Natasha Barrett is a freelance composer, performer, and installation artist. The composition and manipulation of space is a central element in much of her work, and it is the focus of this interview. Barrett completed her Master’s Degree at the University of Birmingham, where she studied with Jonty Harrison and became practiced in the art of live sound diffusion using Birmingham’s renowned BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre) system. She completed a Doctoral degree in composition at City University in London in 1998, studying with Denis Smalley. Her body of work includes large architectural installations, electroacoustic concert pieces, works for instruments and performers, and live improvisation. Barrett’s works have won international acclaim and numerous awards, including the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2006, a first prize at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (1998 and 2001), and most recently, a commission from the 2008 Giga-Hertz Award. Barrett was born in the UK, but currently lives in Oslo, Norway. She has released numerous CDs, available through her website. Continue reading

SIP – SoundLAB Interview project :: In preparation for the launch of SoundLAB VI – soundPOOL next week (9-14 March 2009), SoundLAB- sonic art project environments is happy to announce the online release of 52 new interviews with participating soundartists on SIP – SoundLAB Interview Project

SoundLAB – sonic art project environments is a corporate part of [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne, the experimental platform for art and new media from Cologne/Germany.

NAISA Toronto Artist Soiree :: February 28th 1-4pm PWYC :: at the NAISA Space Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St #252, Toronto, CA

SOIRÉE – an evening gathering, typically in a private house, for conversation or music. Although it’s in the afternoon, the intent is the same: a time for artists to talk about their works, listen to other people’s works and network. Featured artist Rose Bolton will present and discuss their recent works. Rose Bolton considers herself a sonic landscapist. Her compositions range from orchestra, chamber and vocal music to electro-acoustic and improvisation based pieces. She has received numerous commissions and prizes, including the 2006 Norman Burgess Fund award, and the Toronto Emerging Composer award. In April 2009, her new work A Day of Infinite Time, will be premiered by the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony at the Open Ears festival. Future projects include composing electronic music for documentary film, and a Canada Council funded project to create electro-acoustic works for headphones contrasted by an ambient work for a large space with multiple speaker setup. Continue reading

For every day of 2009, Brian Ledwidge Flynn is posting a new short piece of music or ’structured sound’ on this site. This is the Abraxas project. Abraxas is a reference to mystical Greek symbols engraved on gems and stones among the ancients. The letters of Abraxas (αβραξας), in the Greek system of alphabetic numerology, sum to the number 365.

#54 – Scoreboard

#53 – Red Joint

#52 – Anti-Climax Continue reading

This week marked the passing of a true visionary of contemporary art, Max Neuhaus. Originally an accomplished solo percussionist who toured with Boulez and Stockhausen, in the late 1960’s Neuhaus moved his practice out of the concert hall and into the public sphere, setting up numerous sound-based installations in and around New York City.

One of his most famous installations is Times Square, a work consisting of a large speaker emitting a resonating drone from beneath a traffic island grate in the heart of the crossroads. The work is remarkable for its ability to carve out a meditative sonic chamber amid the clamor and saturation of its surroundings. Continue reading

The P22 Music Text Composition Generator is a free online music utility that allows any text to be converted into a musical composition. This composition is displayed in musical notation and simultaneously generated as a midi file.

The P22 Music Composition Font was proposed in 1997 to the John Cage Trust as an accompaniment to the John Cage text font based on the handwriting of the composer. The idea was basic and simple-every letter of the alphabet was assigned to a note on a scale. This would allow for any text to be converted into musical notation. The idea was rejected by the John Cage Trust, however the John Cage Silence font based on his famous 4’33” composition was accepted and continues to be offered for sale to this day. Continue reading

Upgrade! Boston: Jeff Lieberman + Dan Paluska :: January 27, 2009; 7:00 – 9:00 pm :: North 181 – entrance on Evans Way [map], Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston. [Follow the signs posted on the outside of the Tower Building (black glass) [Green Line “E”].

Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska will discuss Quartet (aka Absolut Quartet which was commissioned by the Absolut Visionaries project in 2007). Awarded a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction for Interactive Art in 2008, Quartet is installed at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria until December 2009. More >> Continue reading

The Brown University Department of Visual Art presents: Seth Cluett – Visiting Artist Lecture :: September 23, 2008; 5:00 pm :: List Art Center, Room 225, Brown University, Providence, RI.

Seth Cluett is a composer and visual artist whose work includes photography, drawing, video, sound installation, concert music, performance, and theoretical writing. His pieces are an exploration of the role of sound in everyday life. Operating at the boundary between the auditory and other senses, his work engages sound’s ability to be both collectively shared and distinctly personal. Many of his pieces investigate the acoustic signature of specific locations, where sound is experienced as an activity (audio tourism), architectural property, or as geological process. Continue reading

Storm King by Amit Pitaru – The Sonic Wire Sculptor project was originally created by Pitaru as a personal instrument to compose, record and perform music. During concerts, audience members often inquired whether they could experience the tool first hand. This encouraged Pitaru to transform the software into a public installation. The installation included enhancements to the original work, allowing a wider range of users to intuitively interact with the instrument. Continue reading

The Telephone Game: Oil/Water/Ether by the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) is an exploration of a real-time collaborative composition local network. All of the performers have identical performance/composition programs — a custom flexible step-sequencer — that invite play with rhythmic cycles of various lengths and timbres. The real fun starts, however, when the players begin spying on their neighbors, secretly, via the network, and stealing their ideas with the click of the mouse. Unplanned structures begin to emerge, like oil on water, as riffs propagate and evolve, sometimes returning unrecognizable to their creators. Continue reading