Maria Aristotelous – Solo Electronics

“Just as some kind of analytical technique is need to understand a dream so a knowledge of mythology is needed in order to grasp the meaning of a content deriving from the deeper levels of the psyche. The Collective Unconscious. so far as we can say anything about it at all- consist of mythological motifs or primordial images for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents .“ (Carl Jung on the structure of the psyche 1927)

Maria Aristotelous was born in Limassol (Cyprus) in 1976. In 1995 she was successful in being admitted in the Athens medicine school from which she successfully graduated and obtained her bachelors ‘ degree in medicine. During the period from 2003 to 2005 she attended drawing and painting lessons in the workshop of Savvas Georgiades in Athens. In 2005 she successfully passed the entry exams for the Athens School of Fine arts where she was admitted and studied in the A’ painting workshop of Zaharias Arvanitis. Subsequently she also graduated from the Athens school of Fine arts in 2010 (with distinction) after presenting her final thesis project. She has also studied sculpture with Nikos Tranos as well as Printmaking. Moreover, she attended the digital sound processing/composition lectures at the hypermedia laboratory in ASFA and advanced MaxMSP classes in SAE Athens as well private lessons with the composer Lambros Pigounis, before she was admitted for a master research at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague NL where in collaboration with STEIM Amsterdam she is researching on the connection of the archetypes that define the human psyche and music .She is taking lectures amongst others with Kees Tazelaar, Richard Barrett, Johan van Kreij,Joel Ryan, Kristina Andersen, Lex Van Der Broek etc. She is member of the Chamber of Fine arts in Greece since 2011 and a member of the Sonology electroacoustic ensemble since September 2011. Except of her rather recent activity as a sound artist and composer she has taken part in a lot of group exhibitions in Greece and Cyprus since 2005, in various art competitions and recently in Art Athina (2011). Currently she is preparing her first solo exhibition in penindaplinena gallery in Limassol. Her works are part of many private collections in Greece and Cyprus. www.mariaaristotelous.com

DaMu – Free Improvisation

Krists Auznieks (piano), Enric Sans i Morera (clarinet), James Hewitt (violin) & Klara Andrlova (percussions)

DaMu is a free improvisation group based in Den Haag which researches connections between sound, movement, space, and environment. It was formed in February 2011 after a two weeks intensive workshop with Michael Schumacher and Mary Oliver.  Musicians and dancers engage in a dialogue, reacting instantly to the possibilities of specific venues and to each other. They question conventional distinctions, such as between genres, performer/audience, musician/dancer, hall/stage. James Hewitt is active in both early and contemporary music, and becoming well known for his engaging personal style and improvisation process. He performs throughout Europe, both solo and in ensembles including Contrasto Armonico, the Northern Consort, and the Scroll Ensemble, which specialises in programes inspired by improvisatory practices of the baroque and was featured in the Leipzig Improvisation Festival 2011. He has participated in several recordings with Contrasto Armonico, associated with an extended project to record all of Handel’s Italian Cantatas, and has broadcast on Dutch Radio 4. He also works with improvisation ensembles the Royal Improviser’s Orchestra, the Hewitt/ Baggiani Duo (improvising ensemble with violin and percussion), and DAMU (music/dance improvisation), and in the Klingon Opera U, in which he plays a newly made instrument, tin dach. On this instrument, similar to a rebab, he also performs modal improvisation and Gregorian chant. His compositions include works for Cambridge University Opera Society (Moses and Pharaoh), Ely Cathedral Choir, the Nieuw Ensemble, Modello Ensemble, and the Fokker Organ in Amsterdam Muziekgebauw aan’t IJ. He has received performances at the Cheltenham Festival, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and during the Gaudeamus Interpreter’s Competition in Amsterdam. His works will increasingly become available from Parklaan Publications on Tutti Music. He learned music at Girton College, Cambridge, and continued his studies at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague: baroque violin with Pavlo Beznosiuk, and composition with Martijn Padding, Cornelis de Bondt and Guus Janssen. He completed his masters there with research in improvised counterpoint.

The Acoustic Staircase Ensemble – Acoustic Staircase

Acoustic Staircase was designed by Mireille Hofwijk in july 2012 and Ángel Faraldo composed a site specific piece that will be performed by the Acoustic Staircase Ensemble. The Acoustic Staircaise Ensemble comprises Yiannis Tsirikoglou, Fani Konstantinidou, Anne Welmer, Ángel Faraldo and more.

‘If we think of space as that which allows movement, then place is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be trans- formed into place …’’ (Tuan, 1977)

Acoustic Staircase is a sound installation in the stairwell that adds more value to the passage through this space. A non-place is thus transformed into a meaningful place. The stringed instrument is spun in the in-between space alongside the bannisters and can be played by plucking or bowing the string. The tones are amplified by wooden resonance boxes and the acoustic qualities of the space. A tone is a compilation of the different materials of the instrument, the length and tension of the strings as well as the materials in the space. Each stairwell thereby brings about a unique sound. Playing the instrument adds a sensory experience to walking the stairs. With this installation, Mireille hopes to provide people with a musical moment in-between their daily routine and she creates a ‘stage’ where people can visually and audibly connect.

Especially for this Ephémère edition, the ensemble will compose a site specific piece that explores the peculiarities of Mireille’s Acoustic Staircase on its current location at the DCR building. The people constituting the audience will be invited to position themselves all allong the three storeys of the staircase and the ensemble will make the instruments resonate in different manners that will remind of ancient pythagorean drones, japanese shamisen music and the subtle tones of the persian oud.

Chris Galarreta – Computer Music is Dead

Catching the magnetic fields of broken computers component and electronic trash to generate a sound experience. Some reviews about the “Computer Music is dead” release: “Defines a suitable digital set, amplifying the magnetic fields caused by disordered electric parts, obtained by dissecting normal computers and using appropriate sensors for recording. The responsibility of such an enigmatic and provocative title, “Computer Music Is Dead”, is well balanced even in the second execution – which follows the same procedure – and is run under Apodio GNU/Linux: forcibly manipulating the graphical user interfaces of software like Mozilla Firefox, Qjackctl and Pure Data. There’s an indirect reference to a form of musical otherness that computer music, is doubly dying: as a medium reduced to mere loose parts, in the theory that “pushed” to its most radical consequences, it is protected from any “aesthetic” and “usability” sophistication. ”  (Aurelio Cianciotta, Neural Magazine, December 2010)

“ The computer is only used as a source of electromagnetic energy captured as noise and drones, Software is not even used until the album´s coda, which sees the Peruvian monitoring the electrical field as he performs various programming tasks unrelated to audio processing. Bizarrely, it´s by far the most musically enjoyable of the three releases even as it seems to question the validity of its own existence.” (Keith Moliné, The Wire, December 2010)

Chris Galarreta  is a transdisciplinar  autodidact,  audiovisual  creator,  composer  and  performer  of  contemporary music. Founder of Dios Me Ha Violado, Evamuss and Tica, three of the most active experimental music bands in the Peruvian underground scene between 1995 and 2010. He has published, as a soloist and with different  projects,  more  than  80  solo  releases,  collaborations and compilations in labels and net labels around the world. He produces intriguing abysses of sound and silence  using  out-of-order electrical appliances, homemade  sound  instruments,  controlled  induction  of  error  in  software,  programming generative tools and transducing imperceptible physical phenomena for humans to an audible dimension.  He extrapolates those experiences in his audiovisual installations and performances.  more info: www.sajjra.net