This Month’s Performers: Set 1 - Dan Iglesia - Video Set 1 - Radio Wonderland (Joshua Fried) - Music :: Set 2 - Chika - Video Set 2 - Lilt Marathon - Music :: Set 3 - Richard Garet - Video :: Set 3 - WvS - Music

{R}ake is a performance series of alternative and collaborative electro-acoustic music and video. Performances range from pure
improvisation to more structured pieces, with video-artists and musicians working together in exploratory ways.

This month features the “electro” side of electro-acoustic music. Dan Iglesia performs experimental live video with Radio Wonderland/Joshua Fried, who creates electronic music with a laptop and multitude of eclectic devices; Chika creates her audio-reactive, illustrative video with the laptop/electronics duo Lilt Marathon; and Richard Garet creates his self-generated, sometimes aggressive, sometimes environmental video with the abstract electronic audio of WvS.

Monkey Town serves dinner during the show, so come hungry. Seating is limited — It’s a good idea to make reservations on their website.

folly and SoundNetwork are kicking off the Summer with an exciting collaboration bringing a micro-festival of art and music to Liverpool, as part of the European Capital of Culture.

Liverpool has a strong history of doing innovative things with electricity, from the birth of the power grid (Sebastian Ferranti) to the early computer games industry (Psygnosis, Ocean, and ZTT). Liverpool also has a formidable musical legacy inevitably centered around the pop phenomenon of The Beatles but which spans every musical genre from classical to electro.

Open Source City tips its hat to Liverpool’s pioneering spirit by offering a program of art, workshops, master classes, talks and concerts that shed light on the growing impact of Free/Libre Open Source Software on the creative practices of today, in particular in media art and music.

“FLOSS” offers opportunities to users, and developers at every skill level to participate in the creative process, starting from the writing of code all the way up to the final mix of your masterpiece. These are tools that have the power to bring people together through creativity, collaboration, knowledge sharing and, importantly, technology. So, how will Open Source play a part in the music and art scenes of the future? Maybe the answer lies in your hands….take part.

Artists and speakers involved include goto10, Access Space, Polytechnic, Simon Blackmore, Tom Chance, MediaShed and 64 Studio… Talks include “The role of FOSS in urban regeneration” and a brief philosophical tour of “Copyright and Freedom”. The hub of the festival is at Mello Mello in the heart of Liverpool’s creative quarter; 40-42 Slater St, Liverpool L1 4BX.

To view the whole programme for the festival, please download the pdf Festival Programme, and to book a paid workshop, download the workshop booking form. Both available from folly’s website at http://www.folly.co.uk/click/1060/9

Open Source City is a Liverpool European Capital of Culture Commission - a micro-festival of open source practice in media art and music presented by folly and SoundNetwork.

A Cultural Commission for Liverpool 2008 European Capital of Culture. Supported by Arts Council England and P H Holt Trust.

Visà-vis: What is the cause, and the cost, of insight? What does it mean to see the world face to face? These were questions raised by the young Rilke in a well-known passage from his Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, a Parisian diary he kept in 1904 while serving as personal secretary to Rodin. They are also questions lying at the heart of Vis-à-vis, a multimedia work for voice, live electronics and real-time video, which takes Rilke’s words as a dramatic point of departure.

For more info see http://huseac.fas.harvard.edu/ and http://www.soundidea.org/rovan/projects.htm

Directions:
Holyoke Street runs between Mass Ave. and Mt. Auburn street, next door to the Holyoke center. It´s two minutes from the Harvard Square T-stop (Red Line).

LoVid is the New York–based interdisciplinary artist duo Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus. Their work includes live video installations, sculptures, digital prints, patchworks, media projects, performances, and video recordings. They combine many opposing elements, contrasting hard electronics and soft patchworks; handmade items and machine-produced objects; and analog and digital. This multidirectional approach is reflected in the content of their work, simultaneously romantic and aggressive, wireless and wire-full. The artists present their performance Help Carry a Tune (2007) and perform with their Sync Armonica synthesizer.

Program 90 min.
Theater 2 (The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2), T2
In the Film exhibition Modern Mondays

From Soho to Rio: What’s wrong with the world? is a unique event performed in real time across two continents.

Combining live performance in Soho’s theatre bar with real time video links from both London and Rio, What’s wrong with the world? takes the distance between the two cities and uses it to create a third, surprisingly intimate location where performers in London mingle, merge and collide with their counterparts in Rio.

Created, rehearsed and performed via live video link, What’s wrong with the world? combines two cities and two stories to form a single vibrating narrative of distance, delay, loss and discovery characterised by Station House Opera’s distinctive physical and visual style.

What’s wrong with the world? is a collaboration with Phila7 and Oi Futuro in Brazil and is produced by Phila7 in Brazil and Artsadmin in the UK, with support from Soho Theatre and Café Lazeez. Read more…

Dafna Naphtali is a sound-artist and improviser-composer from an eclectic musical background. As singer/guitarist/electronic-musician she performs and composes using custom sound processing of voice and other instruments. Besides her composing and improvised projects, she co-leads the digital chamber punk ensemble What is it Like to be a Bat? with Kitty Brazelton (http://www.whatbat.org) and has collaborated/performed with Lukas Ligeti, David First, Joshua Fried, Ras Moshe, Alexander Waterman, Kathleen Supové and Hans Tammen, among others and done sound design and programming for Jin Hi Kim, Shelley Hirsch, Pamela Z, Phoebe Legere, Fred Frith, Jim Staley, Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Chico Freeman and others. Dafna can be heard with Mechanique(s) on a forthcoming release on In-situ, and was featured vocalist on José Halac’s CD “Dance of 1000 Heads” (Tellus), as well as on her acclaimed release with What is it Like to be a Bat? on Tzadik/Oracles.

Dafna’s residency involved dynamically controlled algorithmic improvisation, using vocal cues, Morse code and Wii controllers to elicit beat frequencies, trigger and manipulate LEMUR percussion robots and shred on Guitar bot.

Andrew Schneider is a multimedia designer and performer whose work investigates human/technological interdependence. He is the co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of the Chicago-based theatre company, BigPictureGroup. His solo performance work has been seen at P.S.122, Monkeytown, The Prelude Festival, and The Tank. His multimedia devices have been featured in Art Review, Wired, TimeOut NY, Maker Faire, SIGGRAPH, Dorkbot, the Telfair Art Museum, and at the Center Pompidou in Paris. His Solar Bikini has been featured internationally and is slated to be featured in the next Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. His latest projects include Experimental Devices for Performance (.com) and Acting Stranger (.com). Andrew Holds a Masters Degree in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU. He is currently working with The Wooster Group. (http://andrewjs.com)

Doing musical theatre with robots used to be Andrew’s standard joke answer to the question “So what do you want to do with your life?” Finally, a life-long dream comes true. He plans to start with a dance number, interfacing his movements with the robots via custom-built wearable controllers.

Born in New York City, Simon Morris (US/France) is a new media artist exploring urban landscapes, new musical interfaces and skateboarding. Investigating new forms of musical expression, his work examines technology and its role as a socially engaged art practice. He has conducted live performances at Eyebeam, NYC, the Article Biennale 2006 in Stavanger, Norway, the KiasmaMuseum in Helsinki, Finland and the Barker Theatre in Turku, Finland.

Simon is planning an interactive musical performance orchestrated by the movements of three skateboards.

By subway:

Take the F/M/R to 4th Ave. and walk one block down either 9th or 10th St. to 3rd Ave. LEMURplex is on 3rd Ave. between 9th & 10th Sts. Or, take the F/G to Smith & 9th Sts. and walk two blocks up 9th. Cross and then turn right onto 3rd Ave.

Ringing Rocks Park, PA

Doleros is an 8-channel surround sound installation that reconstructs the experience of audio tourism at Ringing Rocks Park, a popular boulder field in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Featuring the largest diabase (dolerite) deposit in North America, Ringing Rocks Park offers visitors the opportunity to explore the sonic qualities of the geologic detritus, which produces different ringing qualities when struck. Visitors wander among these boulders and igneous rocks with hammers as they seek out the best sounding and compare and share their discoveries. Unlike other sites of audio-tourism – the Echo Canyon in Utah, the Ear of Dionysus Cave in Sicily, or the “stalacpipe” organ in the Luray Cavern, Virginia – the exploration of the diabase deposits is a collective sound-making activity.

The audio installation at Diapason echoes the experience at Ringing Rocks Park; the surround sound consists of layered field recordings that recreate the actual physical space, and small metal constructions dispersed throughout the room represent and acknowledge the uniqueness of the rocks’ sounds by resonating independently through individually wired speakers. The result is as much an engulfing and cinematic auditory experience as a lively and playful exploration of sound. In addition to his exhibition at Diapason, Cluett will be leading an outing to Ringing Rocks as part of the 2008 Movement Research Festival. More information at: http://www.movementresearch.org

Seth Cluett (b. 1976, Troy, NY) is a composer and visual artist whose work includes photography, drawing, video, sound installation, concert music, performance, and theoretical writing. His pieces are an exploration of the role of sound in everyday life. Operating at the boundary between the auditory and the other senses, his work engages sound’s ability to be both collectively shared and distinctly personal. Many of his pieces investigate the acoustic signature of specific locations, in which sound is experienced as an activity (audio tourism) or as a geologic process.
Seth’s work has been shown/performed at the 10th Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Palais de Tokyo Museum, Théatre sur le Pavé, and GRM in Paris; the ICA, Mobius Artist Space, MassArt/nonpod in Boston; WPS1/MoMA, Issue Project Room, The Kitchen, Diapason, Engine 27, Tonic, and The Knitting Factory in New York; the Betty Rymer Gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago, Elastic Arts, Heaven, Artemisia, and Deadtech Galleries in Chicago; as well as the Deep Listening Space in Kingston, NY amongst others. His work is documented on Errant Bodies Press, Sedimental, Crank Satori, BoxMedia, and Wavelet Records. He has published articles for The Open Space Magazine, Leonardo Music Journal, 306090, Earshot, and the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. For more information see http://www.onelonelypixel.org

Diapason gallery for sound and intermedia is a non-profit performance and exhibition space that invites the public, artists and composers to engage with contemporary music and sound practices. Established in 2001 by composer Michael J. Schumacher, Diapason has built on his efforts at Studio Five Beekman, a sound gallery he founded in1996. With two high-quality multichannel sound systems Diapason’s listening environment draws a regular audience, and Diapason continues to be the sole venue in New York City (and one of few internationally) that is dedicated to both presenting multichannel sound installations and providing space for composers and sound artists to experiment, exhibit and perform.

A Special Viewing and Question and Answer session via Satellite link with Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin the artists behind the Listening Post installed for one year in the Science Museum. The session will provide valuable access to the artists and help visitors to the festival to engage with the theoretical discourses that have grown up around this important piece.

Listening Post is an art installation that culls text fragments in real time from thousands of unrestricted Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards and other public forums. The texts are read (or sung) by a voice synthesizer, and simultaneously displayed across a suspended grid of more than two hundred small electronic screens.

Listening Post cycles through a series of six movements, each a different arrangement of visual, aural, and musical elements, each with it’s own data processing logic.

Dissociating the communication from its conventional on-screen presence, Listening Post is a visual and sonic response to the content, magnitude, and immediacy of virtual communication.

SIGNAL is a Raster-Noton supergroup, featuring Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), Olaf Bender (aka Byetone), and Frank Bretschneider. The trio performs intense, hypnotic music to a spectacular backdrop of graphical information that reveals the complex geometry of the sounds in play. Most of their sound sources are taken from a huge memory bank of music from long jamming sessions dating from the earlydays of Raster-Noton. These are processed and folded into a taut and energetic web of rhythmic clicks, bristling static, and deep bass pulses that are unexpectedly sensuous and undeniably funky. Their most recent album, Robotron, was released in 2007 on Raster-Noton. This will be SIGNAL’s Boston debut.

mp3 of Signal, Robotron: http://www.raster-noton.net/download/rn-69_robotron/02_Ermafa.mp3

Video of Signal Live in Copenhagen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2kyrrtVy_c

Musician and visual artist CARSTEN NICOLAI (aka ALVA NOTO) works in the transitional area between art and science. In his intensely dynamic work, Nicolai plays with the rules of physicality. Clicks and glitches are not used as ornamental additions, but make up the essential elements of the work, which is often structured around the rhythmic grooves of hip-hop and R&B. Nicolai has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious spaces including The Guggenheim, MOMA SF, MOMA Oxford, NTT Tokyo, Tate Modern, and Venice Biennial. His latest album, unitxt, will be out this summer on Raster-Noton.This will be Nicolai’s Boston debut. Website: http://www.alvanoto.com

FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER is a founding member of Raster-Noton and one of the pioneering figures in ultra minimal post techno. Using the most basic sound sources (sine waves and white noise), Bretschneider creates minimal, flowing pieces with delicate textures and complex rhythmic patterns. Described as “abstract analogue pointilism,” “ambience for spaceports,” and “hypnotic echochamber pulsebeat,” Bretschneider’s subtle and detailed music is echoed by his visuals: perfect translations of the qualities found in music into visual phenomena. His most recent album, Rhythm, was named one of The Wire magazine’s Top 50 Records of 2007. Website: http://www.frankbretschneider.de

Video of Frank Bretschneider Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rb9IGRaOF4&feature=related

OLAF BENDER (aka BYETONE) is a founding member of the Raster-Noton label, as well as its lead designer. Bender creates his music digitally, assembling sine tones into complex sound fabrics of deep sub-bass and rhythmic clicks and crackles. He creates abstract animations to support his abstract music transforming the rhythm of the music into
a graphic equivalent, which he controls in real time. His new album, D.O.A.T. (Death of a Typographer), is due out this summer on Raster-Noton.

mp3 of Olaf Bender, “Plastic Star”: http://www.raster-noton.net/download/rn-81_plasticstar/plasticstar_original.mp3

Links:
Raster-Noton: http://www.raster-noton.de
Basstown: http://basstown.blogspot.com/
Goethe-Institut Boston: http://www.goethe.de/boston
LEF Foundation: http://www.lef-foundation.org/
Non-Event concerts are supported in part by a grant from the LEF Foundation.

A performance including live chamber ensemble, electroacoustic soundscape and projected video, Psychodrama is a multiple re-scoring of the shower sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYcp1_onRdo

Psychodrama: 13 Variations is funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center and is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.