e-mixer + Acoustic Illusions

Thursday, Nov 19, 7:30-9:30pm
Venue: Surrey Art Gallery
13750 - 88th Ave., Surrey, BC, V3W 3LI, Canada, phone: +1 604 501-5566

Celebrating digital media, art and artists in Metro Vancouver and the opening of IF09: Stereo, e-mixer is a party and networking event with performances by sound artists and installations emerging digital media artists. E-mixer will include Acoustic Illusions, a series of sound works by Martin Gotfrit, Peter Bowles, and Yota Kobayashi with Mark McGregor. Acoustic Illusions experiments with sensory illusion of the aural field.

e-mixer + Acoustic Illusions is presented in partnership with Surrey Art Gallery.

Transportation from IDS to Surrey Art Gallery will be provided by IF09. The bus will depart from outside IDS at 6:30pm.

   Exhibitions Re/Sense #2 now in STEREO! TheWall Stereoscope Edia
   Screenings Chorus of Lungs CHAOS
   Performances Acoustic Illusions t2:Echo AV4D Etudes Denial Clinic
   Special events book launch closing party

Martin Gotfrit
http://www.sfu.ca/~gotfrit

Wake
2009, 12'00"

"The way you experience the city is not about the city itself but the way you move through it ..."- Nigel Taylor
"Wake" is the score for a multi-disciplinary work by Robert Kitsos presented in full September 11, 2009 at the Dance Centre. Through an interaction with Vancouver's architecture, streets and human traffic, "Wake" is a full evening interdisciplinary contemporary dance work with six professional dancers. The title refers to the region of turbulence immediately following a body caused by the flow of air or water around it. Choreography and direction by Rob Kitsos with Emily Molnar as a featured performer, lighting design by James Proudfoot, text by Tanya Marquardt, sound/music by Martin Gotfrit and video projections by Rob Groeneboer.

For Acoustic Illusions, Gotfrit will perform a portion of the score for "Wake."

Bio

As a composer his work includes electroacoustic and acoustic scores for feature and documentary film, video, theatre, dance and the concert stage. As a sound designer he has worked as a practitioner, consultant and teacher. As a performer and improviser, he has been a founding member of several ensembles since the early 1970s. Actively engaged in computational art for many years, Gotfrit was one of the founders of the federally funded Centre for Image and Sound Research (1988 - 1992). The designer and curator of the Music Machines show (B.C. Science World, 1989), he was also the facilitator of the "Computed Art" Summer Intensives at SFU in the 1990s. He has been on faculty at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University since 1981 where he currently holds the position of Director. He recently completed a three year SSHRC Fine Arts Grant for a multidisciplinary project called "Computational Poetics" - this research centres upon installations, performance interfaces and algorithmic composition systems.

 

Peter Bowles

Rhythmicacy
2008, 06'50"

"Rhythmicacy" is an exploration of rhythm with emphasis on how it affects all elements of sound - timbre, pitch, spatial sense, and even rhythm itself. In Rhythmicacy, with help from our friend (and enemy), the computer, sounds are given free rein to do anything - instead of being limited by the vituosity of a performer they are only limited by imagination.

Bio

Peter Bowles likes to dabble into all things music. He is a recent graduate of the School of Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, where he studied acoustic and electroacoustic music composition under Owen Underhill and Barry Truax respectively. He also has a keen interest in film music and live, interactive electroacoustic music performance both of which have been enjoyed in performances and festivals by the community. Finally, he is an interactive art programmer, specializing in helping people make their wildest artistic dreams come to life. His most recent venture was an interactive piece featuring live painting, film, and electroacoustic music, where the canvas becomes a musical instrument capable of transforming its own image on the screen.

 

Yota Kobayashi
http://www.programsounds.com

Tensho
2008, 11'18"

Tensho is written for electroacoustic tape and flute. "Tensho" is a Japanese word meaning roughly "rebirth through regression"; this piece in many ways represents the desire to return to the ultimate solitude and serenity of the mother's womb. The work begins with the most basic, primordial sound of the in-utero state: the beating heart. From there, the flute acts as an acoustic guide through the varied electronic soundscapes, and at one point is even propelled by forces beyond its control (accentuated by sounds of urban transit and train whistles). The final stage of the flute's journey sees a rejection of chaos, and a return to the sanctuary of the womb, recapitulating a soundworld of beating hearts and gentle breathing.

Bio

Acoustic and electroacoustic composer Yota Kobayashi was born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1980. He moved to Vancouver in Canada in 2000 and studied music composition at Simon Fraser University with Barry Truax and Owen Underhil. He is currently based in Vancouver, where he works actively with film, dance, and theater productions, while he teaches electronic music at Langara College and sound designing at Stylus College of Music and Technology. In 2006, his composition "Reminiscence" was awarded third prize at the Prix Jue de Temp/Times Play electroacoustic competition held by Canadian Electroacoustic Community. In 2008, his composition "Tensho" - a Japanese word meaning roughly "rebirth through regression" - was awarded first prize in the international competition for electroacoustic music Musica Nova organized by the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the Czech Republic. Kobayashi has received the 2009 1st prize from the international electroacoustic composition competition Musica Nova 2009 for his piece "Kakusei."

 

Mark Takeshi McGregor
http://www.markmcgregor.ca
http://www.tiresias.ca

Lauded by the press as a "mind-blowing flautist" for performances that "verged on the superhuman," McGregor is quickly becoming recognized as one of Canada's premiere interpreters of new music. McGregor has performed with many of BC's premiere music institutions, including the Vancouver Symphony and Opera Orchestras, Vancouver New Music Society, and Turning Point Ensemble, and his performances have been broadcast on radio and television throughout Canada, Europe, Israel and Australia. In 2008 Mark performed as concerto soloist with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra for the premiere performance of Anna Höstman's Trace the Gold Sun. He is presently principal flute of the Victoria-based Aventa Ensemble, and one half of Tiresias, his duo with pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa.

An outspoken advocate of new music, McGregor has given dozens of local, national and world premieres, including works written especially for him by composers such as Jocelyn Morlock, Rodney Sharman, Yota Kobayashi and Anders Nordentoft. His discography includes le Sign de Lion with Aventa, Delicate Fires with Tiresias, which was nominated for a 2008 Western Canadian Music Award, and the newly released Different Stones: Canadian Music for Multiple Flutes.

For Acoustic Illusions, Mark Takeshi McGregor will perform the flute for "Tensho" by Yota Kobayashi.

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