AVANT AVANT GARDE # 3

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 # 2
21/06/2013,
Corpus Christi Basilica, Kraków, Poland

19.00 Introduction and listening session - Leif Elggren's „Sudarium of Santa Veronica”

20.00 Sound walk in Basilica with Andrzej Kłosak

20.30 Concerts

- Tomek Chołoniewski with percussion ensemble, "Change Ringing" performance for handbells
- Burkhard Beins & Michael Vorfeld, "Ernst Chladni Experiments"
- Gamut Ensemble: Frau W & Maciej Śledziecki
- Thomas Tilly & Jean-Luc Guionnet, "Stone Air Axioms" for Corpus Christi Basilica

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

Lecture by Michał Libera including listening session – Leif Elggren's „Sudarium of Santa Veronica”, a phantasy on the first turntable inscription of sound in Christ's portrait by Claude Mellan from 1649. Acoustic walk with Andrzej Kłosak in Basilica

Tomek Chołoniewski with percussion ensemble, performance for handbells. The concert will follow 17th Century Change Ringing technique. It was a series of algorithms for collective live composing – each performer hands one bell of particular pitch and takes a defined position in a sequence – all to avoid melody.

Burkhard Beins & Michael Vorfeld, recreation of 18th Century experiments by Ernst Chladni, referred to as “Father of Acoustics”. German physicist visualized sound with the use of metal plates. By bowing them, he was changing their vibrations and by the same token making the flour form astonishing shapes known as Chladni Figures.

Gamut Ensemble, composition for self-constructed instrument by Gerhard Kern informed by 17th Century Joseph Sauveur's theory of overtones. French mathematician and physicist came up with an idea which is at the heart of today's spectralism. His concern was to prove that a single sound is an endlessly complex phenomena. Sauveur argued that he himself could hear 128 overtones in one pluck of a string.

Jean-Luc Guionnet & Thomas Tilly, site-specific performance for standing waves of the sacral architecture of Basilica. In the project titled „Stones, Air, Axioms” the departure point is acoustic measurements. On their basis they deliver organ playing and sinewaves to map the space of the church.


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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.