Free Admission
Program / Programme
La perle noire (2014) Julien Beau (CA)
Luna Series Bret Battey (US)
*Mercurius (2007)
*Lacus Temporis (2008)
*Sinus Aestum (2009)
Simulacre (2016) Line Katcho (CA)
* INTERMISSION *
Clonal Colonies (2011) Bret Battey (US)
Nuée (2016) Myriam Boucher (CA)
Estuaries 1 (2016) Bret Battey (US)
PDF versIon of thIS Program
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
BRET BATTEY
Bret Battey (b. 1967) creates electronic, acoustic, and multimedia concert works and installations. He has been a Fulbright Fellow to India and a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and he has received recognitions and prizes from Austria's Prix Ars Electronica, France's Bourges Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique, Spain's Punto y Raya Festival and MuVi4, Abstracta Cinema of Rome, Amsterdam Film eXperience and the Texas Fresh Minds Festival for his sound and image compositions.
He pursues research in areas related to algorithmic music, haptics, and image and sound relationships.
He completed his masters and doctoral studies in Music Composition at the University of Washington and his Bachelors of Music in Electronic and Computer Music at Oberlin Conservatory. His primary composition and technology teachers have been Conrad Cummings, Richard Karpen, and Gary Nelson.
He also served as a Research Associate for the University of Washington's Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. He is a Reader with the Music, Technology, and Innovation Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. http://www.BatHatMedia.com/
___________________________________________________ LUNA SERIES _____________________________________________
In the sound and image compositions Mercurius (2007) Lacus Temporis (2008) and Sinus Aestum (2009), both the audio and visual components of the work have no cuts or edits in the traditional sense. What we hear is continual transformation of one sound-synthesis process, just as what we see is continuous animation of nearly 12,000 individual points. All three works are named after features on the moon.
I Mercurius (6'10): Mercurius rapidly shifts between multitudes of seemingly conflicting states. It ambiguously combines multiple sensibilities of the spiral form, which can symbolize both unity and destruction.
II Lacus Temporis (8'25): Lacus Temporis (a commission from Threshold Studios, U.K.) focuses on a single colour palette and delicate states lying between visibility and invisibility, order and uncertainty. The seemingly stable readily melts away.
III Sinus Aestum (8'30): Sinus Aestum focuses on a compound, multi-dimensional waves of activity moving through unstable states between plateaus of pitch and noise.
___________________________________________________ CLONAL COLONIES _____________________________________________ Movement I: Fresh Runners (07'00)
Movement II: Soft Strata (09'06)Clonal Colonies was commissioned by New York's Avian Orchestra for their botany-themed concert Vegetative States in 2011. The first movement, Fresh Runners, is a fast romp of densely interlocked textures, thrilling in the process of transformation itself. The second movement, Soft Strata, starts with an almost childlike simplicity, from which a series of gentle elaborations culminate in a not-so-gentle interjection. It returns to something akin to its original state, but impelled by evolution to exhibit greater richness and nuance.
A "clonal colony" is a group of genetically identical plants. Child plants are propagated by "runners" that emerge from a parent plant. Thus colony members may appear as individual plants above the ground, but are interconnected underground. The environment for each plant, which includes neighboring colony members, shapes the unique appearance of that plant. This is analogous to computer algorithms used in the creation of the music.
___________________________________________________ ESTUARIES 1 (5'05) _____________________________________________
Estuaries 1 suggests an “unstable stasis” through use of image and music processes that cannot be fully controlled. An austere but often-uneasy autonomy stabilises and then fractures, oscillating between the left and right sides of the screen. The piece involves visualising Nelder-Mead optimization, a process used by mathematicians to find solutions to complex, multi-variable problems that cannot be addressed by solving equations. We see the results of many such routines searching for the brightest points in a source image. Image here is also serving to mark time and to create trajectories that push time forward — functions more typically provided by music.
MYRIAM BOUCHER
Myriam Boucher is a Montreal based video and sound artist. She has been part of different artistic projects on the North American music scene, from hers early experience as a keyboardist for various instrumental music projects through to hers visual work, she’s working on the intime dialogue between music and image. She creates videomusic and audiovisual performance. Her work was prized in the JTTP 2015 and 2016 (CEC), JIM Electroacoustic Compositions 2015 Competition and Bourse Euterke 2015 and has been presented at many international events including MUTEK (CA), Igloofest (CA), KONTAKTE (DE) and Seeing Sound (UK).
___________________________________________________ NUÉES (10'2)_____________________________________________
Nuées is a videomusic work that arose from the idea of flapping wings. The recordings were made with the baritone saxophonist Ida Toninato in an immense desertic and reverberant space at night. The birds were recorded mid-flight.
LINE KATCHO
Diplômée du Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Line Katcho œuvre dans les domaines de la musique acousmatique et de la musique visuelle. Elle s’intéresse principalement au son et à l’image en tant que matière cinétique, représentative de mouvements, de forces ou de gestes. Elle a cofondé la série de concerts Soundwich et en a assuré la direction artistique de 2013 à 2015. Son travail a été présenté lors de festivals internationaux tels que Sonorities (GB), Elektramusic (FR), Ai-maako Noche Blanca (CL), DME (PT), Currents New media (US) et Akousma (CA). Elle a obtenu le premier prix du concours Jeux de Temps/Times Play 2014.
_________________________________________________SIMULACRE (7'30)__________________________________________
Dans une synchronisation serrée entre l’image et le son, Simulacre propose un contrepoint entre des structures visuelles complexes et une musique épurée. Son parcours discursif évolue entre passages articulés et séquences soutenues, mettant ainsi l’emphase sur une alternance entre rupture et continuité. Il s’exerce également dans Simulacre une approche spatiale inversée entre l’image et la musique, c’est-à-dire que les espaces visuels bidimensionnels sont accompagnés d’une musique articulée démontrant beaucoup de relief, tandis que les espace visuels tridimensionnels sont accompagnés d’une musique uniforme démontrant très peu de relief.
JULIEN BEAU
Musicien et compositeur français, il travaille dans les champs des arts sonores (musique acousmatique, vidéo, installation) en ayant d'abord étudié le piano dans sa jeunesse avant de découvrir les musiques électroacoustiques avec Christian Eloy au Conservatoire de Bordeaux et aux
studios du SCRIME. A partir de 2008, il y développe également une écriture accompagnée de vidéo abstraite qu'il nomme alors « musique mixte ». Ces deux médiums (le son et l'image) seront dès lors ses principaux supports de création. Entre 2010 et 2012, il achève son cursus musical à Paris avec un Master délivré par le Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Au travers de multiples projets interdisciplinaires, il partage son expérience avec d'autres artistes et souhaite élargir ses connaissances grâce à leurs pratiques (architecture, design, photographie, danse, cinéma, poésie,...). Ces pièces musicales et audiovisuelles sont jouées principalement en France et en Europe avec le soutien de Musiques-Recherches, les compagnies Alcôme et Motus, La Muse en Circuit et le GRM. Son premier disque Reflet est paru en 2010 sous le label indépendant Aposiopèse et il publie régulièrement en « digital » avec le label parisien Tsuku Boshi.
______________________________________________LA PERLE NOIRE (10'06)_________________________________________
Dans l'Univers se trouverait un minuscule amas stellaire composé d'un astre rare, une lune aux caractéristiques obscures. Parti à sa recherche, un
objet étranger voyage en direction de son orbite. Au fur et à mesure qu'il s'y approche, il semblerait qu'une force intense se propage de sorte que l'espace-temps s'en trouve soudainement distordu comme si la Lumière serait manipulée pour en protéger le secret …
WARNING
PROJECTED MATERIAL MAY CONTAIN FLASHING LIGHTS WHICH MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY