Electroacoustic and Experimental Electronic Works
The finale of MaerzMusik 2023: With works by Hanna Hartman, Miya Masaoka, Else Marie Pade, Christian Kesten, Jacob Kirkegaard, Vinyl -terror & -horror and others.
Iron curtain, Haus der Berliner Festspiele
© Philippe Rebosz
Past Dates
- Sunday, 26 March 2023
- 20 / reduced € 15
Available in the Day Ticket 26.3.
Jacob Kirkegaard directs his hearing inward: “Labyrinthitis” is an interactive sound piece that consists entirely of sounds that are produced in the artist’s auditory organs – and generate reactions in those of the audience. It is based on a principle of medical science and musical practice: if two frequencies are played into the ear in a certain ratio, additional vibrations within the inner ear will create a third frequency. This frequency is produced by the ear itself: a so˗called “distortion product otoacoustic emission” (DPOAE), which musicologists also call “Tartini tones”. To achieve this, Kirkegaard – as John Cage did before him – enters an anechoic chamber with tiny loudspeakers and microphones inside his ears. The loudspeakers send tones into his inner ear, and the ear reacts by producing tones itself. These noises from the ear are then picked up by the microphones and amplified. During the performance Kirkegaard uses these sounds to evoke “third tones” in the ears of the audience. In the words of the theoretician Douglas Khan, “Labyrinthitis” is the first art work “which directly incorporates active hearing.”
Hanna Hartman composed “The Revenge” for Christian Kesten. She specially developed an instrument made of two differently tuned, amplified piano strings to which threads of various materials are attached. In the graphic and verbal score, she quotes descriptions from the Beaufort wind force scale: “strong breeze. large branches in motion. whistling in telegraph wires. large waves begin to form. white foam crests. umbrellas used with difficulty. 22-27 knots.” The performer translates the texts into an interplay of threads and personal vocal techniques he has developed over the years. “The Revenge” is a work commissioned by Maulwerker and was performed in 2020 in the programme “maulwerker performing music: DIE RACHE [The Revenge]. Pharynxes, oral cavities and other acoustic spaces”.
Miya Masaoka’s “The Imaginary Decolonized Space/Place” is composed for three musicians and sine waves or difference tones. In this respect, the work is linked to Kirkegaard’s composition. The phenomenon of difference tones – where one hears a third tone although only two are being played – was discovered by the violinist, composer and music theorist Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) when playing double stops on the violin (hence the name “Tartini tone”). In “The Imaginary Decolonized Space/Place” the American composer and sonic artist Masaoka investigates this phenomenon, which sharpens hearing and forces audiences to listen precisely.
Greta Christensen and Camilla Sørensen, alias Vinyl -terror & -horror, explore the turntable and vinyl record in their rawest form. The visuality and physicality of the record grooves allows them to transform the playback medium into sculptural objects. Their broken records – reassembled into cut-ups like a collaged image – deliberately interrupt the musical flow of the samples, facilitating looping patterns and unexpected structures while mixing found sounds from across a wide spectrum of genres – from classical, folk and schlager music to vintage movie sound effects.
The performance "Undercover" by composer and sound artist Hanna Hartman is the third part of a series of pieces that weaves together live animation, sounds of amplified and moving objects, films and electronics. She explores the secret life beneath our feet: A visual and musical universe of sounds – removed from their original context – is revealed to the audience that can be perceived in an entirely pure form and thus evoke analogies between the most varied auditory impressions.
Despite a difference in age of 51 years, Else Marie Pade and Jacob Kirkegaard speak a similar musical language and both are prominent hearers and communicators of sounds that would otherwise not be perceived. “Svævninger” is their first collaboration. The work studies the variations that can be perceived when sound waves collide. Both artists have worked with this phenomenon before – Jacob Kirkegaard in “Labyrinthitis” and Else Marie Pade in “Faust Suite” (1962). For “Svævninger”, they combine some of Pade’s early (and hitherto unpublished) sonic experiments with some of Kirkegaard’s recordings from inside his own ears – thus leading the audience directly into the unchartered labyrinth of their own hearing.
Programme
19:00
Jacob Kirkegaard (*1975)
Labyrinthitis (2007)
With
Jacob Kirkegaard Performance
19:50
Hanna Hartman (*1961)
The Revenge (2020)
for amplified threads and voice
With
Christian Kesten voice, threads
Bryan Eubanks sound design
20:30
Miya Masaoka (*1958)
The Imaginary Decolonized Space/Place (2023)
for 3 musicians and sine waves / difference tones
With
ensemble mosaik
Sarah Saviet violin
Karen Lorenz viola
Mathis Mayr cello
22:00
Vinyl -terror & -horror
turntable performance
With
Camilla Sørensen and Greta Christensen Performance
23:00
Hanna Hartman (*1961) / Dafne Narvaez Berlfein (*1978)
Undercover (2022)
for live animation and electronics
With
Hanna Hartman live animation, amplified objects, electronics
Dafne Narvaez Berlfein live video projection
00:00
Jacob Kirkegaard / Else Marie Pade (1924-2016)
Svævninger (2012)
diffusion
With
Jacob Kirkegaard Performance
The times given serve as an indication. They are subject to change.