AVANT AVANT GARDE # 1

A series dedicated to experimental music before 20th century
curated by Frau W., Maciej Śledziecki (ZAM e.V.) and Michał Libera (Foundation 4.99)

Avant Avant Garde # 1
30/05/2013, 20.00
Stadtgarten, Cologne, Germany

- Introduction and panel discussion
- Arturas Bumšteinas, "Night on the Sail Ship"
- Lucio Capece & Dženana Aganspahić, "Rotating Pan" performance
- Max Eastley & Aleks Kolkowski, "Waves and Ripples"
- Gamut Ensemble: Frau W & Maciej Śledziecki with Philip Zoubek & Radek Stawarz plays carillons constructed by Gerhard Kern

all pieces are commissions for Avant Avant Garde by ZAM e.V. & Foundation 4.99

Lucio Capece & Dženana Aganspahić, performance rooted in a traditional Bosniak technique of „rotating pan”. It is a way to distribute sound of a singing woman in a room by a series of reflections from a manually rotated pan. In Cologne the voice will be replaced by Lucio Capece's saxophone.

Arturas Bumšteinas, quadrophonic composition conceived of recordings of baroque theatres' noise machines. The recording were made in Ekhof-Theater in Gotha, Drottningholm Theatre in Stockholm as well as private collections of Per Simon Edstrom and John Kapenekas.

Max Eastley & Aleks Kolkowski, „Waves and Ripples” - a musical exploration of sound and water using self-devised instruments and improvisation. Their modus operandi is derived from classic scientific hydroacoustical experiments by Athanasius Kircher and Ernst Chladni, as well as the illusions of Robert Houdin.

Gamut Ensemble with with Philip Zoubek & Radek Stawarz, composition for a self-contructed carillon by Gerhard Kern based on old sketches and extended with computer controllers. The piece is inspired by 17th Century logics drawings by Athanasius Kircher.


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There is no such thing as new music. And there has never been one. Otherwise, when did it start? Was it in 1766 when the futurist intonarumori were first designed by Donato Stopani for Drottningholm Theatre in Stockholm? Few decades earlier, when minimalist idea of combination tones were first theorized by Giuseppe Tartini? Or was it in 13th Century when Cage's chance operations were presupposed by Raymond Llull in his figures? Earlier?

Avant Avant Garde is an anachronistic chase for experimental practices in scores, prints and treatises way before terms such as "new", "contemporary", "experimental" or "avant garde" music were conceived. We dig in the history not in search of schools and trends of music making. We dig to find maverick who could not wait until 20th century to see themselves becoming silent patrons of most thrilling adventures in sound making. What we find is people working with what they had at hands - objects, burning flames, spilling waters and blowing wind studying the mechanics at the heart of music and heralding sound art.

The material researched for Avant Avant Garde forms a body of commissions for four nights of music in Cologne, Krakow, Warsaw, Berlin. Each will contain exclusively world premiers. Dženana Aganspahić, Burkhard Beins, Arturas Bumšteinas, Max Eastley, Lucio Capece, Francesco Cavaliere, Tomek Chołoniewski, Gamut Ensemble, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Frau W, CM von Hausswolff, Gerhard Kern, Aleks Kolkowski, Michał Libera, Magda Mayas, Ralf Meinz, Tisha Mukarji, Mikołaj Pałosz, Karolina Ossowska, Razen, Paweł Romańczuk, Spat'sonore, Maciej Sledziecki, Thomas Tilly, Jan Topolski, Michael Vorfeld and many more will be there to deliver concerts, lectures and presentations on Avant Avant Garde. Over the course of the project Gamut Ensemble will be developing a growing automated orchestra of specifically designed music-machines referring to its Renaissance predecessors but expanded with computer controls.


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Support


Financed by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage


Financed by Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation

as well as
- Kulturstiftung des Bundes
- NRW Kultur International
- ON Neue Musik Koln