Welcome to the March 2008 issue of Networked Music Review Newsletter, a monthly review of some of the many events archived on Networked_Music_Review [to receive this via email, subscribe here].

Sound art continued to fill many of the March blog entries, but of equal importance this month were the sound and light, or sound and video entries. Tunnel Vision and Filling Vessel are two of particular interest. Tunnel Vision is an interactive sound and light sculpture. Created by Dutch art engineer Paul Klotz, and inspired by Nikola Tesla — the famous Serbian inventor, physicist, and electrical engineer — the shape of the installation is based on an abstraction of the 100Hz tone made by electrical generators. You can put your hands inside the sculpture changes the appearance and the sound produced by it. Five meters long, it changes its appearance and the sound produced by it whenever you put your hands inside it. Continue reading

Network Sonification by Zach Layton [Needs Quicktime Player] - In Network Sonification, a program written in java crawls across the Internet, grabbing as many related URLs as possible and analyzing their contents. Using Max/MSP, the data coming from the webcrawler program is translated into sound. The frequency and range of words, images and links on these pages create a kind of aural snapshot, giving each page a unique sonic character that is written in real time. Layton offers us a range of sonic portraits, from Boing Boing to the New York Times, enabling us to experience them as networked sonic entities rather than discrete visual/semantic pages. Continue reading

Northeastern University’s Senior Music Technology class presents an evening of electoacoustic and new music spanning five years of composition and experimentation. New works ranging from live electronics and string quartet to sound diffusion and film accompaniment will be premiered. Composers Include: Chris Barnhill, Eli Bouquillon, Max Chadwick, Coleman Goughary, Gareth Middlebrook, Benjamin Nelson, Ryan Sciaino.

April 9, 2008; 7 pm :: The Fenway Center, 77 St. Stephen Street, Boston :: Free :: Contact a.rishi [at] neu.edu for more information.

CALL FOR WORKS: Futuristic Music Design Challenge - A live competition at Yuri’s Night Bay Area presented by createdigitalmusic.com :: Deadline: April 7, 11:59 PM EST (No exceptions!)

Online submission: Web entries accepted from around the world for the Web showcase. Limited entries will be chosen to compete live — To compete for the prizes, those entries must be present at Yuri’s Night Bay Area, Saturday, April 12. Submit DIY music performance projects – using custom software and/or hardware – for a live performance battle at the Yuri’s Night Bay Area party on April 12, sponsored by Yuri’s Night and createdigitalmusic.com. Compete for awards including a Yamaha Tenori-On grand prize. Continue reading

Netrooms: The Long Feedback - Pedro Rebelo, 2008 :: April 2 and 4, 2008; 8:30 PDT :: Join in and contribute to a nine-site network performance!

Netrooms: The Long Feedback is a participatory network piece which invites the public to contribute to an extended feedback loop and delay line across the internet. The work explores the juxtaposition of multiple spaces as the acoustic, the social and the personal environment becomes permanently networked. The performance consists of live manipulation of multiple real-time streams from different locations which receive a common sound source. Continue reading

[Image: Phonautograph] “An “ethereal” 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song has been played for the first time in 150 years. The recording of “Au Clair de la Lune”, recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice. A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children’s song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record.

The new “phonautograph”, created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a “virtual stylus” to read the lines. “When I first heard the recording as you hear it … it was magical, so ethereal,” audio historian David Giovannoni, who found the recording, told AP.” Continue reading Oldest recorded voices sing again, BBC News. You can also listen to the recording.

Programmable Media II: Networked Music, a one-day symposium examining the current and future possibilities of network-enabled music, will be held on April 11, 2008 at Pace University, NYC. The symposium is free and open to the public, and will include artist presentations and live performances. If you’re not in New York, join us in Second Life.

To register, email turbulence at turbulence dot org with “Programmable Media II” as the subject.

Participants: Andrew Beck, Jason Freeman, Mark T. Godfrey, Sawako Kato, Zach Layton, LoVid, Adam Nash, Helen Thorington, Peter Traub, Dan Trueman, Tobias C. Van Veen. Bios here. Continue reading

Horatio Oratorio - A concert & sound installation by Recording Angels (Aleks Kolkowski and Stephan Mathieu) :: July 11 & 12, 2008 :: Sprawl, The Shunt Vaults, Joiner Street, London Bridge tube station, London SE1.

Horatio Oratorio is an exploration through the history of recorded sound. The earliest recording and playback technologies and rare mechanical-acoustic string instruments are combined with vintage and state-of-the-art electronics. A magnificent array of acoustic horns and custom-built loudspeakers project sound from historic wax cylinder phonographs, gramophones and stroh violins, layered and transformed by live digital sound processing. Continue reading

IOCT Salon: Sarah Angliss - Thinking Beyond the Screen and Mouse :: April 10, 2008, 6 - 7.15 pm :: Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK :: Doors open at 5.30pm for drinks. This event is free and open to the public, however places are limited - email info [at] ioctsalon.com to reserve a seat.

With live demos of Clara 2.0 (a theremin-playing robot doll) and other curiosities, Sarah explores her own approach to digital arts. Her work may use computers and embedded microprocessors - but Sarah aims to create interactive objects with a tactile and convincing quality that extend beyond the computer screen and mouse. Continue reading

Netaudio, the Offline Festival for Online Music comes back to London after a great festival in Berlin in 2007: Netaudio’08 will take place from October 22 to 25 at Shunt, a extensive labyrinth of tunnels underneath London Bridge Station. Over four nights we will celebrate the creative output of networked musicians and online communities with talks, workshops, showcases and performances.

Parts of Netaudio’08 will be programmed through an open call for entries. With this call we would like to give you the chance to put our attention to your creative activities related to the festival theme. Call for entries runs in 3 strands: performance, installation and conference. Download the entry forms.