Bret Battey: 'Three Breaths in Empty Space' Installation

Bret Battey's new installation Three Breaths in Empty Space was commissioned by Phoenix Cinema, Leicester, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their move to the Cultural Quarter. It will run mid-November to the end of December 2019, filling the Phoenix Gallery with abstract computer animations and surround sound generated with custom software systems. The work invites participants to contemplate continuous change and shimmering instabilities in everything from subatomic activity to the level of the cosmos. Are we witnessing quantum foam on invisible waves, nerve patterns in the body-mind, maps of social structures coalescing and transforming, or transfigurations of some vast nebula? As ghostly fragments of Maurice Ravel’s piano work Ondine occasionally materialise and dissolve at peaks of audiovisual intensity, we can ponder how phenomena arise and pass in Emptiness.

For more information: https://www.phoenix.org.uk/event/three-breaths-in-empty-space/

Simon Atkinson: Night Music, Greenwich October 16th

On Wednesday October 16th, MTI's Simon Atkinson will be performing a solo concert at St. Alfege Church, Greenwich, London, as part of the University of Greenwich's Loudspeaker Concert Series:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/simon-atkinson-loudspeaker-orchestra-concert-tickets-73423173689

"Simon Atkinson presents a programme of acousmatic and lowercase music inspired by the nocturnal and evocative of the night, projected over the Loudspeaker Orchestra.

"Simon is Associate Professor and a founding member of the MTI: Institute for Sonic Creativity at De Montfort University, Leicester. His work is primarily in musical composition made possible through digital technologies, exploring the evolution of timbre and texture through time. He has worked in a diverse and eclectic range of musical projects, mediums and contexts over the years, recently in notable collaborations with dance and digital dance.

"The Loudspeaker Orchestra presents immersive acoustic experiences through programmed concerts of multichannel sound design, sonic art and electroacoustic music. Regular concerts, featuring work by international artists alongside students of Sound Design, take place in and around Greenwich."

Further Concert Dates: http://bit.ly/2lZacgS

New article by MTI² director Leigh Landy

The latest issue of Cambridge Journals' Organised Sound, on the theme of 'Borrowing, Quotation, Sampling and Plundering', includes a new article by MTI² director, Prof. Leigh Landy, titled 'Re-composing Sounds … and Other Things':

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/recomposing-sounds-and-other-things/6AA9E8D99FF45A1E44F02643C2FFBAE5

"In this article, based on four decades of experience of using samples in diverse ways in experimental, particularly electroacoustic compositions, the author investigates the world of what he calls ‘sample-based sound-based music’ and suggests that there is a relative lack of scholarship in this important area. The article’s contextual sections focus on briefly delineating this world of sonic creativity and placing it within today’s sampling culture as well as dealing with two political aspects of sampling, a musician’s attitude towards the reuse of sonic materials and the legality of sampled sounds, including musical passages, in the discussion of which current legislation related to sampling is challenged. Following this, a number of categories are presented in terms of the types of sampling material that is being used as well as how sample-based works are presented. The subsequent section is perhaps the most poignant in the article, namely the opening up of this form of innovative composition from a more traditional ‘artist creates work’ mode of operation to a more collaborative one which is essentially already part of most other forms of sampling culture. The objective here is to suggest that such collaborative approaches will enable sample-based sound-based music to become part of the lives of a much broader group than those currently involved with it."

John Richards: '101 Ways to Make the Sound xcstZhhh!'

MTI's John Richards recently keynoted the 'Heretical Sound Synthesis' conference in Helsinki, with a talk entitled '101 Ways to Make the Sound xcstZhhh!'

Video link:
https://youtu.be/LmbCzZfQL0w

More info about the 'Heretical Sound Synthesis' conference:
https://hereticalsoundsynthesis.wordpress.com

Simon Emmerson keynotes 'Bowed Electrons' in South Africa

MTI's Professor Simon Emmerson has recently returned from South Africa, where he was keynote speaker at the ‘Bowed Electrons’ conference and symposium.

This is a unique countrywide event which took place at the Universities of Cape Town, Pretoria and Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). Professor Emmerson gave his keynote address, a masterclass and performances of his works (Aeolian and Memory Machine) at all three locations within five days!

The conference aims to bring together local, regional and international practitioners and academics in music made with technology. South Africa is a unique society in rapid development with a rich and diverse range of cultures and arts practices. Professor Emmerson commented: “I hope this is the start of a fruitful exchange between MTI² and this great range of musicians across South Africa”.

Professor Emmerson shared the keynote platform with Neo Muyanga, who co-founded the ‘Pan African Space Station’ in 2008 as a continually evolving host of cutting-edge Pan-African music and sound art on the internet and across stages in Cape Town and other parts of the globe; he will be producing a new commission for Liverpool Biennial 2020. (See the local Cape Town newspaper preview of the conference below.)

https://www.sacmmt.com/bowed-electrons-2019

Convergence 2019 conference/festival: Photos

Our Convergence 2019 conference/festival was a great success! Take a look through the conference photo album at some of the wonderful events & presentations:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/mtidmu/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2296885543955701

James Andean's 'Valdrada' receives Honorary Mention at Matera Intermedia Festival

MTI's James Andean has received an Honorary Mention from the 2019 Matera Intermedia Festival, Italy, for his work Valdrada:

http://www.materaintermedia.it

'Valdrada' is being performed tonight at the Festival, together with works by Daniel Blinkhorn, Raphaël Néron, Nahuel Litwin, Matteo Traverso & Maria Isolina Cozzani.