Steve Goodman, otherwise known as electronic musician Kode9, presented a rare talk on his investigations into the weaponization of sound. How can sound produce discomfort, become threatening, or create an ambiance of fear? Goodman mapped the many different ways vibrations in air can be transformed into force, combining philosophy, science, fiction, aesthetics, and popular culture. Taking examples from police and military research into acoustic crowd control, corporate uses of sonic branding, and intense works of sound art and music culture, Goodman revealed a startling new dimension of sound in society. 

Steve Goodman is a lecturer in music culture at the School of Sciences, Media, and Cultural Studies at the University of East London, a member of the CCRU (Cybernetic Culture Research Unit), and the founder of the record label Hyperdub.

During two production residencies, Stavros Gasparatos—a composer and digital sound artist—preapared for the world premiere of Expanded Piano, an EMPAC commission. Working in residence, the artist concentrated on finalizing the audio composition for the electronically prepared piano, testing and creating the sound design for the 24-channel speaker setup, as well as doing final audio mastering of the performance. For Expanded Piano, an acoustic piano is wired with both regular microphones and contact microphones attached to the body of the piano, its strings, and mechanisms. Each microphone’s signal is manipulated in real time through a computer and then routed to its own loudspeaker, creating a multi-channel space around the audience that puts the listeners “inside” the piano.

Gasparatos is a composer and digital sound artist who lives and works in Athens, Greece. He composes music for dance, theater, cinema, and frequently works on solo music projects. His work has been performed internationally in London, Macao, Naples, Berlin, Toronto, Amsterdam, Paris, and Sofia. Gasparatos is a frequent collaborator of the National Greek Theatre.

One of the most influential and iconic DJ/producers working today, Kode9 presented a solo set of new and experimental electronic works as part of the 10th year of the Hyperdub Tour. 

Also known as Steve Goodman, Kode9 founded the influential record label Hyperdub and has been a pioneer in the electronic music scene since the early 1990s. Kode9 has performed at Sonar Festival, Sonar Tokyo, Mutek, Glastonbury, Unsound, Melt, and Coachella and in clubs across Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

This selection of performer/composers from the ninth annual AKOUSMA—the annual Montréal-based festival dedicated to electroacoustic music—included Nicolas Bernier, Richard Chartier, Jean Francois Laporte, Martin Tétreault, and Louis Dufort. The performers used dozens of loudspeakers hung in a ring surrounding the listeners, manipulating the pieces in real-time. 

Nicolas Bernier’s music ranges from musique concrète to live electronics, to post-rock to noise improv, and features electronic music made from objects of the past, such as typewriters and tuning forks. Richard Chartier’s work has been called both “microsound” and neo-modernist, with a minimalist approach to sound, silence, focus, and perception. Jean-François Laporte works closely with the raw materials of sound, from the everyday environment to traditional and invented instruments that produce unconventional sounds. Martin Tétreault is an internationally known Montréal DJ and improviser who explores the intrinsic sounds of the turntable and needles, as well as prepared surfaces (with thanks to John Cage), and small electronic instruments. Montréal composer Louis Dufort developed his style through electroacoustic music, and then turned his attention to mixed music and multimedia art, and has worked with a wide range of organizations.

PROGRAM

Louis Dufort - Étude no.1 for the EMPAC Lobby Gilles Gobeil - Des temps oubliés Seth Nehil - Collide Adam Basanta - instant gris Adam Basanta - is not a / a / is not Olivia Block - Dissolution Louis Dufort - Étude no.2 for the EMPAC Lobby Please note: Evelyn’s Cafe will not be open for service prior to this performance.

An intensely intimate and confrontational performance by Pharmakon, a death industrial music project from Margaret Chardiet. Chardiet describes her drive to make noise music as a kind of exorcism, making it possible to express her “deep-seated need/drive/urge/possession to reach other people and make them FEEL something [specifically] in uncomfortable/confrontational ways.” In addition to being one of the few females working in a male dominated noise scene, Chardiet stands out for her meticulous rigor and attention to form, with every performed element methodically planned out in advance for maximum emotional impact.

Brooklyn-based artists Michael Bell Smith, Sara Magenheimer, and Ben Vida were in residence to produce a new video for their commissioned performance Bloopers #1. Using EMPAC’s Black-magic 4K camera, they filmed multiple house-hold objects, as well as actors, on a custom-built rotating platform embedded into a vinyl green screen. Close-ups, wide angles, and tracking shots were then edited in post-production onto multiple backgrounds to create the effect of stock footage in the style of commercials and television shows. The video was incorporated into a live multimedia performance presented later at EMPAC. With the question “Why do we hate some objects and love others?” as its starting point, Bloopers #1 used set pieces, dance-pop, cinematic cliché, and live performance to playfully tease the boundaries of language, crowds, and the nature of things that draw them.

Centered around two pianists and percussionists, Yarn/Wire uses a combination of thundering rhythms, unconventional sounds, and precision execution. The ensemble has quickly become a key player in the American new music scene, driven by their adventurous programming and dedication to performing music from young composers. Returning to EMPAC, this performance included two movements of Davið Brynjar Franzson’s the Negotiation of Context (recorded and produced at EMPAC and released by WERGO), as well as a series of shorter new works by Thomas Meadowcroft, Ann Cleare, and Øyvind Torvund.

Yarn/Wire frequently presents US premieres by leading international composers, in addition to premieres of music written specifically for the ensemble, and maintains an active performing and teaching schedule at festivals, chamber music series, and universities across the country.

Yarn/Wire:

Laura Barger, piano

Ning Yu, piano

Ian Antonio, percussion

Russell Greenberg, percussion

Program

Davið Brynjar Franzson - the Negotiation of Context (C)

Ann Cleare - I should live in wires for leaving you behind

Thomas Meadowcroft - Walkman Antiquarian

~Interval~

Davið Brynjar Franzson - the Negotiation of Context (B)

Øyvind Torvund - Untitled School

Mick Barr presented a solo performance of his electric guitar works. A guitarist of the highest technical caliber, Barr makes music that exists somewhere between progressive black metal, hardcore, and avant-jazz. Alternating between witheringly complex and gutturally primal, Barr is at the center of the extreme sound scene with works of unrivaled experimental improvisation.

Noted for his relentless speed and agility on guitar, and avant-garde compositions, Barr has been an active musician for almost 20 years and has released over 50 recordings. He is most known in the experimental and metal worlds for his work with the technical duos Orthrelm and Crom Tech, the progressive black metal band Krallice, and for his two solo projects, Octis and Ocrilim. He has released records with notable labels such as Tzadik, Ipecac, Profound Lore, Hydrahead, and Kill Rock Stars.

The Mivos Quartet, one of the most sought-after string quartets in the international new music scene, will be in residence at EMPAC to develop and perform a new work by American composer Eric Wubbels. Titled being time, the piece is an audio variation on the psychological experience of time. Extending nearly an hour, it moves from sections of extreme slowness and static sustains to high-energy plateaus of dense, saturated sound textures. In the final sequence, quadraphonic electronic sound pushes the performance into an altogether new dimension, creating vivid psychoacoustic illusions by using extremely high sine waves. Mivos Quartet: Olivia De Prato, violin Joshua Modney, violin Victor Lowrie, viola Mariel Roberts, cello

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