The legendary avant-garde composer/performer gives a rare solo saxophone performance. An experimental jazz icon for almost 40 years, his playing pushes extended techniques to their limits in a whirlwind of virtuosity.

An experimental jazz icon for almost 40 years, Zorn’s playing pushes extended techniques to their limits in a whirlwind of virtuosity. Drawing upon his experience in classical, jazz, rock, hardcore punk, klezmer, film, cartoon, popular, world, and improvised music, he has created an influential body of work that defies academic categories. He is a central figure in the downtown scene, incorporating a wide variety of creative musicians into various compositional formats. His work is remarkably diverse and eclectic, drawing inspiration from art, literature, film, theater, philosophy, alchemy, and mysticism, as well as music. Zorn founded the Tzadik label in 1995, runs the East Village performance space The Stone, and has edited and published five volumes of musician’s writings under the title Arcana. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006.

Composer Fausto Romitelli took the power of psychedelic rock and the sonic analysis techniques of the French Spectral school and twisted them together to create a deformed, artificial sound world. New York-based Talea Ensemble will make world premiere recordings of five of Romitelli’s works during their EMPAC residency and perform a concert consisting of:

• Domeniche alla periferia dell’impero (2000) for violin, cello, flute, clarinet
• La sabbia del tempo (1991) for violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, bassoon, keyboard
• Amok Koma (2001) for violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, keyboard, live electronics
• Nell’alto dei giorni immobili (1990) for violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, piano
• Blood on the floor, Painting 1986 (2000) for 2 violins, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, electric guitar, keyboard
• Trash TV Trance (2002) for electric guitar

Using an archive of Internet searches for the phrase “actual reality” as raw data for this process, acoustic sounds of musicians (and the audience) are analyzed and resynthesized in real-time and then presented back for reply, creating a call and response. Along with the “real” performance, collected source material—video and audio from previous performances, rehearsals, and incidental audio—is processed and layered on top, creating an endless loop of what is and what has been.

Jennifer Koh presents a concert from her Bach and Beyond series, a set of three solo violin recitals that strengthen the connections of the Six Sonatas and Partitas by Bach and the present day through a historical journey of solo violin works by various composers.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001 (c. 1720)

Phil Kline

Partita for Solo Violin (2011)

Kaija Saariaho

… de la Terre (1991)

John Zorn

Passagen (2011)

Béla Bartók

Sonata for Solo Violin, Sz. 117 (1944)

As part of an artist-in-residence recording project, pianist Yegor Shevtsov presents an in-progress performance of solo works by two giants of twentieth-century music. Separated by almost a century, Debussy’s Etudes and Boulez’s Incises intersect in both their French heritage and their substantial demands on a pianist’s control and technique. Rounding out the recital is Boulez’s most recent work for solo piano, une page d'éphéméride.

PROGRAM

• Claude Debussy—Etudes (1915)
• Pierre Boulez—Incises (1994/2001)
• Pierre Boulez—Une page d'éphéméride (2005)

Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger was in residence developing his audiovisual work CLUSTER, an evolutionary step in his artistic practice. A work in progress that began in 2004 combining seven complete, independent works, a full-length stereoscopic version of CLUSTER premiered in 2012. Focused on group behavior and the various stages of swarm motion, the 3D characters engage in a weightless slow-motion choreography, with human figures appearing as clouds of blurred matter intermingling with light. 

Chicago-based Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger creates audiovisual performances and installations. Between 1992 and 2003 he worked collaboratively as one half of Granular Synthesis, whose performances and installations confronted viewers on both a physical and emotional level, overwhelming them with sensory stimulation. 

An acousmatic music performance of work from the annual AKOUSMA festival in Montréal, Quebec, which is produced by Réseaux, a composer-run organization dedicated to presenting and commissioning electroacoustic music. Known as “cinema for the ear,” acousmatic music is a compositional form traditionally presented in the dark to help focus and intensify the audience’s sense of hearing. Dozens of loudspeakers were placed throughout EMPAC’s lobby and hallways. The performers manipulated their pieces in real-time, creating an all-encompassing aura as electronic sound moved throughout the building. Performers included Adam Basanta (Canada), Olivia Block (US), Gilles Gobeil (Canada), Seth Nehil (US), and Louis Dufort (Canada). Adam Basanta’s work traverses electroacoustic and instrumental composition, audiovisual installations, site-specific interventions, laptop performance, and dynamic light design; he explores notions of listening and audiovisual perception, the reanimation of quotidian objects, and the articulation of site and space. Olivia Block creates original sound compositions for concerts, site-specific multi-speaker installations, live cinema, and performance; compositions often include field recordings, chamber instruments, and electronic textures. Many of Gilles Gobeil’s pieces have been inspired by literary works and attempt to let us see through sound; he has won over 20 national and international awards and is a co-founder of Réseaux. Seth Nehil has crafted a unique and unusual sonic world, mixing acoustic and electronic sources, field recordings, granular synthesis, and voice; he has released over 15 albums and has collaborated with dance companies, performers, and video artists. Montréal composer Louis Dufort’s music ranges from a cathartic form of expressionism to a focus on the inner structure of sound matter; he is the artistic director of the AKOUSMA festival.

Program

Louis Dufort - Grain de Lumière_I Martin Tétreault - Empreinte à Reculons (For record imprints, 2 turntables & small electronics)

Nicolas Bernier - Antithèse Électronique & Danse le ventre de le machine

Richard Chartier - from Recurrence

Jean Francois Laporte - Rust Louis Dufort - Grain de Lumière_II

Canadian musician and sound artist Tim Hecker was in residence developing a site-specific performance in the Concert Hall at EMPAC and recording new material for an upcoming album. Hecker used a multi-channel surround-sound setup, including speakers located above the Concert Hall’s suspended fabric ceiling, to create an immersive sound experience in near darkness. 

Hecker is a Canadian-based musician and sound artist; since 1996, he has produced a range of audio works for Kranky, Alien8, Mille Plateaux, Room40, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat. His works have been described as “structured ambient,” “tectonic color plates,” and “cathedral electronic music.” He has focused on exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance, and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft that is both physical and emotive. His work has also included commissions for contemporary dance, sound-art installations, and various writings. 

Composer Michael Gordon rehearsed, recorded, and premiered his new work Rushes for seven bassoons. Composed with cascading waves of sound, Gordon’s composition transformed the woodwinds into something improbably electronic. A companion piece to his earlier composition Timber (which applied a similar sound layering technique to the Simantra percussion instrument), Rushes is a haunting convergence of digital and analog ambiance. 

Gordon is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York City’s music collective Bang on a Can, and has produced a diverse body of work, ranging from large-scale pieces for ensembles to major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio. He has been commissioned by Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the BBC Proms, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, among others. 

A sound installation by German artist Thom Kubli, Black Hole Horizon was designed and constructed at Rensselaer in collaboration with the School of Architecture and consultants Zackery Belanger (acoustic design) and David Jaschik (mechatronics). Using the university’s laser-cutting and 3D-milling equipment for the material creation, the production team designed a complex system of air compressors, fluid pumps, and Arduino-controlled mechanisms to create horns that produce tone-generated bubbles. Each bubble is deformed by the energy of the sound produced through the horn, and then bursts onto the room’s white floor. The shapes of the horns, some stretching eight feet long, were based on a model of a black hole geometrodynamic physics. In the installation, spectators could explore the space by walking through the room and witnessing the transformation of sound into ephemeral sculptures.