Sound Anthology: Program Notes

. . . Time Will Tell . . . : Folkmar concertgoers, with the pervasive fix- are described in the program Hein, Curator ation on touchscreens as an optical notes (specifically the works distraction. This “concert” has the by Horacio Vaggione and additional intention of showing that Trevor Wishart). About the Music acousmatic works are being created 4. All sound files are at a 48- outside of GRM’s aesthetic world— kHz sample rate with 24-bit This selection of music compiled for in particular, in Swedish, British, resolution. The multichannel the readers of the current issue of and Japanese traditions—which are versions consist of multiple Computer Music Journal is conceived deliberately brought to the fore in single-track files or, in the as an imaginary concert. With a this collection. It seems to me that case of Vaggione, tracks that duration of just under 80 minutes, the acousmatic music coming from Swe- are paired as stereo files. sonic proceedings, including breaks, den has not gained the recognition Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/42/4/96/1857231/comj_e_00492.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 reach a length typical for a DVD, a it deserves. (I am a great admirer of In addition to the information CD, or a concert with electroacoustic the Elektronmusikstudio [EMS] in given in the following notes, further music—not too short, not too long. Stockholm, which has always been documentation is available online at The individual works, with lengths a model in terms of internationality, www.emdoku.de/en/search?query falling between 4 and 15 minutes, are infrastructure, freedom, hospitality, =CMJ%20Vol%2042%202018& also in the range of typical durations and equipment, without succumbing sources=emdoku. for electroacoustic music. to any temptation of technology for “. . .Time will tell. . .”? Is this the the sake of technology.) “typical” example of music to which There is, incidentally, a common Time Will Tell (2013)—Manuella we have become accustomed? Does thread through the concert program: Blackburn it meet our expectations? Surely not! Each piece has an individual feeling Neither the familiar nor the expected of tempo, but in a mysterious way a Tiny, microscale ticks, tocks, clanks, are what are important, what matters similarly calm pace seems to domi- bumps, and rings combine together is the new and unknown—that which nate, interspersed with highly emo- in new shapes and forms. Miniature is not easily explained or demystified. tional moments of density, dynamics, sounds from time-keeping devices, We are looking neither for witty and spatiality, and exciting transforma- old and new, were sourced and iso- poetic explanations nor for scholarly tions of both concrete and synthetic lated for their brevity and “barely elucidation and academic sagacity. sounds. there” quality. Reassembling regular We know full well that behind ev- There is one unusual aspect to this clock rhythms from an abundance ery work a tremendous amount of imaginary concert: the concertgoers— of single clock ticks and strikes is a technical and scientific skill is in- all CMJ readers who access the fundamental composition method- volved, and that is something worth audio data—can shape an individual ology in this work, along with the recognizing. Nevertheless, this An- program order for themselves, and simulation or illusion of internal thology is not based on a technical or they can freely choose between the clock mechanics churning, rotating, scientific theme, but only on an au- stereo and multichannel versions of and sometimes malfunctioning. The ditory fiction: an acousmatic concert the works! idea of clocks being wound and reset from—reflecting the international Some technical points are worth features as a structural device. Clock orientation of CMJ—an international noting: gongs, bells, and chimes also provide collection of composers. pitch content and harmonic moments The term acousmatic, about which 1. The eight pieces in the throughout the work. This composi- there has been some controversy, Anthology are in the conven- tion builds upon the microstructures was introduced by the Groupe de tional formats (stereophonic, constructed in “Switched On” (2011), recherche musicales (GRM), specifi- quadraphonic, octophonic). which deals with the sounds from cally by Franc¸ois Bayle, in 1974. The None uses a surround-sound small switches, buttons, and di- idea was that concertgoers should format, owing to the prob- als used for powering up electrical focus solely on the acoustic aspects of lematic nature of the center devices. the performance and not be distracted channel. “Time Will Tell” was realized at by optical influences or anything 2. Each multichannel work is the Goodman Studio of the Experi- else. This can be a challenge—and a also available in a stereo mental Media and Performing Arts difficult one at that—for 21st-century version. Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Poly- 3. Channel assignments are technic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New either evident from the file York, and at the Liverpool Hope Uni- doi:10.1162/COMJ e 00492 names of the channels, or they versity in the United Kingdom. The

96 Computer Music Journal Figure 1. Manuella Blackburn. Figure 2. Shintaro Imai.

Florida), and Kunitachi College of Music (Tokyo). Her music has been performed across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Blackburn received the Grand Prize in the Digital Art Awards at Fujisawa, Japan, in 2007, as well as

numerous other awards and prizes Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/42/4/96/1857231/comj_e_00492.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 for her acousmatic music. She is currently senior lecturer in music at Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom.

Resonant Quarks and Figure in Movement—Shintaro Imai

Both “Figure in Movement” and piece was commissioned by EMPAC. “Resonant Quarks” are works in Many thanks go to Harry Vannucci which the composer creates musical from the Waterford Clock Company variation with very brief recordings in New York and to Sir George White, of natural sounds that are drastically keeper of the Clockmakers’ Museum altered in time to emphasize their in London, for access to all the clocks microscopic movements. The sounds computer using the IRCAM Signal in the collection. The work was are subjected to extreme stretching Processing Workstation. The piece premiered on 22 November 2013 at and compression in time, as well was realized at the Sonology Depart- RPI. as undergoing pitch shifts, density ment of Kunitachi College of Music, This recording was mastered by variation, spatialization, and other Tokyo in 1998. Dominique Bassal in February to transformations—all using granular March 2017 in Montreal. sampling techniques governed by Track Duration: 12:00 probability and tendency-masking Track Duration: 8:24 algorithms. The alterations always In “Figure in Movement” the keep a certain continuity, and they sound materials are all recorded flute, Manuella Blackburn is a composer are interpolated so that the materials performed by Sabine Vogel using of electroacoustic music specializing remain identifiably derived from the extended techniques. All the signal- in the creation of acousmatic music. same sound objects. So the sound processing and control algorithms She also composes for instruments materials act like individual figures were programmed in Cycling ’74 and electronics, for improvising in motion, rather than anonymous Max. This piece was realized in laptop ensembles, and for dance. She units used in composition. 2005 at the Electronic Studio at the studied music at the University of Technical University Berlin (TUB) in Manchester, followed by a Masters cooperation with Sabine Vogel. in electroacoustic composition with Resonant Quarks (1998) David Berezan. She became a member Track Duration: 3:59 of the Manchester Theatre in Sound “Resonant Quarks” is the first work (MANTIS) in 2006 and completed a Imai created using the techniques Born in 1974, Shintaro Imai stud- PhD at the University of Manchester described. In this work, four kinds ied at the Kunitachi College of Mu- with Ricardo Climent in 2010. of sounds, all of only 1 second in sic, Tokyo, and at the Institut de Blackburn has worked in residence duration, were chosen as the main Recherche et de Coordination Acous- in the studios of Miso Music (Lisbon), material. All signal-processing and tique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris. He EMS (Stockholm), Atlantic Centre control algorithms were programmed received a grant from the Japanese for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, in Max/FTS running on a NeXT Agency for Cultural Affairs for the

Sound Anthology: Program Notes 97 Figure 3. Erik Mikael Karlsson.

period 2002–2003 and was guest also works at Sveriges Radio in composer at the Center for Art and Malmo¨ as head of programs. His mu- Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. sic has been described as restricted The following year he was a guest and elegant, like music emanating of the Artists-in-Berlin program of from an inner landscape or an endless, the German Academic Exchange concentrated world: deep, dark, and Service (DAAD), where he worked serene. His music and sound art are

as guest composer at the Electronic replete with structures, reflections, Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/42/4/96/1857231/comj_e_00492.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Studio of the TUB. From 2008 to 2011 and phenomena of pure motion. he directed music of the Bauhaus In 1985 Karlsson attended EMS Stage Projects in Dessau, and in 2012 to study composition and electro- served as tutor at the Darmstadt acoustic music, and he quickly Summer Courses for New Music. He earned international recognition is currently associate professor and with a series of prize-winning works. director of the Sonology Department In the 1990s he was widely engaged of Kunitachi College of Music. as a composer by, among others, Imai’s awards include, among Groupe de Musique Experimentale´ many others, the Residence Prize at de Bourges, the Danish Institute the International Electroacoustic Mu- for Electroacoustic Music in Arhus,˚ sic Competition of Bourges and the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, first prize as well as the Special Prize La Muse en Circuit, INA-GRM in occasion of the 30th anniversary for Young Composers at the Musica Paris, and Danish Radio in Copen- of the Institute for Electroacoustic Nova competition in Prague. In 2016 hagen. He was a guest of the DAAD’s Music (EMS) in Stockholm in 1994. he was composer-in-residence at the Artists-in-Berlin program 1992–1993, The piece was premiered in a live SinusTon festival in Magdeburg. during which he worked at the Elec- broadcast from the Sveriges Radio’s tronic Studio at the TUB. concert hall, the Berwaldhall, in Karlsson has received numer- September 1994. ous commissions, from the French “Interiors and Interplays” was government (Commande de l’Etat Interiors and Interplays produced at EMS and in Sveriges Franc¸aise), the Westdeutscher Rund- (1994)—Erik Mikael Karlsson Radio’s Broadcasting House studios funk in Cologne, and many others. between February and June 1994. The His music has been performed around The composer writes that it is not sounds used consist of different kinds the world, and he has lectured regu- possible to describe a piece with a of concrete` material, processed voices larly on his music at universities and few words, particularly when the of a soprano and a tenor from the conservatories in Europe and North piece has many ideas as approaches Swedish Radio Choir, and synthetic America. Since 2001 he has worked at rather than just one. Compositional material generated by the Chant soft- Sveriges Radio as presenter, producer, ideas may run in parallel, some arise ware, with some additional material and project manager for classical and fragmentarily, some are tied together, collected during the composer’s stay contemporary music. In 2015 he took and still others exist independently in Berlin from 1992 to 1993. A vast on the role of head of programs for of the rest. Dialogues and contrasts, number of sounds were processed the departments of Culture, Drama, contacts and disclaimings embrace with software by Paul Pignon im- Music, and News at Sveriges Radio in each other between the real and the plementing time-pitch mapping, the Malmo.¨ imaginary, where gestures, poetry, giant Fourier transform, and running timbre, and acoustics create an un- convolution. speakable longing for beauty. The attentive listener can also hear a few Track Duration: 15:06 bars from the tune by Rodgers and Dark Matter (2018)—Ake˚ Hart “The Lady Is a Tramp.” Erik Mikael Karlsson, born 1967 Parmerud “Interiors and Interplays” was in Nynashamn,¨ Sweden, is a Swedish commissioned by Sweden’s national composer, primarily of electro- “Dark Matter” is not about the mys- public radio, Sveriges Radio, for the acoustic music and sound art. He tical astronomic entity needed to

98 Computer Music Journal Figure 4. Ake˚ Parmerud.

make the equations describing the Parmerud’s most recent stage behavior of the universe work. In- work, Metamorphos, was developed visible, and until now impossible together with Canadian dance chore- to detect, it might just be a phan- ographer Mireille Leblanc, who also tom of science. Instead, the piece is choreographed the interactive sound- about sound “matter” that we nor- and-video installation Lost Angel mally cannot hear but that surrounds and the dance performance The Sev-

us wherever there are any kind of enth Sense. He recently formed the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/42/4/96/1857231/comj_e_00492.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 electric devices. Microwave ovens, company AudioTechture with Olle cellphones, computers, light bulbs, Niklasson, a company that specializes and the like all emit electromagnetic in acoustic interior design for diverse fields of energy. These fields can be environments from private houses measured, recorded and made audible to public spaces. AudioTechture re- using special sensing devices. The ceived the Red Dot design award in majority of the sounds in the piece 2015. are recordings of these “invisible” sounds. As there may be dark matter alongside the matter that we can see and measure, so there are also sounds Arches (2013)—Horacio Vaggione of electric phenomena that we can Proximities was awarded the first normally hear in the piece. Just as the prize at the 1978 Bourges Interna- Horacio Vaggione describes his dark matter of the universe is far more tional Electroacoustic Music Festival. electroacoustic music compositions common than visible matter, how- Since then he has received 17 inter- as being made of myriads of sounds ever, so the inaudible “dark” matter national prizes and 3 major Swedish of diverse sizes, covering a variety of of electromagnetic fields makes up prizes. On two occasions he has also temporal scales. These sounds circu- some 90 percent of the piece. “Dark received the Swedish “Grammy” late and interact within a network Matter” lets the listener walk through award for Best Classical Album of containing diverse kinds of represen- these fields and hear them as they the Year, and his music has repre- tations encapsulated as digital ob- would sound if they were not dark. sented Sveriges Radio twice at Prix jects, or codes. Because of this, there “Dark Matter” was commissioned Italia. He is regularly commissioned is an interplay of correspondences by the Dias de Musica Electroacustica to compose works by international and recollections, with mirrors that in Lisbon. institutions, and his works have been closely or distantly reflect and may presented worldwide. In 1997 his be more-or-less linear or distorting. Track Duration: 9:24 composition Grains of Voices was The network itself is defined and performed at the United Nations in redefined constantly throughout the Ake˚ Parmerud has engaged in a New York on United Nations Day. compositional process. Many of the professional career in contemporary His music has been released on nu- composed sounds are essentially music and media art since the late merous albums and compilations, and dependent on conditions and opera- 1970s. Although he originally trained in 1998 he became a member of The tions performed at microscopic time as a photographer (1972–1974), he Swedish Royal Academy of Music. scales, belonging to the domain of went on to study music at univer- The last years have seen Parmerud “microtime.” But working in the sity and subsequently the Goteborg working as a sound and software microtime domain does not mean Conservatory of Music. In addition to designer for interactive audiovisual opting solely for a rough, bottom–up his electroacoustic and instrumental installations. His installations The approach: The opposite strategy is music, his work includes composi- Fire Inside, The Living Room,and also constantly present, regardless of tions covering a broad cross section Lost Angel have been shown in any linear ordering, conforming to of modern experimental music in the cities from Berlin and Reykjavik to diverse morphological perspectives fields of dance, film, interactive art, Mexico City. He has also designed and contexts. So the musical work is multimedia, theatre, and video. concerts and been artistic director for the result of many operations of frag- Parmerud’s work first gained in- large indoor and outdoor audiovisual mentation and agglutination, realized ternational attention when his piece events. at many different time scales.

Sound Anthology: Program Notes 99 Figure 5. Horacio Vaggione.

He also studied at the University of on left and right channels, followed Paris, where he received a doctorate by randomly deleting units either on in musicology in 1982. the left, the right, or both channels, From 1969 to 1973 Vaggione lived thereby producing an unpredictable, in Madrid, where he was a member spatialized mix. of the live-electronics group ALEA The selected bus shelters had an and cofounded, with Luis de Pablo, an audio output socket installed, so that

electronic studio and the project Mu- travelers with headphones could plug Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/42/4/96/1857231/comj_e_00492.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 sic and Computer at the University of them into the socket and hear what Madrid. In 1978 he moved to France was being played. On the positive and began work with the Groupe side, this meant that travelers who de Musique Electroacoustique´ de did not want to hear the sounds did Bourges (GMEB); at the Institut not have it imposed on them from National Audiovisuel, Groupe de an installed loudspeaker system. The Recherches Musicales (INA-GRM); disadvantage was that headset users and at IRCAM. From 1987 to 1988 had to be enticed out of their own he was a guest of the DAAD Artists- sonic universe to listen to something in-Berlin program and worked in the different. Electronic Studio at the TUB. Together with Luc Ferrari, Wishart In “Arches,” the materials from Since 1989 he worked as professor selected one of the quieter of the bus which the piece was built were of music at the University of Paris stops to present the work, since many picked up from a collection of sounds VIII and as director of the Centre de were on routes with heavy traffic. recorded by Folkmar Hein using a va- Recherche Informatique et Creation´ riety of different objects found in his Musicale. Since 2012 he continues to home in Berlin. Extensive window- serve at that university as emeritus ing, both temporal and spectral, was professor. Additional Notes from a Letter, performed on the sounds, resulting June 2018 in a palette of fleeting figures that were later arranged into a multitrack “Memories of Madrid” was made composition. entirely in the Sound Loom envi- Memories of Madrid (2005) and The piece, commissioned by Folk- ronment, an interface to CDP. This mar Hein and dedicated to him on Dithyramb-Kepler 63c included the final mixing. I say this the occasion of his 70th birthday, (2014)—Trevor Wishart because lots of people ask me about was composed in 2013 at the Brussels “postproduction.” There is no post- Musiques et Recherches Studio in “Memories of Madrid” was part of a production. Pieces are constructed Ohain, Belgium. larger project, Itinerarios del Sonidos, in a series of mixing stages, going staged in 2005, which aimed to install from the smallest time scale (making Track Duration: 10:17 audio works in bus shelters around complex sound events from sim- the Madrid city center. Wishart trav- pler ones), through gestures (mixes Horacio Vaggione, born 1943 in eled to Madrid in May of that year of these sound events), to phrases Cordoba,´ Argentina, is a composer to collect audio recordings of the (mixes of gestures), to sections (mixes of instrumental and electroacoustic city environment and peoples’ voices of phrases), to the whole piece (a mix music who specializes in granular in the streets. Recordings included of sections). synthesis, digital micromontage, and street vendors of various kinds and At all stages the outputs may multiscale composition, and whose the rattling of buses as they proceeded be processed, using programs from pieces often are scored for live per- around the city. The materials were CDP, before being reused. Most formers and computer-generated tape variously abstracted and transformed, importantly, it is possible to revisit or for live electronics. He studied using the software Composer’s Desk- the material (using Sound Loom’s composition at the National Univer- top Project (CDP). One particular pro- History function) and re-create it with sity in Cordoba´ and the University cess developed for this piece was the altered time proportions, whenever of Illinois, where he first gained rhythmization of vocal material over this proves necessary for the overall exposure and access to computers. space, using two identical streams formal balance of the piece.

100 Computer Music Journal Figure 6. Possible loudspeaker Figure 7. Trevor Wishart. configurations for Trevor Wishart’s “Dithyramb-Kepler 63c.”

Processes involving sonic trans- formation of materials are often sequentially overlaid. That is, given a sound “a” a ...... a Process 1 (gradually change a to state b, somewhere after the start of a)

a..a -->> b ...... b Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/42/4/96/1857231/comj_e_00492.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Process 2 (gradually change the b-end of the original sound to c) a..a∼to∼b..b---->>c...... c Process 3 (gradually change the c-end of original sound to d) a..a∼to∼b..b∼∼to∼c..c-->> d..d etc. Finally, phrases and sections are each single file going to a different usually constructed by weaving to- output channel, thereby forming the gether two or three evolving streams complete eight-channel output. of sound, each with its own sonic 1. Loudspeakers should form and spatial characteristics, and these an octagon surrounding streams may interact—events in one the audience (this may be stream appear to trigger events or stretched longer in the front– shifts in another stream. back direction, if necessary). “Dithyramb-Kepler 63c” is one 2. The array of loudspeak- of three pieces forming the suite ers may have either one The Secret Resonance of Things, loudspeaker at front center which celebrates, in musical form, (double-diamond format) or our scientific understanding of the two loudspeakers at the front world. The musical material of each (octagonal format). movement is derived from scientific 3. Loudspeakers are numbered data or physical models of the world, clockwise, with loudspeaker but each is approached in a different 1 being at front center (as way. The piece is the fruit of a in Figure 6a) or front left research project at the University of (Figure 6b). Oxford, funded by the Leverhulme attempts to conjure such an alien 4. Channel 1 goes to loud- Trust. music using imaginary, yet physically speaker 1, Channel 2 to Kepler 63c is one of a recently possible, brass and percussion instru- loudspeaker 2, and so on. discovered class of earthlike planets. ments and imaginative extensions of If we were to make landfall on such these instruments. Born in 1946, Trevor Wishart a planet, we know that the laws of The instruments were created us- is a composer and performer from physics would be the same and, if we ing physical-modeling software devel- the north of England specializing could survive there without extensive oped by the Next Generation Sound in sound metamorphosis and in the technological support, the properties Synthesis (NESS) research project at construction of software to make it of the atmosphere would have to be the University of Edinburgh, funded possible (Sound Loom, Composer’s similar to those on Earth. So music by the European Research Council, Desktop Project). He has lived and that we can hear and appreciate might and extended using processes in CDP. worked as composer-in-residence well exist on this distant world—but This is an eight-channel piece, in Australia, Canada, Germany, we have no way to predict details supplied as eight individual, mono- Holland, Sweden, and the USA. of the technical culture or the aes- phonic sound files. Import these files Wishart creates music with his thetic world in which it would have to a multichannel playback platform own voice, for professional groups, or emerged. “Dithyramb-Kepler 62e” such as ProTools or Audacity, with in imaginary worlds conjured up in

Sound Anthology: Program Notes 101 Figure 8. Folkmar Hein.

the studio. His aesthetic and technical graduating with a major in technical ideas are described in the books On acoustics. He also received a Tonmeis- Sonic Art, Audible Design,andSound ter diploma from the Hochschule fur¨ Composition, and he is a principal Musik Berlin with a major in cello. author of the CDP sound-processing Starting in 1974 he worked as a re- software. His most well-known works search assistant at the TUB, where include Vox Cycle, Red Bird, Tongues he was director of the university’s

of Fire, Two Women,andGlobalalia, Electronic Studio. At the time of Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/42/4/96/1857231/comj_e_00492.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 and pieces have been commissioned this writing, he has realized 120 by the Paris Biennale, the BBC Proms, electroacoustic works for numerous and many other organizations. In composers. In 1982, working with 2008 he was awarded the Giga-Herz the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program, Grand Prize for Life Achievement. he initiated the festival Inventionen, From 2006 to 2010 he was composer- with a program emphasizing electro- in-residence in the northeast of acoustic music and sonic art. He is England, based at Durham University, an active promoter of projects and Fun books of musical games was has during which time he created the public presentations both in Berlin been published both in English and in sound-surround opera Encounters and throughout Europe. From 1991 Japanese. in the Republic of Heaven. During to 1998 he was chairman of the 2011, while artist-in-residence at the German Society for Electroacoustic University of Oxford, he began work Music (DEGEM). In March 2009 he on the project The Secret Resonance About the Curator retired from the TUB, and in the of Things, transforming astronomical summer of 2010 he was awarded the and mathematical data into musical Folkmar Hein was born in 1944 “Prize of Honor” for his life’s work by material. He has also been involved and grew up in Westphalia in the the Deutscher Klangkunstpreis and in community, environmental, and northwest of Germany. He studied was named an honorary member of educational projects, and his Sounds electrical engineering at the TUB, DEGEM.

102 Computer Music Journal