array ICMC Keynote Address Rosemary Mountain winter 2006 The four last examples exemplify the many cases, multiple-speaker diffusion is in ductility of the synthetic material. One clear contradiction with the portrayal of a can extrapolate beyond usual values of sonic ICMC 2004 Concert Reviews virtual 3-D space that is more distant than parameters, like Chowning synthesizing University of Miami the sound, and typically viewed through a an extreme basso profundissimo voice. One Concert 5 small, front-centred window. Cadiz neatly can also interpolate, transform, morph; Rosemary Mountain circumvented this entire trap by presenting for his piece Phone, Chowning’s “bells” the visuals, at first, like a kind of typewriter gradually turn into voices. One can also The fifth concert of the ICMC was notation on a two-dimensional surface stage close encounters between instruments one of the most diverse of the week, coinciding with the screen itself. The and synthetic sounds. In the following both in aesthetics and in presentation. manifestation of time was often represented example, instruments appear like filigree It showed the full array of options, by the single placement of images like within synthetic tones. Acoustic sounds including sound+DVD, sound+dance, letters on the page, usually (but not always, are audible traces of a visible world, unlike live+recorded, computer-generated, and thankfully) in sync with rhythmic aspects of synthetic sounds, which only suggest an improvised. There was also a certain the sound. The typewriter analogy gave illusory world—a separate, internal sonic array of quality, but most of the pieces way to a more poetic dance, as lines of the reality that can also be appealing. When held my interest for one reason or another. pattern were initiated from the right side of these realities meet, identity can sometimes the screen and moved left—“backwards” be an enigma, as in this last example, where Id-fusiones by Rodrigo Cadiz was, for for those of us immersed in the “time as the flutist sings into the instrument—flute me, one of the highlights of the week, x-axis” reading mode. Likewise, colour and or voice? Also, the synthetic tones become due mainly to the innovative treatment size lent character to the sonic layers, which quasi-vocal—the voice of whom? of the image-sound correlation. As it were often, but not always, in keeping with becomes increasingly easy to achieve the sonic line. When sound and image diverged, however, one was led to appreciate “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The millisecond coordination between the counterpoint in full anticipation of their musical aesthetic experience is our ears and audio and visual, the number of failing impending resolution into homophony brain. Technology grows according to its attempts to combine them convincingly and/or rhythmic consonance. My ears own logic, but it can provide us with great seems to multiply. The perceptual and brain were particularly attracted resources. Such resources are especially issues involved are still seriously under- to a section of the piece that was filled wonderful when they are tailored to help researched, but one of the most common with individual sonic components whose us explore and enjoy unexplored worlds, factors in producing a sense of poor initial fluctuation was balanced with our inner worlds. That is our task in correlation is the discrepancy between long sustained notes focussed on a single computer music. sound and image space. (As this sense is often subliminal, the auditor/spectator unwavering frequency, reminiscent of may be left with the impression that certain Indian performance aspects. My the piece is simply not very good.) In aesthetic preference for less continuous sonic glides and nebulous frequency masses in favour of more precisely defined 9 10 array Concert Reviews Rosemary Mountain winter 2006 sonic elements was thoroughly indulged that of the technological. Ich, mich und mir was a particular skill in timing in Flutter. bit pretentious in its reliance on extreme in this piece. The visuals themselves were presented a fascinating counterpoint of and almost visceral reactions, which are fascinating for their patterned intricacy. real and virtual bodies, the virtual being Lyon’s Onceathon 2 also boasted recognizable far from the aesthetic designs that I find produced apparently by projections of structures of juxtapositions. What made so satisfying in many musical works. The impact of visual on sonic was perhaps the dancers, often delayed and displaced, the work less appealing to me was not nowhere so startling as at the junction but by varying and unpredictable so much the dissonance between the My appreciation of the effect of the between the first and second works on amounts. The range of sounds and of contrasting segments—“classic” atonal dancers in the first two works of the the show. The audience realized, at the visuals were also in nice correspondence, interrupting “classic” MIDI keyboard pop concert, and especially the stunning conclusion of Miyuki Ito’s Réminiscence from dramatic gestures to a static-type sounds—but that the pop elements were video of Cadiz, might suggest that I am d’un ancient esprit, that the ominous hooded noise produced by a dancer’s costume noticeably less interesting melodically, dependent on visuals for total involvement figures who stood immobile against the wall and echoed by visual noise on the screen. harmonically, texturally, and timbrally. in the music. The dynamic involvement of stage right throughout were actually waiting (This view was clearly not shared by many performers like flutist Elizabeth McNutt to spring into action for Palindrome’s work Of the four works for flute and computer, in the audience, who seemed particularly also contributes a significant element to the Ich, mich und mir, which followed it. I was three were appealing to me because of delighted at the hodge-podge and the listening experience. However, the “pure” not the only one who had difficulty in their classical roots. They were full of probably defiant sneering at those of electroacoustic pieces by Paulina Sundin trying to retroactively subtract that visual interesting sounds and audible structures. us who prefer beautiful things.) The and Robert MacKay were well crafted and image from the sonic piece, in order to Ainger’s Pacific Variations III presented microscopic nuances of tuning, dynamics, appealing throughout their respectively re-assess the impact of the work as it must its classical structure with appropriately and timing of acoustic instruments are, short durations. Sundin, in particular, have been originally intended, though I will contemporary modifications, sequences, to me, clearly more appealing than the played with the virtual physicality by assume that the composer condoned this and other such techniques applied steady-state, dead sound of electronic some nice uses of spatialization and an “contamination.” (The same phenomenon smoothly and with artistry. Even the pop. The whole piece reminded me of interesting preparation of one section by recurred dramatically later in the week, extended techniques, which often ruin a show of kitsch I saw years ago. At the a sudden cessation of sound after a long when we mistook fireworks outside for such pieces by their contrived placement, end, the wit involved in identifying and swell. It was particularly striking for those off-stage percussion effects in a work by seemed to be organically derived from the collecting the components as “kitschy” was of us who tend to track music’s motion with Brian Bevelander.) Ito’s work was very sounds’ evolution: long, sustained sounds submerged by precisely the unappealing our bodies. Nevertheless, the effect of these emotive, in a way that seemed quite in which faded into the air like butterflies; aesthetics that had earned them the label. recorded works seemed to be dependent keeping with the costumes. It would be and timbral effects (multiphonics, breath in part on their high-quality diffusion in a good point of departure for a study and singing into the instrument) balanced The work Terra Incognita by Frank Ekeberg a large concert hall. The impact of the in sound-image correlations to present not only by the comforting web of multiple relied on less imaginative ways of creating concert as a whole, therefore, provided the the same work with a different stage-set, (and interesting) delays, but also by the dissonance and tension, opening the kind of experience that justified the work such as rosier colours and gentler poses. formal arrangement of the effects into piece with a very short but ear-splitting of the software and hardware developers the multi-movement structure. Rowe’s noise and then teasing the audience with featured for much of the conference. That The Palindrome work maintained the Flutter and Pinkston’s Lizamander were the anticipation of whether we would is precisely the reason that is leading me to quality that I have seen and heard in their less obviously classical in form, but be attacked again. The level of dark, argue in favour of live concerts over the other works; it was striking because the were still musical in traditional ways: brooding apocalyptic mood, created in current state of internet music experiences. quality of the artistic elements matches they had nice embroideries, and there part by low vocal-type sounds, seemed a 11 12 array Concert Reviews Momilani Ramstrum winter 2006 Concert 13 section, the electronics become syncopated, of pallbearers. The video work is complex Both sounds are elaborated, and the sounds Momilani Ramstrum with spatialized and synthesized syllabic and powerful, moving and detailed. Sounds of the violist appear around the room. The duets. The soprano sings sprechstimme. In are simplistic. A man’s voice is taken apart. sounds have clarity, detail, texture, and As I enter, there is a work already in the background are pulsing, synthetic sine “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Candles float pace.