Live music listings: September 2008

in association with

Doors 5.00
£8 door

Scientists and performing artists come together this evening to demonstrate cutting edge research into digital music and performance. The concert, entitled ‘Augmented Instruments’ aims to bring together artists who use technology to enhance their instruments. The project is being led by Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut from Queen Mary’s Centre for Digital Music, whose work will be showcased during the evening.

Augmented instruments (such as a guitar processed by a laptop) or sensors enable new forms of live performance. These instruments contrast with laptops in electronic live performances that performers operate in a way remotely connected to the audience. Augmented instruments reconcile electronic music with the authenticity of live performance, where a virtuosity of new instruments is developed.

This concert gathers 7 renowned musicians and 3 video artists amongst the best in Europe. The event will be preceded by a workshop where the artists will demonstrate their systems.

Atau Tanaka is an internationally acclaimed multimedia artist, musician and theorist, currently based at Culture Lab, Newcastle, and previously involved with the Sony Research Centre in Paris and STEIM in Amsterdam. His work investigates sensor-based instruments and harnessing collective musical creativity in mobile environments, and his recent activity includes a performance of John Cage's Variations VII with *zoviet:france* and Matt Wand as part of the North East's AV Festival.

Adam Parkinson is an improvising musician who is interested in the nature of movement and listening in improvised music, and involved in developing software and interfaces to integrate the soundworld and sensibilities of experimental techno into improvised music.

Atau's instrument, the Biomuse, converts bioelectic signals into audio control data, bringing bodily performance and a human physicality to electronic music. Atau and Adam's work together takes the listeners on microtextural journeys through shattered glitches, broken melodies and shards of sub-bass, a cerebral yet thrillingly physical experience, always unpredictable, and anchored to a belief that watching experimental music should be an electrifying experience.

Sinan Bokesoy, composer, living and working in Istanbul, Turkey. Sinan creates a unique electroacoustic live performance using accelerometers to control his program Cosmos in real time.

Otso Lahdeoja & the Mars Walkers. Otso Lahdeoja is a guitarist and composer living in Paris. His research focuses on Augmented guitar, he is currently studying for PhD at University of Paris VIII. He developed a live performance that uses sensors to augment and process the sound of his guitar. He was recently given the best presentation award (1,000 euros) at the Journees d'Informatique Musicale conference in Bordeaux, France. (http://www.myspace.com/maamusique). The Mars Walkers are two video artists ,Karl-Otto von Oertzen and Alexandre Berthier, who create a unique visual atmosphere during the performance.

Pier re Alexandre Tremblay teaches composition and improvisation at the University of Huddersfield. He plays a 6-string bass guitar augmented with a laptop in a solo live performance. He launched his first acousmatic album, "alter ego", in 2006, the first album of ars circa musicae in 2007, and in 2008 the seventh album of [iks], the contemporary jazz ensemble he directed for eleven years. He also works on pop music projects in studio as producer and bass guitar, composes video music and develops sound-design programs.

Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, Andrew Robertson & Scorpene Horrible. Jean-Baptiste and Andrew are PhD students in Queen Mary, University of London. They develop sound programs intended for live performances. For this performance, Jean-Baptiste will perform on an augmented bass guitar, and Andrew on an augmented guitar. Scorpene Horrible is a video artist who collaborated with Marc Ducré, Malik Mezzadri and Pplato on various stages throughout Europe and North America.

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