ICST Artist Residency       26.06.2011 - 17.07.2011

Philip Samartzis complete four projects based on field work in South Africa, Central Australia and Eastern Antarctica.

- MFSA-RADAR (43')

- Crush-Grind (45')

- Tract (49')

- Captured-Space (45')

Philip Samartzis is Coordinator of Sound in the School of Art - RMIT University, where he teaches courses in Sound Culture, and Immersive Environments within the fine art degree. Philip researches in the areas of sound art, acoustic ecology and sound spatialization, and is currently chief investigator on two Australia Research Council funded projects, Designing Sound for Health and Wellbeing; and Spatial Dialgoues: Public Art and Climate Change. His PhD, Surround Sound in Installation Art, examined the place of sound in contemporary art practice through a range of site determined sound art projects. In 2010 Philip was awarded fellowships by the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Australian Antarctic Division to document the effects of extreme climate and weather events on the human condition at Davis Station in Eastern Antarctica.

Philip has performed and exhibited widely including presentations at The Cartier Foundation, Paris (2001); The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2002); The Mori Arts Centre, Tokyo (2003); The National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow (2009); and The South African National Museum, Cape Town (2010). He has curated five Immersion festivals focusing on the theory and practice of sound spatialisation, as well as Variable   Resistance, a series of international sound art presentations for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2001), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2002) and the Podewil Art Centre, Berlin (2003). Philip has also published five solo compact discs,  Residue (1998),  Windmills  Bordered By Nothingness (1999),  Mort aux Vaches (2003), Soft and Loud (2004) &  Unheard  Spaces (2006) and has performed and recorded with leading international improvisers and musicians including Sachiko M, Seiichi Yamamoto, Gunter Müller, Voice Crack, Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi, Reinhold Friedl, Michael Vorfeld, Eric La Casa and Jean-Luc Guionnet.

Philip uses field recordings of natural and constructed environments as his primary material to render densities of space and discrete zones of aural experience, which are arranged and mixed to reflect the acoustic and spatial complexities of everyday sound fields. He draws on a range of practices ranging from acoustic ecology and bioacoustics to musique concrète and sound art to arrive at compositions that highlight the pervasive nature of sound and the myriad ways in which it informs and influences our daily experiences. To emphasize this Philip designs his compositions for multi-channel surround sound systems that afford immersive and tactile listening experiences to demonstrate the transformational qualities inherent in sounds familiar and strange.

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Scènes

für Tenorsaxophon, Fagott, Zuspiel und Live-Elektronik (2010) 14'

Arthur Rimbaud hat 1874 mit den Texten in seiner Sammlung «Les Illuminations» versucht, mit Hilfe der Sprache an andere, bisher unerreichte Orte des Ausdrucks zu gelangen. Schon einmal hatte ich mich mit Rimbaud auseinandergesetzt und in «Villes» für Bariton, elektrische Gitarre, Tuba und Drum-Set (2003) versucht, sein Lebensgefühl und seine kreative Triebfeder in die heutige Zeit zu übersetzen. In «Scènes» nun wollte ich – nicht zuletzt mit der Hilfe der Live-Elektronik – diese anderen Orte des Ausdrucks aufsuchen und gegenwärtig machen: ein Stück im Spannungsfeld von Natur und Kultur, Künstlichkeit und Alltag. «Scènes» besteht aus drei Sätzen. Der erste und der dritte Satz sind in einer Strophenform mit verwandter Anlage gehalten. Im ersten werden die kreativen improvisatorischen Fähigkeiten der beiden Instrumentalisten genutzt, um neue Energien zu mobilisieren, im dritten dann wird ein beinahe orchestraler Klangraum aufgebaut, der plötzlich eine seltsame Biegung erfährt. Der ruhige (und längste) Mittelsatz nun stellt den zumeist leisen, doch sehr körperlichen Instrumentalklang vor ein akustisches Bühnenbild. Und der Instrumentalklang mischt sich mitunter leicht irritierend mit spekralen Klängen. Durchgehend tauchen in überraschenden Momenten gesprochene Textzeilen von Rimbaud auf – Störenfriede, die uns wach halten.

«Scènes» ist als Auftrag des ICST (Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology der ZHdK) entstanden und wäre unmöglich realisierbar gewesen ohne die grosse Unterstützung, die ich vom ICST (Programmierung der Software: Johannes Schütt) erhalten habe. Ermöglicht wurde der Auftrag ebenso durch die grosszügige Unterstützung des Präsidialdepartements der Stadt Zürich.

Alfred Zimmerlin

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2009

06.07.2009 - 24.07.2009

"Badlands"

 by José Lopéz Montes and Charlotte Hug

José López Montes (*1977)

Studied piano and composition at Royal Conservatory of Granada. In 2001 he moved to Zurich (Switzerland) with a grant from andalusian government to continue his composition studies at Zurich School of Music, Drama and Dance. He became a pupil of Gerald Bennett, and began to create electroacustic pieces using the Csound compiler. His first electroacustic work won a price in the II SGAE Internacional Computer Music Competition. His works have been played in Spain, France (IMEB, Bourges), Switzerland (World New Music Days), Mexico, Brazil... His catalogue also includes chamber music, compositions with video and music for ballet. The music of López Montes explore severe algorithmic patterns generated with cellulare automata, chaotic and fractal structures applied to synthesis from micro to macroscale, combined with more intuitive and "human" processes and a bit of humour.

Charlotte Hug (born 1965) musician, composer, visual artist, lives in Zurich and London. She studied music and viola with Henrik Crafoord at the SMPV Berne and Paul Silverthorne in London, and received a training in "scenic design" at the University of Art and Design Zurich.

In addition to performing solo at international music festivals and in theatres and museums (at the Tage für Neue Musik in Zurich, the 10th LMC Festival at the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Feuer und Flamme Festival for Music in the Theatre at Kampnagel in Hamburg and the Festival internacional de creation en tiempo real at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid), Hug also collaborates with other artists.

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