jasmyn Bloch. Jasmyn’s powerful mix of voice, femininity and electronics is beautifully demonstrated in her piece Alter, a celebration of the feminine and of women and a great way to end this feature!