the dK Projection

Todo lo cría la tierra

2011-06-07T02:03:00.003+02:00

Con el tiempo en el culo y recién aterrizado en Barajas, el próximo pasaje de tren reservado y con gana gatuna de deambular, así, aun a riesgo de chafar los planes de varios días.. ¡qué más da! Mi primera reacción ha sido acordarme de todos ellos: lo representan todo. Hoy Madrid es un trozo de Sol. Algo fascinante, centrípeto, me empuja hacía allá, es un sol pa'dentro. Se ha gestado una ola de humanidad que ha alcanzado al globo de izquierda a derecha, de arriba abajo, de atrás... hacia delante. No es un campamento: es una huerta donde se cultivan dignidades, una planta que por extraña, no deja de pertenecer al mundo vegetal. Se han sembrado las ilusiones de todos, los gritos sordos, la indignación, las ansias de libertad. Todo lo diluye, todo lo esteriliza lo mediático -también lo internáutico-. Pasear por entre los toldos es toda una experiencia de contaminación emocional... ¡tan necesaria! Lo que se respira ahí no son rescoldos: es algo que empieza de cero, que crece, como las tomateras: irregular, de manera orgánica, sin prisa, anunciando vida. Mezcla entre energía encontrada, multiplicada, grandeza de espíritu, irreverencia por derecho propio, corrección política. ¡Qué grande el haber rescatado este vocablo de las redes del eufemismo! ¡Políticamente correcto! Y humanidad... [¡humanidad!]. La palabra hecha emoción, maltratada por las humedades de estos días, el reflujo de la contienda y el adhesivo carcomido, erosionado contra las caras de ese extraño poliedro que me recuerda caprichosamente a la boca enorme de un caimán. Cercanías, cercanías... nunca mejor dicho, cercanías... sin prisa. Todo aguanta como por sí mismo. Ahí están, mal pegados, desvencijados, crujiendo de dignos, atronando en silencio, emborronados por los berretes de la tinta diluida, con una compostura inquebrantable, con ese estar tan estando. Cientos, miles de aldabonazos que resuenan en la conciencia del hasta aquí hemos llegado: mensajes a domicilio, para todos y para todas. Demasiada correspondencia. Un diálogo intrauterino de miles de voces, que no se lamentan, sino que hablan del aquí y ahora, de la sabiduría, del sí-sí. Mucha buena gente junta, tranquila pese a todo, ejemplo y evolución. Algunos doctos lo confunden con algo naïve, algo difuso, de gente ágrafa. Ellos sabrán. Dice un viejo refrán que la letra con sangre bien entra: a este pueblo le vienen sobrando más palos que letras.

Sol cobra especial sentido hoy, a comienzos de junio. Un gran tipo que ya no está entre nosotros me enseñó lo que importa y lo que no. La prueba está en lo que ha quedado, en lo que se extiende, se perpetúa, en lo que vive aquí y allá.. Leo las pautas entre los escondrijos del campamento, en este espacio rico e improvisado, y le vuelvo a oír cómo sonríe, con esa sorna tan de vuelta, tan granuja, tan paternal, elevada a menudo a la categoría de blasfemia, y tan cargada a la vez de cachondeo y de aquella seriedad tan bonachona de la profundidad de lo curtido. Casualidad: yo no lo creo. Hoy todo fluye en las tomateras, que calientan la tierra humeante de esta metrópolis tan tierna, tan inexperta, tan falta de labriego y de azadón, tan falta de la vehemencia de la naturaleza. Desde allá se alquiló el huerto: ¡Mañana lo cosechamos, lobo!

[15M] ..... como .... el .... agua

2011-05-25T11:08:00.013+02:00

Asco. Ayer sentí asco. Estaba cansado. Y aún así, no pude evitar una náusea profunda y punzante. Soy un ciudadano más, con conciencia y definición política: voto y soy de izquierdas. Probablemente como vosotros, desde hace varios años estoy cansado del corralito del cloroformo al que nos llevan sometiendo políticos, banqueros y canallas -sin demasiada indiferenciación-. Siento un asco redoblado viendo erigirse en el poder quienes francamente no lo merecen; de nuevo son los que barren sólo para casa en detrimento de los demás. Asco viendo a Zapatero, como una ovejita que se acaba de comer al lobo. Llega descaradamente en coche oficial en compañía del consejero de Telefónica: un amigo, un socio, un compañero. Mientras, y antes de anunciar su arrivederci, nos va espetando con asombroso aplomo otra vuelta de tuerca. Siento asco, si acaso nostalgia, de que un sector de la izquierda reconocida no haya sabido purgar sus desvaríos políticos ni transmitir alternativa real. Asco del particular partidismo de la abstención que se empeña en desfigurar el ágora española. Asco de que la ley electoral siga siendo lo que es. Lo apolítico es como la asexualidad: se lo folla todo.

Examinar la política, y no solo la utópica: protesta y pedagogía. No se trata de un soma meta-democrático: es democracia, sólo que la extrañábamos desde hace mucho tiempo. En la plaza, en el barrio, en el aire, en los colectivos, en el extranjero: preguntarse qué podemos hacer para re-equilibrar las reglas del juego, ganar el sitio que nunca debimos perder y enderezar nuestro futuro. ¿Somos una herramienta, un cauce, o sólo política? En cierta negación de lo útil también podría venir implícita una especie de negación de la politicidad: somos los hijos y las hijas de las nuevas polis. Hemos fabricado entre todos la llave que llena de optimismo las conciencias de la gente, que hidrata un poco su amargura. Esta llave es capaz de sobrepasar el engendro neo-expresionista, monolítico, en el que se ha convertido la política europea. La moción de cientos de miles de ciudadanos indignados lo dice todo, la indignación y la reacción son nuestro único símbolo identitario. Dejemos que pasen los egos políticos: es un cuento muy viejo.

Estamos, nunca mejor dicho, a tiempo, sobre el tiempo. La marabunta se auto-organiza, crece y reflexiona desde el impulso inteligente, como un ser vivo. Carácter consensuado y rizomático, sin un activo menos valioso que el resto: grandeza de la vida. Este clamor resonante no es aún el primer rugido, no llega ni a estertor. Nuestro tiempo, ¿es tiempo físico o tiempo abstracto?. El movimiento se examina a sí mismo, se auto-organiza en corpúsculos cada vez más definidos, más diáfanos, más efectivos, más reemplazables. El tiempo se diluye, hasta el punto de que todas las ideas volcadas, habladas y compartidas ya no sólo ocupan lugar: titilan, vibran, reaccionan a los estímulos. Sienten. En nuestro propio estar y en nuestro fluir hacia afuera se lícúa el empuje para doblar los tiempos. Las ideas ya han germinado, transformando la realidad en lo deslocalizado y en lo sincrónico. Nos reconocemos en la organicidad imprevisible, la cual comparte el accidente como parte de lo ordenado. La vieja noria de los de siempre ya ha dejado de rodar. Entre todas las moléculas la hemos hecho parar, ya no chirría, ya no repiquetea el agua a su son, ¡ya no hay nadie que la empuje!

http://www.angelarranz.com/media/Arranz_DKsin.mp3

Otro Punto de Vista Analítico sobre el acorde de Tristán vía Debussy

2011-04-22T12:51:00.034+02:00

Ángel Arranz

[Spanish only]

ARRANZ, Ángel: Otro Punto de Vista Analítico sobre el acorde de Tristán, vía Estudio nº 10 para piano de Claude Debussy [online]. Madrid: Sul Ponticello, II época, n. 21, abr. 2011. Disponible en World Wide Web: . ISSN: 1697-6886

Como reciente colaborador en la revista on-line Sul Ponticello, ésta publica hoy, día de Viernes Santo -la fecha no podría ser más wagneriana- un artículo sobre una serie de estudios concluyentes que versan sobre el acorde de Tristán del preludio de la ópera Tristán e Isolda de Richard Wagner, y su posterior apropiación por Claude Debussy. Inicié estos estudios en 2004, retomando los mismos de manera intermitente hasta la fecha. Estos estudios vienen a demostrar la naturaleza geométrica del acorde de Tristán, el cual conforma el núcleo de un agregado en forma de cruz. Esta peculiar disposición es consecuencia de una estrategia compositiva que utiliza la armonía como vehículo –medio- expresivo, más que como finalidad.

El itinerario de la investigación acaeció sorprendentemente a la inversa, en tanto que arranca a partir del hallazgo previo de un agregado cruciforme en el Estudio nº10 para piano de Claude Debussy. Esta aproximación además tiene su plasmación a varios niveles de la composición del Estudio. Solamente este hecho –el de encontrar una cruz con consecuencias compositivas en varios niveles- vendría perfectamente a cerrar tal investigación sobre esta pieza pianística, si no hubiera sido de nuevo abierta y prolongada por un enfoque aún mayor: su directa y taimada relación con el incipit del Preludio de la ópera Tristán e Isolda. Este hecho naturalmente hizo gravitar toda la argumentación al mundo del acorde de Tristán.

El descubrimiento de tal conexión entre los íncipit de ambas obras no vino porque sí, sino a través del uso común de fórmulas acordales cruciformes y a través del estudio de una serie de referencias contextuales compartidas. Estas referencias principalmente serán tanto de índole motívico-temática como armónica, en relación con otras consideraciones específicas, tales como el uso del recurso de ornamentación de la apoyatura, el cual comparte en ambos pasajes modus operandi dialécticamente contrarios y sobre las mismas notas -en términos absolutos-.

Básicamente, este análisis presenta una nueva perspectiva respecto al acorde de Tristán, que es retomada implícitamente por Debussy en las primeras décadas del siglo XX. Continuada y desarrollada por varios compositores treinta años después, esta perspectiva trataría de liberar de asunciones exclusivamente armónicas a la composición, la cual se observa también como vehículo susceptible de expresar espacio por medio de la geometría.

Enlace al artículo en Sul Ponticello, bajo licencia Creative Commons:

http://www.sulponticello.com/?p=3486

DK qumran

2011-04-18T10:53:00.018+02:00

[español más abajo]

DK qumran is an interdisciplinary audiovisual series of three works by Ángel Arranz with the collaboration of visual artist Beatriz del Saz, which combines live visuals, architecture and music. The show consists in projecting real-time generated interior visuals, conforming a recital of electronic music [live and fixed media], which is reproduced through a set of speakers surrounding the audience. The purpose of this set is to create a feeling of spatiality.

Both video and music are based on the architecture of Bodegas Qumrán [ES]. The winery is located in the prestigious Golden Mile of Ribera del Duero, positioned on a small hill with gentle and sunny slopes called ‘El Cerro de las Bodegas’, surrounded by a vineyard of 4,5 Ha. The building, a work by the Spanish architecture studio Konkrit Blu, is an intimate concrete construction, which successfully combines futuristic design and the tranquil, timeless beauty of Castilian wine landscapes.

The first work of this series is Qumran, for bass saxophone, electronics and live visuals, and it is dedicated to Josetxo Silguero. Qumran B, for percussion set and electronics -the last of the pieces within the series- is dedicated to Raphaël Simon.The coherence of these disciplines -architecture, live visuals and music- as a concept and as fact related to the " material"- strives to create a unique experience for the public: abstract videos created real-time, scenery of the bass saxophone (this being a rare classical/modern instrument), and a detailed PA system surrounding the audience.

DK qumran es una serie audiovisual interdisciplinar de tres piezas in progress por Ángel Arranz con la colaboración de la artista visual Beatriz del Saz, combinando visualizaciones en vivo, arquitectura y música. El recital consiste en la proyección de visualizaciones de interior a tiempo real sobre una gran pantalla durante la ejecución de las piezas de música electrónica [tanto con electrónica en combinación con instrumentos en vivo como en formato fijo], la cuales se difunden en el espacio a través de un conjunto de altavoces alrededor del público. El propósito de este conjunto es crear sensación de de espacialidad.

Tanto el vídeo como la música están basadas en la arquitectura Bodegas Qumrán [ES]. La bodega se encuentra en la prestigiosa Milla Dorada de la Ribera del Duero, posicionada sobre una pequeña colina muy agradable y soleada llamada 'El Cerro de las Bodegas', rodeada por un viñedo de 4.5 hectáreas. El edificio, obra del estudio de arquitectura español Konkrit Blu, es una íntima construcción en hormigón, la cual combina con éxito el diseño futurista con la belleza, tranquila y intemporal de los pasajes vitivinícolas castellanos.

La primera de esta serie de obras es Qumran, para saxo bajo, electrónicas y visualizaciones en vivo, y está dedicada a Josetxo Silguero. Qumran B, para set de percusión y electrónicas, está dedicada a Raphaël Simon. La coherencia de estas disciplinas -arquitectura, visualización en vivo y música-, tanto a nivel de concepto como a nivel fáctico que se relaciona con el "material", se esfuerza por crear una experiencia única para el público: vídeos abstractos creados en tiempo real, puesta en escena del saxofón bajo (siendo éste un "raro" instrumento clásico/moderno), y un detallado sistema de amplificación alrededor de los asistentes.

www.bodegasqumran.es
www.konkritblu.com

http://www.thedkprojection.com/en/projects/qumran.html

The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music

2011-04-15T10:14:00.006+02:00

DEAN, Roger [2009]: The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music (Oxford Handbooks in Music)

Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN: 0195331613

For those who wanted to learn deeply via a syncretic reference that amalgamate the very different tendencies on electronic and computer music, congratulations. Since 2009 Oxford University Press has released a wonderful monography, The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music.

This is about 600 pages full of content on the subject, which is extensively dealt from very constrastive viewpoints, conforming a sort of caleidoscope picked up around five large tendencies: the historical insight on computer music; the music itself; the performative modes; cognition and computation of computer music, and cultural and educational issues.

The book was co-written, edited and coordinated by Roger T. Dean with the contribution of around 30 personalities of the computer music world.

http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/MusicHistoryWestern/TwentiethCentury/?view=usa&ci=9780195331615

Ethernet pedal by Lex van den Broek

2011-04-13T12:30:00.024+02:00

Lex van den Broek from the Technical Department of the Institute of Sonology - Royal Conservatory of The Hague has specifically created a new device in order to assist some requirements of the composer Ángel Arranz. The device consists in a re-shaping and re-functionality of a conventional guitar volume pedal, by removing the pre-existent circuitry and applying a new one, based on Ipson Lab technology developed by Lex.

This re-adaptation consists in including an Ethernet connection system, which communicates meaningfully faster and subtler the action of the performer via computer Ethernet input. This was developed under the basis that Ethernet connection is much more faster than MIDI connection, allowing even longer distances [theoretically the "security" range is ca.100 meters without repeating the signal by using lines] and secondly by a significant increment of intermediate values of the controller –around 4000 values, instead of the conventional 128 MIDI values-; it takes advantage of the physical possibilities on accuracy of the hydraulic system integrated within the volume pedal. As the great Lex himself says -joking with this mixture of modesty and good humour that caracterizes him: "It is funny, probably we have invented the first Ethernet pedal of the history".

http://www.ipson.nl

Música electrónica y música con ordenador - Martin Supper

2011-04-03T10:06:00.010+02:00

SUPPER, Martin [2004]: Música Electrónica y Música con Ordenador. Historia, estética, métodos, sistemas.

Alianza Música (Alianza Editorial), Madrid. ISBN: 84-206-8169-5.

Esta vez me lanzo al blog haciendo uso del castellano para recomendar a la comunidad hispano-hablante un libro, aunque no podemos considerar de reciente edición (2004), sin embargo encuentro interesante. Se trata de un libro escrito por Martin Supper, Música electrónica y música con ordenador, intitulado Historia, estética, métodos, sistemas. Está editado en la conocida editorial madrileña Alianza Música a partir de una traducción del original en alemán del año 1997: Elektroakustische Musik und Computermusik. Geschichte, Äesthetik, Methoden, Systeme .

Se trata de un libro donde se explora a vista de pájaro y de manera detallada algunas de las vertientes de la música electrónica y de la música por ordenador desde sus raíces hasta la actualidad. Se compartimenta la explicación entrando en cada unas de las disciplinas y haciendo un especial énfasis en su documentación historiográfica. Supper propone un escaparate lo suficientemente rico que dilucida instituciones, laboratorios de electroacústica, compositores, investigadores, con una rica bibliografía y documentación, muy útil además como guía de referencia.

Un especial cuidado brinda el autor a la terminología de los diversos géneros dependiendo de las prácticas en diferentes áreas geográficas; cabe mencionar dos capítulos por su excepcional significación: el dedicado a música y espacio, donde muy someramente expone la importancia de esta dimensión en la música electrónica, elevado a concepto estético y compositivo; y por último, un capítulo a modo de epílogo dedicado a la historia y situación española, escrito por el compositor pionero en España Andrés Lewin Richter.

Soundpainting Workshop - León [ES]

2011-04-01T11:40:00.021+02:00

EspacioVías organizes the workshop Soundpainting
by Beatriz Franco Mielgo during the 8th and 9th April.
EspacioVías, León [ES]

Soundpainting is a language of signs created at the 80's by the Newyorker musician Walter Thompson in order to compose pluridisciplinar performances real-time, given that it is oriented to musicians, dancers, actors, poets and/or visual artists.

This language comes up from the idea of conducting and giving form to the improvisation during its execution. The conductor or soundpainter addresses to the artists by means of gestures that mean actions. A soundpainting composition is the result of the comunication of the soundpainter's signs and the performers' responses within a live, interactive process.

Beatriz Franco Mielgo is mentored in soundpainting at Paris and Belgium by the creator of soundpainting, Walter Thompson. Once she finishes studies in classical piano at León and Salamanca, she moves to Paris in 2004 with the aim of exploring contemporary music, improvisation and scenic arts, participating in several courses. She learns mimo body techniques from 2007 at Hippocampe. Nowadays, her artistic activity is centered around pluridisciplinary spectacles, improvisation and soundpainting, co-founding the Trafic collective in 2009.

Further information:

http://www.espaciovias.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=351%3Amuestra_del_taller_sound_painting&Itemid=17

http://www.trafic-co.com/

http://www.soundpainting.com/

A hidden poetic space behind electronic branches - Chorro de Luz

2010-07-18T11:45:00.014+02:00

www.chorrodeluz.net

I think that it could be a good reason to break these long weeks of intellectual dryness by telling you some really worthwhile news. And that it is not exactly "news", because it is something that began to work certain time ago. Anyway, for me was a totally illuminated moment when few days ago I found by chance in the Internet Chorro de Luz (something that could be translated as "Stream of Light"), a fascinanting broadcasting adventure carried out by the journalist and music critic Ismael G. Cabral based in the city of light, Seville [SP].

Chorro de Luz is an interesting Spanish-spoken showcase, via both radio and blog, on very carefully selected contemporary music with excellent commentaries that invite you once a week to reflect on creation, actuality and diverse artistic approaches around music. if you are around Seville, you could follow it in Radiópolis 98.4 FM / Sevilla, Monday from 17.00 to 18.00 (repetition on Friday from 15.30 to 16.30). If not, you could search it at the Internet, in www.chorrodeluz.net, where besides downloading any program in mp3 format, you can read extended posts on the music displayed. I wish you enjoy this weekly treasure.

Metal splinters, helicopters with umbrella and PVC voices

2010-05-14T10:51:00.016+02:00

EXTRUSION [2010]

8-channel tape piece

Ángel Arranz

'Everything is curved'. So did my dear colleague Casper Schipper define his first listening to Extrusion, the second electronic piece from a series of four works, which I expect to finish in 2011. Maybe it is because of my renewed interest in Baroque aesthetics, maybe because of a more aware use of the spatial/temporal qualities of the materials, certainly it results in a more flexible approach to time than even in my previous electronic piece, Electronic Study. The piece was composed thinking about the features of the space in which it has been premiered, the Schoenbergzaal of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. To a certain extent, in Extrusion sounds seem to be closer to the limits of the space they inhabit. I have always found especially suitable the apparently austere concavities of the Schoenbergzaal, an architectural compound of solid bricks and wood. In order to develop spatial gestures of sounds in a physical way, the hall is not hugely big as a large concert hall, but long and wide –and high- enough as to magnify some sonic gestures, which draw a completely new impression of the space fed by the music. So, space becomes a sort of instrument just in the moment when you try to modify the perceptions that the audience have about it in a virtual way along a deconstructed timeline.

I began to think about this piece last November, making some sketches about general descriptions, including some movements of sounds that could have structural implications later. The origin of the title was totally anecdotic, but the subsequent construction was not. Beatriz was working in a text on engineering for specific industrial processes, and we were diverted by the weird linguistic expressions that generally appear in this kind of texts. One of these terms was extrusion, and this term somehow reached my imagination. To extrude something is to give it form by means of industrial or mechanical processes. So I found it interesting to extrapolate something like this to a discourse on electronic sounds and to a quasi-mechanical framework.

In Extrusion there is an idea of layout in terms of structural/spatial elements split in several levels, but also a strategy on the movement of sounds in terms of their dynamic/temporal nature; actually these two approaches, the spatial functionality and its articulatory flexibility, are connected to each other. In other words, it could be said that this articulatory flexibility is understood in the physical space [the hall] as well as in the discourse [the music itself], as the opposite ends of the same mental territory. Concerning the use of the parameter ‘height’ as a structural strategy, the space of the hall was understood in two levels, top and bottom. Eight sound sources were set around these two levels: at the bottom, a quadraphonic conventional setting with their respective sub-woofers was designed; at the top level, around the balconies, a rhomboidal setting of speakers crosses the quadraphonic setting, if you take the ground-plan as a reference. It means that the upper sound sources complement just the centers of the quadraphonic spaces, so that everything conforms a sort of eight-pointed star. At the bottom were set the routes 1-2 [front left-front right] and 3-4 [rear left-rear right], and at the top were set the routes as follows: 5-6 [front-rear] and 7-8 [left-right]. Stereo tracks were used for all the channels, with the possibility of using preset panning and diffusion to create different spatial environments: static sounds, which express illusionary polyphonies around the space by means of alternation, dislocation and fragmentation; panned sounds, which define physical movement and locations of sounds restricted within certain selected stereophonic areas; and finally, diffused sounds, which move around the whole concert hall according to some surround parameters. For the latter, two independent tracks were used exclusively at the bottom level, while in the top level only panning was chosen as movement pattern.

Regarding the structural function of materials, some solid quasi-mechanical materials that appear at the bottom level articulate the work in both aspects, the physical distribution of sounds as well as their temporal (in)coherence. These materials are basically in charge of creating a solid cast, each time more elastic, as a sort of machinery that produces the casting for other softer sounds. This machinery develops at least two aspects: on one hand, it represents a collection of milestones along the discourse, which become more and more separate from each other, and also more separate individually from its gravitational center, whose tendency is finally merge with the background material; on the other hand, this machinery produces a progressive displacement of its elements, revolving around a sort of inner spatiality. This last aspect is quite important, because we obtain from this deconstruction first of all a multiplicity of viewpoints of the same object, and secondly, a (re)creation of the external/physical space that contributes to play with different illusions of the hall by using slight differences of spatial resolution. By decomposing and dislocating temporally –dynamically- the elements that conform the basic ‘mechanical’ object, which at the same time represents the core on which the whole discourse is based, we drastically manage to move a stable, spatial conception of time. At the same time, such a conception uses inner temporal differences as a vehicle for dealing with an impression of physical movement, which somehow is like if the entire space was moved around, like if you were able to turn the walls of the hall at once. That is an important feature.

But other important features, dealing with other kind of spatial/temporal conceptions, are exploited in Extrusion. While some solid, ‘mechanical’ materials appear to articulate the discourse, other materials result extruded by the action of those. And the tendency of these materials is to behave as capricious elements that curve the space they walk in pointed by those, as a result of a virtual post-molding. Another clear tendency of these materials is to behave out of the framework in which they were originally situated, invading certain territories by selecting different performing areas and evolving towards some flexible expectations of time, understood as situated out of the margins of something pre-compositionally originated or deliberately pre-organized. Another interesting resource is to use very compact materials with a high capacity for cohesion, and make them travel thirty meters across the space by using a discrete panning. This feature was something especially difficult to deal with in a 25 m2 studio, because you cannot obtain a clear impression of the spatializations with such materials, but as soon as you zoom into such sounds in the real concert situation, a certain sensation of inner movement is produced. I decided that this kind of movements should be produced basically at the top level, as a sort of cloud-like masses of sounds.

The piece was programmed and composed on Max/MSP, using basically FFT processes, granular synthesis and buffering techniques. Also, there are two specific moments in the piece, where Stockhausen´s voice appears, saying a segmented sentence apropos the basic idea of the Helikopter Quartett, and how his primitive childhood dream of flying is connected to his own music. The second appearance of Stockhausen’s voice was processed by merely chopping the sentence and reorganizing it in several channels. But for its first appearance I used at certain moments another interesting tool: pv – c – fp, a toolkit designed and implemented in Max/MSP by Johan van Kreij. This application includes, in a single kit: phase vocoding, convolution synthesis, spectral filtering, pitch shifting and frequency shifting. I found it very suitable for treating the human voice in this concrete passage for three reasons: the enormous creative possibilities on scrutinizing a short sample few seconds long; secondly, because of the application´s capability of extracting those hidden features produced during the normal articulatory processes of the human voice, and last but not least, due to my own pleasure of experimenting with such a tool.

Johan van Kreij's website:
http://www.jvkr.nl/jvkr.html

Institute of Sonology - Discussion Concert Series - 7th May

2010-05-04T19:12:00.009+02:00

Institute of Sonology
Discussion Concert Series
DC #5 – 7th May, 2010
Arnold Schoenbergzaal, 19:30
Royal Conservatory of The Hague

Works of G.M. Koenig, Adalsteinsson, Zweerts, Vinton, Van Paemel/Braet, Konstantinidou, Li and Arranz.

Next Friday 7th May the last Discussion Concert of this season will be celebrated at the Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In this occasion the concert will be attended by G.M. Koenig, who will open the program with ‘Ubung fur klavier’, a piece of 1970 interpreted by the Japanese pianist Akane Takada. The program, quite varied in genres, is basically conformed by tape pieces, improvised music, instrumental music, live electronics pieces and dance.

ARTe SONoro – La Casa Encendida, Madrid

2010-04-23T10:58:00.005+02:00

La Casa Encendida

23rd April to 30th June

www.lacasaencendida.es

La Casa Encendida organizes the first exhibition in Madrid dedicated to sonic arts, ARTe SONoro. This show wants to bring closer a variety of forms and complexity of sonic arts developed during the last decade. The work of various Spanish artists and international artists conforms the show.

Further information at:

http://www.lacasaencendida.es/LCE/lceCruce/0,0,73537_2238427_73535%24P1%3D16,00.html

Isidro Blasco exhibition - Aquí Huidizo - Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid

2010-04-22T23:00:00.011+02:00

c/ Alcalá, 31

28014 Madrid

17th March to 16th May, 2010

Tu. to Sa. 11:00 to 20:30

Su. 11:00 to 14:00

free entrance

Unlike the general chaotic mood last days and the collective hysteria by trip colapses, certain news about a threatening volcano incarnated in the god Thor and serious announcements in the meantime of a new crisis originated over the worldwide airplane sector, unlike the trapped feeling of willing to escape the tyrannical permanence of Madrid architecture and the endless sensation of a Europe that suddenly converts into an enormous abstraction surrounded by cumulus of imaginary ashes and distorted hallucinations from the media, we found another more interesting chaos, organic and silent, formed by real memories and pieces of life meticulously (dis)ordered on wooden structures, delicately bent photographic sheets and imaginary streets that at the same time are real, mental territories seen at once. So, it could be defined doubtlessly as a true pleasure. Fiction over fiction equals real, chaos over chaos equals something pretty close to exquisite order.

This sort of authentic things only occurs from time to time. The Spanish artist living in New York Isidro Blasco presents until 16th May a retrospective collection of 46 sculptures and videos between 1999 and 2010 merging different techniques and matters [photos, wood, cardboard and video].

According to José Manuel Costa, the curator of the exhibition, all the pieces refer to the space that surrounds them, to the emptiness as something fundamentally spiritual and to the surface as a notion that goes down the mere materialism.

Deconstructed images over complex structures through impossible Cartesian coordinates, neighborhoods from Sanghai beyond a 3D representation and intimate resonating moments of the artist’s life are captured in this exhibition; all evokes memories and past instants in a way that defeats the equilibrium between an intermediate region of continuous abrupt plasticity and the power of visual colorful, expansive content. If you go to Madrid these days, you may pass by and experiment it by yourself.

Two interviews with Paul Berg and Kees Tazelaar

2010-04-05T13:57:00.021+02:00

Indeed, this is a special event for sonologists, musicologists, composers and in general for lovers of electronic music. Two interviews with Paul Berg and Kees Tazelaar repectively have been published by the composer and musicologist Ángel Arranz. These interviews were realized during 2009 within the framework of the Institute of Sonology of The Hague.

The first interview covers one singular route of one of the pioneers on computer music. Paul Berg teaches at the Institute of Sonology computer music and algorithmic composition. This interview explores a personal path from the origin of computer programming applied to electronic music towards the most recent computational environments. This knowledge crystallized in AC Toolbox, a computer program on algorithmic composition designed by him. The text describes Paul Berg's experience through his own words, which makes this document even more invaluable. A certain amount of synchronous subjects are unfolded step-to-step as a sort of algorithm, metaphorically speaking, from the seventies until now.

The second interview is not less interesting. Kees Tazelaar is head of the Institute of Sonology and one of the most interesting composers of electroacoustic music. The paper proposes some biographical aspects of the composer, but it also describes some interesting topics around Tazelaar's musical practice at the Analog Studio in this institute, as for instance articulation within the framework of the electronic means, the subjective approach of time and the idea of spatialization in electronic music.

Read the complete interviews here:

http://www.angelarranz.com/en/thoughts.html

Direct link to Paul Berg's AC Toolbox

http://www.koncon.nl/downloads/ACToolbox

Kees Tazelaar's personal website:

http://www.keestazelaar.com

Ángel Arranz: composer, sonologist and musicologist

2010-04-03T17:31:00.099+02:00

We would like to announce the release of the website of the composer Ángel Arranz.

Ángel Arranz [1976] is a Spanish composer who lives and works in The Netherlands as an associate researcher at the Institute of Sonology of The Hague.

His music explores hybridization between acoustical instruments and electronics, spatiality in several plans of the musical realization and multi-instrumental assemblage. As a sort of mental territories, his music explores basically the utilization of time as a constructional matter through applied mathematics. He has developed an interesting algorithmic composition environment based on the utilization of waveforms [also named 'seeds'], which work as controllers of the musical parameters, being used in turn to control the field where instruments are written. Seeds control the smallest aspects of the composition as well as the most general structures.

A series of aesthetical assumptions converges in an alternate manner relating each other in the Ángel Arranz’s work: the utilization of time as a constructional matter through applied mathematics; spatiality in physical, structural and notational domains; organicism through the study of the morphology of natural forms and biological processes applied to the time; affinity with deconstructivism and the Baroque universe; an interdisciplinary approach towards other arts, specially the relationship between architecture and music.

Times as a constructional matter

Arranz uses time as a constructional matter through applied mathematics, exploring basically three branches: randomness, stochastic and fractal geometry. In Arranz’s work, time is the first element on which sound is made up. Time is indefectiblely associated to space just in the moment in which time adopts a basic quality of measurability on space. From its implementation, which is developed from a Cartesian environment, time is understood as a flexible flux that tackles and overflows the metric framework in which is allocated. Such a framework remains as an underlying constructional element. Therefore, to space out the time, instead of merely measure it –in other words, to describe the time in unities of space within a pre-established metrical framework- makes possible and emancipation of spatiality at several levels of the composition: on the transformed discourse at the level of nanoscopic articulation [nano-spatiality], on the generated discourse by algorithmic procedures at the level of notation [micro-spatiality], on the mesostructure and macrostructure at the levels of sections and the general form, respectively [macro-spatiality], and on the physical space in which sound takes place [supra-spatiality]. The two intermediate levels, micro-spatiality and macro-spatiality, operate from the symbolic representation of sound [notation] and the two extremes levels, nano-spatiality and supra-spatiality, operate from the physical representation of sound [DSP domain]. Therefore, since a categorial plan, space becomes substance, and time, an indispensable quality of sound, form.

This reversibility on the space/time dichotomy revalues entirely the sonorous object, regarded not as something static –a meeting point of diverse constructive matters that shape sonic entities at the next upper step in the structural level-, but rather as something dynamic that relates, erodes and compromises the object identity as such. Space and time are conceived as a hybrid relationship in constant equilibrium between the synthetic assumptions on time as an absolute proportionality that agglutinates sound parameters without breaking their continuity, especially the relationship between duration and pitch [i.e. Stockhausen], and the relative position of time as a physical phenomena from the parametrical individualization, which originates a (de)compositional state of the discourse through a web of singularities in multiple performative strata [i.e. Ligeti]. This hybrid condition is reflected at the first time in DK<sin>, for multi-instrumental ensemble.

Specific experiments in the psycho-acoustical field, concretely within the metrical perception of sound, resulted in the concept of ‘synthesized rhythm’. Arranz understands as synthesized rhythm that acoustical illusion that results from two or more series of convergent metrical patterns [Ligeti, 'Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes']. From two lines of periodic pulses, a third one is synthesized in the sensorial plan as a result of the time differences and displacements that occur.

Generally speaking, this temporal approach positions the composer in a neutral space, from which he/she manages all compositional plans through abstract elements used as controllers [seeds]. These seeds, which provide the composition with self-similarity, relate the whole compositional field at as the representational level as the physical level, tending towards an state of radial unified composition, unlike other proposals more lateral, which take the sonorous object as a model and as a vehicle towards the other constructive plans [Vaggione, Roads].

Organicism, morphology of the natural objects
and biological processes applied over the time

Organicism is understood in Arranz’s music as a double constructive process that tends to the regulation of the discourse through self-conductive elements, merging simultaneously the concept organization with the concept articulation. If to articulate is the process of forming parts from a wholeness, and if to organize is the process of forming a whole from such parts, then conduction can be understood as the establishment of a logical path between these two approaches, articulation and organization.

At the moment in which the object reaches discursive coherence respecting the other parts, the other parameters and itself, by means of certain minima instructions or generative constructive elements implemented via computer, it is possible to assert that such a system is self-regulated [self-organized]. That compositional focus appears in DK<sin>.

Concerning with this approach, a sub-branch is directly related to the observation of the natural objects and their morphology [Posadas], as well as the biological behavior of the living structures. This appears in works such as Electronic Study, four-channel fixed media made on HighC [UPIC environment]; several processes about cellular organization are linked to another higher intermediate, macrostructural plans of the sonorous construction; in works as Il Nero, for variable number of string players, which develops an only sonority through actions over the time that make evolve singular instrumental topographies at different scales; or in compositions as Piano Concerto, in which certain fractal elements become the structural mechanism of the composition by means of a strategy of diverse cadenza. Affecting as the discourse as the temporal proportionality.

Affinity to deconstructivism and Baroque universe

Two aesthetical subjects regularly appear in the Arranz’s work: deconstruction and Baroque universe. Deconstruction is integrated within Arranz’s music from principles that insist over the language and the text interpretation: dual conceptualization, multiplicity of meaning upon one single idea, et cetera. Therefore, philosophy of deconstruction has an effect at an aesthetical general level and at a discursive level, taking time as the matter to be deconstructed. This is shown in works like Esquirlas/vacío for piano solo. In this composition was implemented the idea of dissemination, which makes possible a plurality of variants of the same object through the permutational use of pitches. In DK, to Jacques Derrida for string quartet, a deconstruction over two juxtaposed elements is carried out turning around the tension that this collision of materials generates, creating a singular, abrupt dramaturgy. In A Japanese Tale for violin, percussion and piano, a well-known Japanese tune is (de)composed focusing different qualitative aspects of it.

The Baroque universe has a presence too in the Arranz’s music as a sort of ex-temporal pretext and starting point of a certain number of works. La Stravaganza for eight cellos is based on the organic (re)creation of its first bar, which simulates in turn the ending of a concerto grosso. Punto Intenso contra Remisso for cello and both, pre-recorded and live electronics, is inspired on a homonymous concept that plays a role in the Spanish church-organ masters at the Baroque times [Correa de Arauxo]. This phenomenon described the rhythmic confluence of a natural note, for example C, and its chromatic inflexion C#. This idea is extrapolated and then implemented on the articulatory level of materials by means the concept of farmakon, deeply analyzed by Derrida in his essay ‘The Dissemination’. The structure of …horror vacui… for ensemble is inspired in the Baroque altarpieces, where a profusion of full of plasticity reliefs and other ornamental curved elements does not hinder the sight of the diaphanous structure that supports them.

Interdisciplinary approach to other arts

Other artistic realms very often appear within Arranz’s production. In Esquirlas/vacío music and sculpture metaphorically merges within a shared creative process, where music recreates an sculptural process, so that the material is removed step-to-step from by regulating a cycle of behaviors.

Drawing techniques are very present in Electronic Study, a piece that was fully implemented on a graphical environment. In this environment, the horizontal plan is time and the vertical plan pitch. Several plays on colors, strokes, thicknesses and a range of graphic configurations were corresponded respectively to waveforms, envelopes, amplitudes and textures.

In the first movement of the Piano Concerto, the processing and digital treatment of a double image of the Spanish philosopher Unamuno is used as an underlain guide in order to develop diverse textures along the orchestral masses.

An especial commentary must be remarked around the relationship between architecture and music. Arranz composes the DK<protos> series based on the Richard’s Rogers building, Bodegas Protos. Such a series is conformed by three pieces: Piano Concerto, DK<sin> and Electronic Study.These pieces are composed according with certain mathematical procedures and formal suggestions extracted from the Rogers’s construction, mainly the fractal proportionality of the paraboloidal vaults and the triangular design of the ground plan.

Sinusoidal deconstruction

Investigations on algorithmic composition crystallized at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague in DK<sin>, a multi-instrumental ensemble for nine instruments and/or live electronics. This composition was programmed on AC Toolbox, an algorithmic composition program by Paul Berg. Nowadays, Angel Arranz’s research is directed to deal with the unexplored micro-level of the work through electronic means. It represents an attempt of merging these two worlds, the electronic and the instrumental realm, in a unified musical universe.

The sinusoidal deconstruction provides a number of possibilities for the composer about conducting, merging, recombining, adding or removing a limited number of instrumental dispensable parts through parametrical stochastic self-referentiality and generative procedures. Such a compositional environment has also the capability of standing itself without necessity of any vertical pitch control system, as for instance harmony is. Psycho-acoustically coherent, this system also allows a wide dynamic palette, a pre-compositional articulatory and gestural field without restrictions, and a rather big amount of efficient instrumental recombinations in regard to the integrity of the macrostructure. For its ideation and subsequent developments, some historical issues were considered, as for example the obsolescence of temporality as the only time conception in detriment of an emancipation of spatiality, some insights around diverse aesthetic deconstructive influences, the idea of sequenza or the exploration of the musical discourse as an issue that starts from the analogy sound/time from a more tactile experience.

Further information about the composer at www.angelarranz.com.

The dK Projection Blog

2010-03-21T14:36:00.013+01:00

Welcome to the dK <Projection> blog

This is the blog of The dK <Projection> a new cultural platform that revolves around contemporary music, interdisciplinary arts, especially the relationship between architecture and music and electroacoustic music.

From now on, in this blog you can find interesting items related with electronic music, computer music, algorithmic composition, references to a variety of sonological subjects, such as architecture and music, literature related to it, articles, interviews, et cetera. Also, this is will be the place in which we will announce our activities and calendar.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy writing it!

All the best,

the dK <Projection> Team