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Performances
Sound(e)scape curated by Darren Copeland
presented as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche
various artists
October 3-4, 7pm - 7am, FREE
The NAISA Space (#252), Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St.
Sound(e)scape is an immersive experience that surrounds the participant with the sounds of water, air, and natural soundscapes from around the world curated by NAISA's Artistic Director Darren Copeland. The works will be spatialized live with NAISA's unique realtime spatialization controller and software by Andrew Stewart, Hector Centeno and Darren Copeland and will include performances of works by the angelusnovus.net collective who will use this occasion to launch a six month residency at the NAISA Space.
Jean Piché Retrospective (1999-2009)
Videomusic Presentation
October 8, 2009 (8 PM) $15/10
@ Loop Studio Centre for Lively Arts, Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie #170, Toronto
+ October 9, 2009 (7-10 PM) FREE
during the James Street North Art Crawl
@ The Factory, Hamilton Media Arts Centre,
126 James Street North, Hamilton, 905-577-9191 / www.hamiltonmediaarts.org
NAISA artistic director Darren Copeland has curated a program of videomusic works by Jean Pichˇ that have been inspirational to the investigation of the videomusic genre by NAISA in its SOUNDplay programming since 2003. The works will be presented in Triple Screen HD in a concert format at the Loop Studio in Toronto and in an installation format with an artist Q&A at The Factory Media Arts Centre during the James Street North Art Crawl in Hamilton. The performance in Toronto will be preceded by Freida Abtan's new large scale videomusic work The Hands of the Dancer.
Oct 8th programme:
The Hands of the Dancer by Freida Abtan
Spin by Jean Piché
Bharat by Jean Piché
eXpress by Jean Piché
Boreales by Jean Piché
Programme Notes:
The Hands of the Dancer (2008) by Freida Abtan
"The hands of the dancer" is a 21 minute HD videomusic piece that focuses on imagery related to the mythology of temple dancers and to dreaming. A man sleeps and dreams of a dancing girl who multiplies and shimmers like the desert. Her image is continuously mutating and becomes the landscape of the dream. She looks into a mirror and appears next counting peacock feathers while another prescence takes her place as the dancer, making contact with the dreamer.
This video explores the multiple ways that movement and form can be abstracted through surface and temporal manipulation. The narrative evokes a dreamscape in which characters exchange identity and develop through physical transformation. The sounds and images depicted are inspired by traditional Baladi form and are meant to evoke a state in which these bodily gestures convey secret meanings that need not resort to language.
"The hands of the dancer" was created with footage of Andrea Fryett, Olivia Li, and David Drury. Compositionally, the piece focuses on relational movement within inter-sensory gesture and moments of evolving self-symmetry.
Spin (1999-2001) by Jean Piché
for three channel video and stereo sound
Spin is a metaphorical representation of musical time, color and form. Synchronicity (or "synchrèse") is not a primary concern. Formally, Spin is presented in three segments each dealing with its own level of abstraction. All images are obtained by "spinning" camera techniques and severe processing, the goal being of severely altering iconicity. There are no synthetic images. Musical ideas were the determining guide for the elaboration of visual sequences, but the music was composed after the visuals. The music is made with the composer's own music and audio software. Spin was commissioned by ACREQ and was premiered in september 2000 in Montréal, Canada.
Bharat
Music and images: Jean Piché
Violin: Ivan Zawada
Voice: Mohandas K. Gandhi
Rights: The GandhiServe Foundation, Berlin
for three channel video and stereo sound
Bharat was shot in Northern India in early spring 2002 and premiered in November of the same year. This is the first time I shot with the aim of assembling in panoramic triple screen mode. Scanned panning scenes were reconstructed from multiple exposures. The text is extracted from the last known recording of Mohandas K Gandhi a few days before his assassination in 1947. The text is reproduced below.
eXpress (2001) by Jean Piché
for three channel video and stereo sound
eXpress is a commission from the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges. It was premiered in France in June 2002. The footage was shot on the Bourges-Paris S.N.C.F. train. The highly kinetic allure of eXpress is obtained by forcing a very fast camera shutter speed with a large aperture. Trajectories and velocities ... kinetic outrage... fields, village, city.
Boreales (2008) by Jean Piché
for three channel HD video and stereo sound
A new Triple HD work premiered this past May at the Elektra Festival in Montreal: elektramontreal.ca/2009/
Sound-Image-Sound co-presented with Contact Contemporary Music
with works by Nancy Tobin, Christopher Fox and Brent Lee
October 16 and 17, 2009 (8 PM) $15/10
The Loop Studio Centre for Lively Arts (#170)
Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St.
The nature of listening, of performance, and of the integration of the visual with the auditory will be the focus of the performances on October 16 and 17 with a Toronto premiere of SUGARscape by Montréal's Nancy Tobin and performances by Contact Contemporary Music Ensemble of works by Christopher Fox and Brent Lee.
Oct 16th & 17th Programme:
I hear your voice in the circling night (2008) by Brent Lee (Music) & Sigi Torinus (Images)
SUGARscape by Nancy Tobin
Discreet Music by Brent Lee (Music) & Sigi Torinus (Images) (performed by Contact Contemporary Ensemble)
Strangers in our Midst by Christopher Fox (Music) & Contact Contemporary Music (Image)
Oct 16th & 17th Program Notes:
I hear your voice in the circling night (2008)
Music: Brent Lee
Images: Sigi Torinus
The original bass clarinet part for this piece was composed en route from Vancouver to Beijing in 2001. The entire 13-hour flight took place at night as the plane traveled westward more or less at same speed as the earth's rotation. This sense of very slowly evolving darkness is reflected in the character of the clarinet line. Years later, ______ and I recorded the bass clarinet sketch and some further source material; I then used CSound and Ableton Live software to design timbres and assemble cues and audio processes to accompany the live performance of the work. Shortly after, we started performing the work with video artist Sigi Torinus; she created two video versions of the piece: the first is a palette of still and moving images and processes that, like the audio, can be mixed in real time; the second is a fixed video that stands on its own.
SUGARscape (2009) by Nancy Tobin
Sugarscape is an immersive and meditative work based on recordings of sugar cane fields in Martinique, Caribbean islands.
Discreet Music (2009)
Music: Brent Lee
Image: Sigi Torinus
Featuring the Contact Contemporary Music Ensemble
Strangers in our Midst
Music: Christopher Fox
Image: Contact Contemporary Music
Featuring the Contact Contemporary Music Ensemble with tenor saxophone, euphonium, accordion, banjo, cello + video cameras and playback
45:00 (1999-2001)
Strangers in our midst was premiered by the VENI Ensemble in dieTheater/KonzertHaus, Vienna on 19th October 2001. It is dedicated to Richard Ayres. The cello part may be performed as a solo work, inner.
Pierre Hébert and Stefan Smulovitz perform + screenings of Toronto animation artists
Co-Presented with Pleasure Dome
Oct 23 and 24, 2009 (8 PM) $15/10
@ Loop Studio Centre for Lively Arts, Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie #170, Toronto
Québec pioneer animator Pierre Hébert returns to SOUNDplay after his appearance last year with Living Cinema. This time he is joined by BC electroacoustic musician Stefan Smulovitz for two performances of live digital animation and sound art for their new collaborative work "Robert's Creek". Also included is a program of animation works by Toronto artists curated by Nick Fox-Gieg for Pleasure Dome. Performance is preceded by the videomusic work "a sudden change in the consistency of snow" by Peter V. Swendson.
Oct 23rd & 24th Programme:
a sudden change in the consistency of snow (2008) by Peter V. Swendson
Locavore Program:
Lesley Loksi Chan - Curse Cures
Jesse Ewles - An Eluardian Instance
Rachel Peters - Nagasaki Circus
Howie Shia - Flutter
Evan Tapper - Tumor
Oct 23rd & 24th Program Notes:
a sudden change in the consistency of snow (2008) by Peter V. Swendson
a sudden change in the consistency of snow is an interpretation of that kind of early-winter snow that is almost sleet or hail, changing all the time, sometimes softening enough to bestow the lovely winter quiet that exists when everything is covered and dampened with snow, but other times quite hard and sharp and percussive as it bounces on frozen surfaces.
Locavore
a survey of recent short animation work from Toronto
curated by Nick Fox-Gieg
Films by Lesley Loksi Chan, Jesse Ewles, Rachel Peters, Howie Shia, and Evan Tapper.
Each time there's a change in the technology used to make moving pictures, auteur animators take the lead in experimenting with the new tools on offer. Locavore, a survey of recent short animation work from Toronto, documents this evolutionary process at work.
Locavore program:
Lesley Loksi Chan - Curse Cures
Jesse Ewles - An Eluardian Instance
Rachel Peters - Nagasaki Circus
Howie Shia - Flutter
Evan Tapper - Tumor
Robert's Creek (2009)
Music: Stefan Smulovitz
Live Animation: Pierre Hébert
Robert's Creek is where Stefan Smulovitz lives, on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver. When Pierre Hébert visited him last February, he shot some images of the very powerful nature of this area and it became the basis of an improvisational piece they presented in Montréal last May as a work in progress. It comes as a mixture of live improvised animation keyed over processed live action shots. Smulovitz will improvise with his viola over a ground of edited nature sounds It is a meditation on the creek that runs in the back of his house.
Improvisation (2009)
Music: Stefan Smulovitz
Live Animation: Pierre Hébert
30:00 (2009)
To conclude their performance, Hébert and Smulovitz will present an open improvisation.
CONCRETE Toronto, a performance by Debashis Sinha & Yosuhiro Morinaga
co-presented with CONCRETE
November 7, 2009 (8pm) $15/10
The NAISA Space (#252)
Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St.
CONCRETE Toronto, presented by New Adventures in Sound Art, will be the first ever collaboration with Yasuhiro Morinaga (Tokyo) and Debashis Sinha (Toronto). Each artist has an extensive practice in sound/radiophonic art. Morinaga and Sinha will draw upon their large archives of field recordings to present a new auditory and visual actualization of musique concr¸te, filtered through a geographic and artistic experience that is informed by a new global reality of cultural and creative openness. Also included will be videomusic works \harmonium\ by Debashis Sinha and Liquid Amber by Maggie Payne.
Nov 7 programme:
Liquid Amber by Maggie Payne
\"harmonium\" by Debashis Sinha
CONCRETE Toronto by Debashis Sinha & Yasuhiro Morinaga
Nov 7th Program Notes:
Liquid Amber (2008) by Maggie Paune
Liquid Amber is about images that compel me to physically reach out and touch them in real life and on -screen, just as I am drawn to try to touch a star in the desert's black velvet night sky. Sounds are physical, tactile, visceral, primarily produced by my touching various objects.
\"harmonium\" (2008) by Debashis Sinha
\"harmonium\" is a 4 movement video/audio work exploring the nature of sound as vibration. Consisting of a wide range of video and audio material from the analog and digital realms, harmonium presents a cohesive language of sound and image derived deeply from the natural world. As with all Sinha's work, it is a meditation, demanding a calm and mindful focus to fully participate.
\"harmonium\" was created under the auspices of the Banff New Media Institute/Quebecor Fund Fellowship Award at the Banff Centre, 2008.
CONCRETE Toronto (2009) by Yasuhiro Morinaga and Debashis Sinha
CONCRETE Toronto is the first ever collaboration with Yasuhiro Morinaga (Tokyo) and Debashis Sinha (Toronto). Each artist has an extensive practice in sound/radiophonic art, collecting field recordings all over the world for use in their compositions for CD, art galleries, cinema, radio and the internet. In Toronto, Morinaga and Sinha will draw upon their large archives of field recordings to present a new auditory and visual actualization of the Musique Concrete idea, one filtered through a geographic and artistic experience that is informed by a new global reality of cultural and creative openness.
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