The final EMPAC presentation of sound artist Tarek Atoui’s multi-year research and performance project to develop tools and techniques for performing sound to a hearing-impaired audience.

Atoui worked in collaboration with Distinguished Research Professor of Music Pauline Oliveros and her students from the New Instrumentation for Performance seminar to think through propositions for new instruments and performance techniques. Several instruments that Atoui had been developing concurrently were played throughout the public spaces of EMPAC and broadcast into the Concert Hall. The audience was encouraged to explore the acoustic relationships between individual instruments and the architecture that they inhabit.

During this time, Atoui had also been worked in partnership with UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Center for New Media at University of California, Berkeley, and Meyer Sound to develop the Zero Point Nine, an instrument that was premiered in a series of performances presented by BAMPFA in November 2015. The Zero Point Nine traveled to EMPAC for this presentation and was played alongside a new prototype interactive square wave synthesizer The Sit-thesizer by Julia Alsarraf, and the SubBassProtoTon developed by Johannes Goebel. The instruments from these two research and development phases in Troy and Berkeley respectively, were then presented together during Norway’s 2016 Bergen Assembly, organized by Atoui as artistic director.

Atoui presented the project’s first incarnation, WITHIN, as a series of performances and workshops during the Sharjah Biennial in 2013 and has continued to research principals of sonic architecture (in particular, the system of DeafSpace, developed by Hansel Bauman at Gallaudet, Washington) in the development of instrument-building techniques.

The Longleash trio (piano, violin, cello) was in residence in the Concert Hall making audio recordings of new compositions by Reiko Füting, Yukiko Watanabe, Christopher Trapani, and Clara Iannotta. The album, Passage, was released by New Focus Recordings in 2017.

Named for the Cold War-era CIA program that aimed to undermine Soviet culture by secretly disseminating art from the American avant- garde, Longleash relish the paradox of experimental sound. Formed in 2013 by violinist Pala Garcia, cellist John Popham, and pianist Renate Rohlfing, the group is focused on the com- missioning and performance of music by emerging composers. Pursuing the freedom of exploration within a pre-determined set of limitations, they mine the depths of the traditional piano trio in search of sounds and ideas yet undiscovered.

From tight rhythmic unisons to expansive, wandering melodic lines, Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones and Longleash represent many possible futures for contemporary experimental music. Each group features highly accomplished, technically virtuosic musicians, conversant in a wide range of musical styles and idioms, driven by the goal of an ever-expanding musical vernacular.

Elder Ones, a quartet performing the compositions of vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, lies nestled in a Venn diagram of diverse musical spheres and communities in New York City. Bandleader Kidambi performs on harmonium and draws her vocal influence from both Indian Carnatic and Western Classical training. With saxophonist Matt Nelson, bassist Brandon Lopez, and drummer Max Jaffe, the band expands its influence to the realm of hip-hop and free improvisation. Oscillating between modal, Sufi-like circular grooves and jagged, brutal rhythmic constructions, the band equally suspects Thyagaraja, Coltrane, and Stockhausen as illegitimate fathers of their sound. 

Named for the Cold War-era CIA program that aimed to undermine Soviet culture by secretly disseminating art from the American avant-garde, Longleash relish the paradox of experimental sound. Formed in 2013 by violinist Pala Garcia, cellist John Popham, and pianist Renate Rohlfing, the group is focused on the commissioning and performance of music by emerging composers. Pursuing the freedom of exploration within a pre-determined set of limitations, they mine the depths of the traditional piano trio in search of sounds and ideas yet undiscovered. This performance featured works by Juan de Dios Magdaleno, Francesco Filidei, Yukiko Watanabe, Christopher Trapani, and Clara Iannotta. 

PROGRAM

Longleash Trio

clara iannotta, Il colore dell’ombra

yukiko watanabe, ver_flies_sen

chistopher trapani, Passing Through, 

    Staying Put

juan de dios magdaleno, Strange Attractors

francesco filidei, Corde Vuote

pala garcia, violin

john popham, cello

renate rohlfing, piano

Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones, 

Mother Tongues Suite - 

i. Sathya-Yuga

ii. Treta-Yuga

iii. Dvapara-Yuga

iv. Kali-Yuga

amirtha kidambi, voice/harmonium 

+ compositions

matt nelson, soprano saxophone

brandon lopez, bass

max jaffe, drums/percussion

Existing at the edge of what can be heard, the music of Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino (b. 1947) is identified by whispers of sound that punctuate a canvas of silence. Often touching upon Italian medieval and Renaissance culture as an inspiration, Sciarrino distills the sounds he uses in his compositions down to their essence to create music that exists outside of the noise of daily modern life. For his new approach to old ideas, he has become one of the best known and respected European composers working today, with more than 100 recordings of his work. His fragile music requires exceptional focus from its performers, stretching their technique and control to extremes.

One of Sciarrino’s best known works for chamber ensemble, Infinito Nero, frames the vocal outbursts of 16th century mystic St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi with gentle and metronomic raindrops of sound. Lo Spazio Inverso for five players creates islands of sound in a sea of silence, paradoxically creating motion out of stasis. The program concludes with L’Altro Giardino for eight players and voice, an expansion and elaboration of his previous work, 2008’s Il giardino di Sara.

This performance is conducted by Rensselaer Arts Department faculty Nicholas DeMaison and features vocalist Amanda DeBoer Bartlett.

PROGRAM:

• Infinito Nero (1998) —
  flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, cello, voice
• Lo Spazio Inverso (1985) —
  flute, clarinet, celesta, violin, cello
• L’Altro Giardino (2009) —
  flute, English horn, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello, voice

Existing at the edge of what can be heard, the music of Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino (b. 1947) is identified by whispers of sound that punctuate a canvas of silence. Often touching upon Italian medieval and Renaissance culture as an inspiration, Sciarrino distills the sounds he uses in his compositions down to their essence to create music that exists outside of the noise of daily modern life. His fragile music requires exceptional focus from its performers, stretch- ing their technique and control to extremes. One of Sciarrino’s best known works for chamber ensemble, Infinito Nero, frames the vocal out- bursts of 16th century mystic St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi with gentle and metronomic raindrops of sound. Lo Spazio Inverso for five players creates islands of sound in a sea of silence, paradoxically creating motion out of stasis. The program con- cluded with L’Altro Giardino for eight players and voice.

Converging from the “new music” and indie scenes, Bearthoven and Battle Trance each offered variations on the same theme: engaging music that straddles a line between jazz, classical, and the avant-garde.

Bearthoven is the trio of pianist Karl Larson, bassist Pat Swoboda, and percussionist Matt Evans. Since 2013, the group has rapidly built a diverse repertoire of material by commissioning works from leading young composers with the underlying challenge of producing innovative work for their familiar instrumental configuration. The project is a reexamination of what the traditional jazz trio can do and mean.

The flurry of saxophones known as Battle Trance is a tour de force of intense focus and unending breath. Comprised of tenor saxophonists Travis Laplante, Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Viner, and Patrick Breiner, the quartet uses circular breathing and immense physical stamina to produce hypnotic, meditative, and transformative sounds. In pursuit of a music that is both modern and timeless, the group strives to create a “portal of resonance” where there is no separation between the listener and the sound.

PROGRAM

Bearthoven

Brooks Frederickson – Undertoad (2013)

Anthony Vine – From a Forest of Standing Mirrors (2014)

Fjola Evans – Shoaling (2014)

Adrian Knight – The Ringing World (2016)

Ken Thomson – Grizzly (2014)

Battle Trance

Palace of Wind (2014)

One of the most in-demand players across the Brooklyn jazz, improv, noise, and new music scenes, Nate Wooley is redefining the way the trumpet is played. In his project, For Kenneth Gaburo, Wooley refines his concept of “combinatory sound,” which blends traditional trumpet techniques with vocalizations and mouth shapes typically used for ordinary speaking. Wooley’s piece takes texts by composer Kenneth Gaburo and combines synthesized tones on tape with manipulated trumpet techniques “to create shadings of the phonetic sounds inherent in the text.”

Nate Wooley’s solo playing has often been cited as part of an international revolution in improvised trumpet. Along with Peter Evans and Greg Kelley, Wooley is considered one of the leading lights of the American movement to redefine the physical boundaries of the horn and demolish the instrument’s historical context, which is still largely overshadowed by the legacy of Louis Armstrong. Wooley’s combination of vocalization, extremely extended technique, noise and drone aesthetics, amplification and feedback, and compositional rigor has led one reviewer to call his solo recordings “exquisitely hostile.”

This performance was the culmination of Wooley’s residency in the Concert Hall recording For Kenneth Gaburo released by Pleasure of the Text records in 2017.

One of the most in-demand players across the Brooklyn jazz, improv, noise, and new music scenes, Nate Wooley is redefining the way the trumpet is played. In his project, For Kenneth Gaburo, Wooley refines his concept of “combina- tory sound,” which blends traditional trumpet techniques with vocalizations and mouth shapes typically used for ordinary speaking. Wooley’s piece takes texts by composer Kenneth Gaburo and combines synthesized tones on tape with manipulated trumpet techniques “to create shad- ings of the phonetic sounds inherent in the text.”

Nate Wooley’s solo playing has often been cited as part of an international revolution in impro- vised trumpet. Along with Peter Evans and Greg Kelley, Wooley is considered one of the leading lights of the American movement to redefine the physical boundaries of the horn and demolish the instrument’s historical context, which is still largely overshadowed by the legacy of Louis Armstrong. Wooley’s combination of vocalization, extremely extended technique, noise and drone aesthetics, amplification and feedback, and com- positional rigor has led one reviewer to call his solo recordings “exquisitely hostile.”

This performance was the culmination of Wooley’s residency in the Concert Hall recording For Kenneth Gaburo released by Pleasure of the Text records in 2017.

tba

Harmonium player and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi’s quartet Elder Ones was in residence in the Concert Hall to record an audio recording of her new work Holy Science. The album was released by Norther Spy in 2016.

Elder Ones, a quartet performing the composi- tions of vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, lies nestled in a Venn diagram of diverse musical spheres and communities in New York City. Bandleader Kidambi performs on harmonium and draws her vocal influence from both Indian Carnatic and Western Classical training. With saxophonist Matt Nelson, bassist Brandon Lopez, and drum- mer Max Jaffe, the band expands its influence to the realm of hip-hop and free improvisation. Oscillating between modal, Sufi-like circular grooves and jagged, brutal rhythmic construc- tions, the band equally suspects Thyagaraja, Coltrane, and Stockhausen as illegitimate fathers of their sound.