Motion Control MODELL 5 by Granular Synthesis
Plaything as performed by Maryanne Amacher
AKOUSMA ElectroAcoustic Spatial Audio Program:
Horacio Vaggione / Estelle Schorpp / Louis Dufort/ Shane Turner
Robin Fox - TRIPTYCH (Realtime Laser Works) :: Antimatter - Live Premiere
Live Performances:
Kyoka / Ma Haiping (MHP) / Le Fou
33emybw Curated AV works :: DJ - fallen matter / kk.Shucko
Shigetoshi Furutani
Doors: 8:30PM
Performance: 9PM – 11PM
All ages
Please be advised: This event will feature extremely high-volume audio and flashing lights
Standing performances
9PM
Motion Control MODELL 5
1994- 2024 / 30 years of Modell 5
Insane Audiovisual Performance and Installation
4-Channel Portrait Video, 9 Channel Audio
Featuring Performer Akemi Takeya
Motion Control - MODELL 5 by the group Granular=Synthesis, premiered 30 years ago in 1994 at the ICC London. It has been described as one of the most feverish experiments in bringing extreme digital video assemblies to a Iive audience.
Granular=Synthesis events were among the most concentrated, intense and sensual experiences throughout the global AV field, that emerged in the nineties. This is the story of the seminal collaboration between two visionary artists who in those years called themselves “operators” - Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich. They specialized in transforming the gestures and noises of disassociated human carriages: human heads isolated from their bodies, recombinant alien, screen-based creatures that move, expressing themselves through larger than life supra-human performances.
Modell 5 is one of the most powerful para-hinged works ever spawned in a ‘virtual character” mindset presented by the Recombinant Festival. For those unfamiliar with this spectacle, you owe it to yourselves to witness this signature masterwork of profound preponderance and sensory engulfment!
Granular Synthesis is a term derived from the word “grain” (also a term used in electro-acoustics) where the smallest possible particles or frames (in this case micro image/sound segments extracted from video material) are processed and recombined as independent portions or clusters at elevated pulse frequency and temporal re-sequencing. The adjoining, original video material inherent audio waves spill out layered, surround-amplified, multiplexed and infra-rich frequencies into an oscillating, pulsing ‘living’ sonic mass. The result of this postulated post human species uniquely reflects the essential characteristics of pre- 2000 machine-ness - speed, overpowering stimuli and unnatural levels of control. We witness the machine organism analyzing, reformulating, procrastinating and establishing a quasi human presence, disturbingly deconstructed to disintegrate the illusion of ‘real life”.. A totally anthropomorphized perpetual alien machine construct, uncannily in our sapient image.
10:10PM
PLAYTHING - Unequivocally one the most magnificent musical mavericks of the 20th century, Maryanne Amacher leaves to our mortal listening world one of her more personal live-to-multi-channel disc performances comprising one of her rare departures from structure borne sound.
After studying with Stockhausen and working with John Cage, Amacher took off on her own psychoacoustic flight path, developing work that was critically described as; "hallucinating swarms of biological air from every direction", "3D illusions of difference-tone ear dances where the sound seems to emanating from inside your own skull!", "immense volumes that make the frequencies feel liquid -, all-enveloping buzzing rumbles wrapped in sandstorm textures".
Through multiple residency periods with Recombinant Media Labs in 2000 and before, Amacher designed a legendary 'airborne audio' Plaything mix, re-amplified from her hand in concert by Naut Humon and Edwin van der Heide. A 50-minute epic epiphany, chronicled and performed by Amacher herself in real time before her death, 'Plaything' is a prime example of Recombinant’s vivid experiential archive of past lives that can still breathe and encircle us today.
Doors: 7:30PM
Performance: 8PM – 11PM
All ages
Please be advised: This event will feature extremely high-volume audio and flashing lights
Standing and seated performances
We are psyched to bring to the Bay Area public, a featured segment of Montreal’s Akousma festival program. Akousma (formally Réseaux des arts médiatiques) is a concert production company that showcases works by electroacoustic artists and collectives in Montréal and globally. These works are presented via an multichannel array system, and they take several forms: acousmatic (tape music), mixed (tape and instruments), live (live electronics), video music, or music integrated into other art forms such as dance, performance, or installation.
One City Away is from her recent Bandcamp release “In My Ears (for Maryanne)”' which is a tribute to the work of American composer and sound artist Maryanne Amacher. Algorithmically composed using SuperCollider, the album highlights several aspects of her work: amplitude dynamics, sound-walk-inspired temporal structure and, above all, the musical exploration of distortion product otoacoustic emissions*. The composition encourages the creation of "perceptual geographies," to use Amacher’s terms, by making space, body and ear resonate at the same time. Thus, by alternating scales of perception within the temporality of an unfolding landscape, "In My Ears (for Maryanne)" is a sound experience that is both delicate and visceral, essentially physical.
This cycle of works was inspired by the forest, an inspiration that was fed by countless treks in the Canadian Rockies and in Québec’s boreal forest. My interest in the forest is a holistic one, meaning that I find inspiration in its intrinsic structure, its organicity, its colours, its smells, as much as in its mysterious power to evoke our own nature.
Rumors, approximated is an exploration of synthesis, vocals (Simone Pitot/Delorca) and a model combining the two.
Charting sensory discord: the constant dissolution and resynthesis of the senses experienced while moving between conflicting sensory regimes over the course of a particularly dynamic year. Complete information ecosystems, fed by private algorithms that reflected and molded their permissible sensoriums, ran headlong into collision while cultural schisms arose over the basis of old and nascent forms of expression.
Vaggione treats sculpted sounds you’ve never imagined as raw material, shaping and molding it in ways that burst the borders of what's possible by stretching, compressing the multi layered sources of interwoven audio splinters into fastly lit and intricate timbral tapestries. This rich domain of sonic architectures that sway between delicate & ethereal towards a vigorous viscerality that at times can emit an unpredictable rhythmic cadence that utterly defies traditional structures yet can still carry a multi scanned momentum that keeps any listener engaged on the edge of their seats.
We can think of the active (corpuscular) principle of these Gymel by drawing inspiration from the words of Bachelard (1932): “The corpuscle has no more reality than the composition which makes it appear”. And again: “Suffice it to say that the existence of the corpuscle has a root in all space.”
This explains not only the unreality of the corpuscle —if it is not inhabited by the composition— but also the reality of the space where it appears as continuity. As for the works: Gymel I was produced in 2003 at the CICM studio, University of Paris VIII. It subsequently spawned several avatars, including Gymel III, created recently, in 2024, at the ICST (University of the Arts) of Zurich.
Inspired by Polish A/V innovator Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski, Robin Fox’s latest work is described as an “audio visual space-time carving” that uses laser projectors to transform a venue’s unique architecture into a completely new environment. As an early adopter of laser technology, Fox wanted to investigate what he saw as an apparent interconnectedness between light and sound. Ostoja-Kotkowski built instruments and installations to express his idea about “chromasonics” (what we might now describe as A/V art), and produced films that are still exhibited in his adopted home of Australia. With TRIPTYCH, Fox picks up where Ostoja-Kotkowski leaves off – he was given the opportunity to research the artist’s life and work in 2021, and used it to create a work that he assures us can never be packaged up and released: “it needs to be experienced.”
Doors: 8PM
21+
Please be advised: This event will feature extremely high-volume audio and flashing lights
Standing and seated performances
Due to unforeseen circumstances, SHAO and N3ZHA will unfortunately no longer be appearing at Recombinant 2024. Kyoka, MHP, Le fou, 33EMYBW Curated AV WORKS, Shigetoshi Furutani Gallery are still scheduled to appear. In addition, we will be replaying Thursday's Modell 5 and Maryanne Amacher programs. For any questions, please contact us at [email protected]
Kurt Hentschläger, born in Linz in 1960; Ulf Langheinrich, born in Wolfen, Anhalt-Saxony, in 1960. They lived in Vienna. Both are co-founders of the artists' group "Pyramedia". An abridged version of this article appeared in the daily "Der Standard" on March 17, 1995 when MODELL 5 was shown at the Vienna MAK.
Maryanne Amacher (February 25, 1938 - October 22, 2009) was an American composer and installation artist. She is known for working extensively with a family of psychoacoustic phenomena called auditory distortion products (also known as distortion product otoacoustic emissions and combination tones), in which the ears themselves produce audible sound.
Louis Dufort, from Montréal, is a prolific composer in several formats: fixed media, mixed music with live processing, visual music, and installation. He received several commissions from various musical ensembles and organizations: MUTEK, ELEKTRA, AKOUSMA, UBISOFT, ZKM and Radio-Canada. He has also been a regular collaborator with Compagnie Marie Chouinard since 1996. In 2018, he composed the soundtrack for Denys Arcand’s movie La chute de l’empire américain (The Fall of the American Empire). In addition to his creative work, Louis Dufort teaches composition at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and is the artistic director of the Canadian Akousma festival. In February 2018, he received the 2016-17 Opus Award for Director of the Year for the Akousma 13 festival.
Estelle Schorpp is a French-born and Montreal-based sound artist, composer and researcher active in the field of experimental music and sound ecology. Integrating concepts from disciplines such as sound ecology, sound studies, media theory, history of science, acoustics and psychoacoustics, her polymorphous approach combines performance, sound installation and algorithmic composition. Her work is founded by several research and creation grants and has been presented internationally at festivals such as La Biennale di Venezia (IT), Ars Electronica (AT), MUTEK (MX, CA, AR, JP), Akousma (CA), FIMAV (CA), Le Mans Sonore (FR), Exhibitronic (FR, DE), MuTeFest.
Horacio Vaggione (Argentina, 1943), has lived in Paris since 1978. Composition studies at the National University of Cordoba, then doctorate in musicology at the University of Paris VIII. Studied computer music at the University of Illinois (1966). Co-founder of the Center for Experimental Music at the University of Cordoba (1965-68), member of the electronic music group ALEA of Madrid (1969-73), he worked in France at IRCAM, at INA- GRM, at GMEB. Resident in Berlin (DAAD, 1987-1988). Between 1989 and 2012 he was full professor (composition and research) at the University of Paris VIII, where he is currently professor emeritus.is currently professor emeritus.
Shane Turner is a composer who is drawn to the mutable boundaries and properties of acousmatic music as a way of expressing experiences omitted by essentialism. Their music encompasses solo fixed works, audio for installations, popular forms in soundtracks, as well as group performances with live electronics and synthesis. Shane's works have been released on the Panospria Label under NoType, by the CEC, and performed at various festivals, including Mutek. They studied electroacoustic music composition at Concordia University.
Robin Fox is an internationally recognized Australian based audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art and composition for contemporary dance. His audio visual laser works, which synchronize sound & visual electricity in hyper-amplified 3D space have been performed in over 60 cities worldwide. His critically acclaimed work TRIPTYCH premiered at Unsound Krakow late 2022 and has toured extensively since with highlights including headline shows at Berlin Atonal, Barbican (London), Ephemera (Warsaw), OHM Festival Brisbane among many others. TRIPTYCH was awarded the Isao Tomita Special Prize at Ars Electronica 2023. Recent large scale audio-visual works include ICON which illuminated the Sydney Opera House for it’s 50th birthday, Night Sky for Brisbane Festival, Aqua Luma for Mona Foma 2021, Library of Light for Illuminate Adelaide 2021, BEACON for Mona Foma 2022 and MONOCHORD for Rising Festival 2022. In 2019 his science fiction opera DIASPORA premiered at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Made in collaboration with Chamber Made, the work won Green Room Awards for Best Production and Best Visual Design.
Xopher Davidson’s work is an ongoing exploration into the material of sound. Exploring a multiverse of sound worlds from subatomic drift to subharmonic long waves. He has performed in Japan, EU, and the US. He has been a member of the bands : Circular Firing Squad, Citizen Band, 45/102, and Splendor Generator. Collaborating with Zbigniew Karkowski he released the albums Function Generator, Khz, Divide by Zero, and Processor. He has released solo albums including: Transfixion, Antimatter vs. Antimatter, Our Lady of the Skies, Reset, Lux Perpetua, The Zero Drifts, and Negative Resistance. He currently has at three records in production soon to be set free. At all times we must think sound moving forward to infinity!
N3ZHA also known as MIIIA, emanates from Shanghai's vibrant electronic music scene. Her alias is named after Nezha, a protective deity in Chinese folklore, representing Taoism. Over the past decade, she has carved out a niche with her distinctive soundscapes that merge psychedelic elements with themes of futuristic technology and cybernetic excursions . Known for her dynamic live sets using an array of hardware, she delivers a tactile experience that resonates deeply. Under various aliases, including San Tai Zi, she continues crafting that delves deep through her sub cultural threads that integrate endearment , sacrifice, and the triumph of a courageous spirit boldly redefined.
MHP is one of the most influential and insurrectional Techno musicians in China. His music was discovered by Jeff Mills, and he released the album "Chang'e-4 " on the legendary label Axis Records. His music style combines Detroit injections with a a bold, futuristic sci-fi/ Hypno- tech weapon also designed for dance floor. Intrusions. Before this, in 2013, he released the EP “The Chinese Connection ” on Scan 7‘s label Cratesavers International, which made him the initial Chinese producer to release Techno in Detroit. In 2015, he released the EP "Crepuscular Rays" on Orlando Voorn's label Nightvision. In 2022 to 2023 Molecular Recordings and Seclusion have released the EP "XX 8" “Collapse” and "Invincible EP " respectively. His music has been integrated into sets by Jeff Mills, Ben Sims, Ken Ishii, DVS 1, Rødhåd, Kr! z, Rene Wise, Setaoc Mass.
33EMYBW is a producer and artist currently living and working in Shanghai. She pioneered the 'Arthropod Step' style with her unclassifiable alien-like rhythms and arthropod-inspired sound design. Her debut album Golem was named one of the best electronic albums of 2018 by Bandcamp. Her second album Arthropods made it further into several scenes including RA's ‘Best Albums of 2019’, ‘Top Albums of the Decade 2010-19’, and FACT’s ‘Best Albums of 2019’. It was also praised by Boomkat as an album that ‘defined 2019’. Her latest album Holes of Sinian was awarded The Quietus’ Best Electronic Music Album of the Year, and was premiered as a collaboration with visual artist Joey Holder, commissioned by Unsound Festival and Illuminate Adelaide.
Kyoka was one of the first woman artists to be signed onto Germany’s raster-noton and works as a musician/composer in Berlin and Tokyo. Known for her chaotic yet direct musical approach focusing on experimental yet danceable rhythms, she grew up in Kanazawa Japan, and underwent piano, flute and shamisen lessons as a child, while simultaneously discovering her passion for tape recorders and field recording. Inspired by her residency at EMS studios in Stockholm, her latest record >>SH<< showcases Kyoka's uncanny ability to deftly handle repetition, chaos and unforeseen slants in pulse shifting with spontaneously jagged precision.
Le Fou (aka LIFEcell) is an electronic artist, content producer and festival producer from San Francisco. His compositions explore meta-futuristic concepts by combining driving rhythms, (in)harmonic experimentation and sonic spatialization. Classically trained in composition and piano at a young age by the eminent pianist and Shanghai Conservatory Professor Li Ruixing, his work has been featured in commercials, label releases, media platforms, documentaries, gallery exhibitions, events and on terrestrial radio stations. Besides performing internationally at festivals such as Electron Geneva and Ultra Korea, he has released with Shao (Tresor) on Caotai records, MHP on SSR (Indieworks) and has a 2019 solo release on the Chinese major label Taihe entitled “The Noble.”
Shigetoshi's practice engages with the formation of a language of visuals, exploring methods for visualizing social and personal phenomena, which do not have a conventionally recognized form. His work attempts to develop responses to limitations of language and expand the expression of two dimensional form in an age of social media, and engages with the limits of chaos and order, generativeness and restriction.
Shao is the first mainland Chinese artist to be signed to the legendary Berlin techno Tresor, imprint and is one of China's leading figures in the world of pulsed fueled electronic music and sublime audio visual performance. Highly sought-after as a composer and sound designer, he was invited by the Goethe Institute to re-compose a different type of sound accompaniment for the classic German silent film Metropolis. Shao also has an ongoing collaboration with leading Chinese directors Meng Jinghui and Cheng Ran. At Recombinant Festival 2024, Shao brings for the first time, his colossal and discombobulated sound to the city of San Francisco.
The Recombinant Media Labs organization was founded to research the qualities and artistic potential of Spatial Cinema. It does so by means of Experiential Engineering; exploring processes that propagate the aesthetic and technological boundaries of panoramic AV exhibition. RML acts as producer and presenter of hybrid artworks and performance archiving based on spatial media synthesis; intermodal works using image, light, sound and other disseminated media in three-dimensional space. The CineChamber is RML's curated, nomadic platform under the artistic trajectory of founder & Director Naut Humon plus a superhuman crew.
STRRR TV is the future of horizon-expanding television. Where superstars and brilliant newcomers hailing from the world of music, art, design, film, and fashion present their favorite clips and films through the nearly unlimited archives of the Internet. Each meticulously crafted episode presents a self-portrait of the selector, which allows us new insight into their life and work.
