Gaea (2007), Physical modeling sound synthesis, 7’59”

by Claude Cadoz
“Gaea is a quadraphonic sound poem of 479 seconds entirely created using GENESIS and CORDIS-ANIMA physical modelling system conceived and developed by ACROE under the direction of the author at the Grenoble Institute of Technology. GENESIS allows simulating physical objects of all the forms, materials, sizes, number and complexity like vibrating objects, objects to collide, rub, and scrape them. Simulated at high speed and very high precision, these objects produce sounds of all the natures that we wish. GENESIS allows also composing sounds, at the temporal scale of gesture and musical macrostructure. Gaea implements about twenty thousand material particles that are interacting. Organized according to a kind of orchestra of several tens of instruments structured in superimposed layers where multiple interactions can be established, they generate sounds of wind, waves, rain, telluric rumblings, the thunder and explosions, but also rustlings, woody percussions,
huge bowed strings, as well as some sparklings or intimate complaints etc. And the ‘poem’ is about something that the words can’t say.” (C. Cadoz)
 

UNDERLAKE (2010), Acousmatic music, 9’11”

by Omer Chatziserif
“The main ingredient of the composition is the recorded sound of running water in some tubes. Drain was my first suggestion of a title. At first it was created for stereo system. The creation of this piece consists of three main stages. The first stage was the processing of the recorded sounds with the pattern system of SuperCollider which is an environment for algorithmic composition. I gave emphasis on spontaneity and random, in some context, like the ‘Abstract Expressionism’ art movement. The second stage was the collection of the interesting results and the creation of the structure of the final form of the composition. The third and the final stage was the creation of space and movement with Zirkonium. Here, again, with some sounds, I use the same idea of spontaneity. I am sending 4 channels who are moving in the space randomly.” (O. Chatziserif)
 

Displaced Meanings: 8 ½ Bits (2009/2011), A/V Performance for Turntables and Live-Electronics, ca. 15’

by Damian Marhulets
Displaced Meanings is a solo-project of Damian Marhulets, in which he occupied himself with the possibilities of the turntable at various levels. In place of a typical DJ setup with two turntables Marhulets works only with one turntable extended, however, through other electronic instruments or effect machines and self programmed instruments. The turntable is considered here as a musical instrument, with which one can concentrate on hidden details in trusted musical objects and through which new structural formations and possibilities for 8 pm, ZKM_Kubus meaning can be formed. The current piece Displaced Meanings: 8 ½ Bits treats eight-bit games from Atari playing console. The Atari ROM’s are read by emulation programmes. The run of the game and extreme visual glitches – as well as the transformations of played-back music – are controlled in real-time. The music itself is based on various improvisation structures and plays either with appropriate associations or suddenly takes on a quite different direction and in this way attempts to produce totally new directions and associations with the games.
 

Osmosis (2011), Live-Performance for SuperCollider and Zirkonium, 15’

by Iannis Zannos
“Osmosis explores the idea of cultural interchange and adaptation through an acoustic metaphor: It creates a sonic environment where sounds from three different sources live and change gradually by adopting each other‘s distinct characteristics. Using the multichannel sound diffusion tool Zirkonium by ZKM, the three groups of sounds are initially placed in different regions of the performance space. As individual sounds start migrating from their region of origin to one of the other two regions, they experience the effects of cultural osmosis observed in multicultural societies: They impart some of their characteristics to the sounds of their new environment, while they themselves start adopting characteristics from the sounds of their new environment. Three very distinct types of sources were chosen for this piece: The flying calls of hundreds of swallows (marlins) flying above the city of Corfu in Greece recorded in July 2007 by the composer, the songs of Weddel Seals recorded in Antarctica by marine biologists, and the encoded messages broadcast by Numbers Stations for espionage purposes, recorded by short-wave radio amateurs all over the world. Orientation, mating, communication between peer groups and territoriality, are basic needs that lead to strikingly diverse, even alien sonic worlds, in the environments of a small town, the antarctic, and different countries during the cold war. When such different sounds are brought together, the boundaries between familiar and alien become blurred, and a search for new ways of discerning meaning in the maze of seemingly random meetings of different entities begins.The acoustic transformations of the sounds are performed in real time using spectral processing techniques implemented in SuperCollider, an object oriented realtime
sound and music synthesis enviroment. This realisation of Osmosis is part of a larger project that involves realizations in interactive installations with different media (sand, water, graphics synthesis).” (I. Zannos)
 

Variation sur des ruines (2004), Acousmatic music, 6’

by Jérôme Bertholon
“This very old piece is played tonight as an experimentation on spacialisation in the sound dome in order to have a better understanding of some fundamental notions that can be useful for the project on which we are working right now and that will be performed in September. To go back on the ideas that were present at the time of the composition, the piece is based on the relationship between an underground world and an aerial world, linked by the desire to move from the first to the second one. The different materials are presented in a way of alternation, but each time that one appears it has changed as if it continued to evolve while  we can‘t hear it with a principle of underground development.” (J. Bertholon)

AMBIANT Trio (Improvisation Set), Performance
Jérôme Bertholon – E-Guitar
Damian Marhulets – Electronic Percussion
Omer Chatziserif – Live-Processing

Organization / Institution

ZKM

Partners

ACROE ; Ionian University