LINES OF SIGHT, curated by Barbara Held and Pilar Subirá, takes its name from the interconnected points of the global resonant space created by radio and other wireless technologies. From out of the extraordinary array of music that plays on this world-wide stage, we will follow threads as diverse as musical notation and non-linear composition, and introduce artists who explore the ideas around transmission as a medium for creative expression. Transmission, translation, revelation>>>the performance score
LINES OF SIGHT #1 takes inspiration from recent projects concerning the musical score; musical, sociological, biological explorations of how our minds and intuition translate and transmit music.
The compositions on this program have been realized from scores as varied as an interactive computer software controlled by a live performer, verbal instructions that undermine a pre-recorded playerpiano recording, data from a gps navigational system that converts geographical position into mathematical sounds, a text by Jacques Derrida and three superimposed similarly evanescing matrices of differently white numbers.
MACBA celebrates a timeline of Metronom featuring documentation of concerts and sound art, soon to become part of the video/sound archive project recently initiated by AMEE Asociación de Music Electroacústica y Arte Sonoro de España. Special thanks to Victor Aguado!
Setmana de musica experimental 1985
Phill Niblock Christian Marclay Elliot Sharp Paul Panhuysen Ellen Fullman Llorenç Barber Charles K. Noyes Oriol Graus SPACE, Roscoe Mitchell, Tom Buckner, Gerald Oshita
Músiques Submergides,1993 Curated by Barbara Held with the collaboration of KRTU and participation of artists Jorge Ribalta, Marcel Pey, Pere Noguera i Jordi Benito
MUSIQUES SUBMERGIDES oferirà durant cinc dies seguits, en el marc de Metronom, una visió panoràmica que donarà imatge de la varietat de possibilitats de la música d’avui i de l’ús de les noves tecnologies aplicades a la música amb la participació de músics catalans i d’arreu del món. Seguint el criteri de KRTU, la mostra de música comptarà amb la col·laboració de diversos artistes que treballaran a partir de la il·luminació del concert en una recerca al voltant de la llum i el so. Com a catàleg-document d’aquest esdeveniment, s’ha editat un CD (compact disc), que recull peces dels músics participants i els textos corresponents.
Gordon Monahan, Speaker Swinging
PROGRAMA
Dimarts, 2 de febrer de 1993, a les 20 h.
Miquel Jordà (Barcelona) Instal·lació sonora interactiva (saxo i espai electrònic)
Gordon Monahan (Canada) “Speaker Swinging” (tres altaveus en moviment piano preparat)
Dimecres, 3 de febrer de 1993, a les 20 h.
David Behrman (USA) “Interspecies Smalltalk” (Duo per flauta i ordinador) “Blue” Gene Tyranny (USA) (pianista col·laborador de Robert Ashley, Laurie Anderson, Peter Gordon, etc.) amb Barbara Held
Col·laboració: Jorge Ribalta
Dijous, 4 de febrer de 1993, a les 20 h.
STEIM (Centre per a la recerca de la música electroacústica d’Amsterdam) Nick Collins (USA) (música trombó-propulsat) “Real electronic music” (fragments d’emissions de ràdio controlats per trombó midi) Michel Waisvisz (Holanda) “Hands” (control de sons electronics mitjançant el moviment de les mans) Joel Ryan (USA) (música interactiva per ordinador)
Col·laboració: Marcel Pey
Divendres, 5 de febrer de 1993, a les 20 h.
Fast Forward (R. U.) (percusió amb tambors jamaicans i objectes trobats) Takehisa Kosugi (Japó) (violí elèctric)
Fátima Miranda (Madrid) (veu)
Col·laboració: Pere Noguera
Dissabte, 6 de febrer de 1993, a les 20 h.
Miquel Gaspà (Barcelona) (Clarinet) Josep Manuel Berenguer (Barcelona) (compositor)
1 no es 1. Acció a tres bandes Jordi Benito Michael Forster, Jordi Benito, Augusti Fernandez
Butch Morris, photo Ros Ribas
Música a Metrònom, 1998 Co-curated by Barbara Held and Augusti Fernandez
Light and sound installation: Maria Blondeel Michael Vorfeld
Concerts:
“una sintesi acustica” Liba’ Villavecchia Paul Stouthamer Joan Saura Wade Matthews Steve Noble Oren Marshall
Young Farmers Claim Future“Farmer’s Almanac” Herbert van de Sompel Guy C. Jules van Belle
Frances-Marie Uitti, cello
‘Butch’ Morris“Conduction num. 92 Big Ensemble Taller de Musics
Chefa Alonso Michael Babinchak Mark Cunningham Christiaan de Jong Augusti Fernandez Lito Iglesias John Leaman Wade Matthews Barbara Meyer Marc Miralta Steve Noble Javier Olondo Benet Palet Joan Saura “Liba” Villavecchia
Peter Kowald’s Global Village & Jin Hi Kim Peter Kowald, contrabajo Xu Feng Xia, ghuzeng Gunda Gottschalck, violin y viola Jin Hi Kim, komoungo Floros Floridis, saxo Okay Temiz, percussion Savina Yannatou, voz
“The Well” & “Electric Wind” de Ron Kuivila Barbara Held, flauta Adolf Alcañiz, video
“Trilogie de la Mort” Eliane Radigue
…roaring, roaring, roaring Andrés Corchero, dansa Augustí Fernández, piano
“Call Me” Kaffe Matthews
Andrés Corchero and Augustí Fernández, photo Ros Ribas
Música a Metrònom, 2000
Live FMOL Trio Sergi Jordà, sintetitzador FMOL Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga, saxo alt, clarinet baix i scratch Cristina Casanova, Sintetitzador FMOL
Espace donné Hans W. Koch, electronica Andreas Wagner, saxo
jaitch Jane Riggler, flauta Hannes Giger, contrabaix Koji Asano, composició
Arcana 33 1/3, captital magnetic, Sawhorse Mark Trayle
Susie Ibarra, percussió Assif Tsahar, saxo tenor i clarinet baix
musica absoluta 001 Francisco López
Phill Niblock, photo Ros Ribas
Installation:
Phill Niblock
Francisco Lopez and Barbara Held
Música a Metrònom, 2001
Curated by Francisco López and Barbara Held
Music at Metrònom 2001 takes place just at the beginning of the new century, and although personally I don’t tend to attach any importance to these situations, on this occasion I feel that we are at one of those odd positions from which we contemplate the past for a few moments before launching ourselves towards an immense future that we are already relishing.
It has been a century full of sonic adventures and leaps into the abyss, in large part set in motion by the futurists, whom I have always admired, for no other reason as much as their passionate attitude. The world that they predicted and dreamed about is now here, with its electronics and its communication systems, its flying machines and its huge buildings… Nevertheless, there has been an essential change in the driving force of this transformation of the world, which would probably make a hypothetical voyage in time to visit our present a bitter one: in the collective contemplation of all our worlds, passion has been replaced by pragmatism.
Among other things, it is for this reason that the term avant garde has never seemed to me to be appropriate. I believe that the events of the century that has just finished showed us time and time again the persistence of the underground, as an eternal-changing-moving underworld that exists in the cracks of an above-ground world that only notices the most superficial aspects of this passion, and exhibits them as a trophy of history, without experiencing them. Music at Metrònom 2001 is an ephemeral – but succulent – look at some of the “cells” that give life to the present in this enormous and everlasting underground organism. Fortunately, this only represents a tiny sample of this organism. Because this is at the same time one of its virtues and one of the main characteristics of our present: uncontrolled (and uncontrollable), multifarious development. Various silent revolutions have taken place – pre and post-internet without having changed the way in which the world is dominated, although they have changed the possible ways of contemplating it or, to put it another way, the variety of possible worlds in which to live.
With Music at Metrònom 2001 we have the opportunity to immerse ourselves in one of these developments, in the form of various generations of sonic artists from all over the world who have never before presented their work live in this country: the pioneering work of Alvin Lucier, a legendary sonic explorer and exceptional “hearer” of the phenomena of our interiors and our environment, the sampledelia of almostmelodic, almostrhtymical digital chaos of Zipperspy, the world at the limits of acoustic per ception and the presence of the minuscule of March Behrens and Thomas Lehn, the archaeological, creative, sonic, noiseist work of two masters of the iconoclastic manipulation of vinyl (not DJs) Emil Beaulieu and Michael Gendreau and the brutal and enormously rich physicalisation of digital noise created by two activists of lapnoise, Zbigniew Karkowski and Shunichiro Okada.
It is a delicious avalanche of music/sound/noise from the hands and spirit of a group of exceptional creators who come from this underground. I don’t think they are the avant-garde of anything that will come later. They don’t need it. I am a “subterranean presentist” and so I appreciate their work and I immerse myself in it, enjoying the adventure NOW. This subterranean world – and I feel that the new century as well – is full of a delicious, undreamed of void. Presentists, let’s leap into this void yet again!
Alvin Lucier “Small Waves” Roland Dahinden, trombón Hildegard Kleeb, piano Cristina Vertiz i Emilie Langlais, Violin Claire Bobij, viola Sandrine Robilliard, cello
Tom Recchion y Zipper Spy Sampledelia
Marc Behrens y Thomas Lehn Lowercase Experimental
Michael Gendreau y Emil Beaulieau Hardcore Turntablism
Shunichiro Okada y Zbigniew Karkowski Lapnoise
Additional concerts and installations:
Josep Manuel Berenguer Transfer – sound installation
Aikido Angel Pereira, multipercussió
Mappings núm. 2 Anne Wellmer, live electronics i video Justin Bennett, software i cartografia Boris Gerrets, videoclip
Bat Bert Bongers, video-orgue Yolanda Harris, video-orgue
Trio Matt Davis, trompeta Rhodri Davies, arpa Mark Wastell, violoncel
Installation:
The actor, action, and the acted upon Matt Davis Simeon Portway
Frances Marie Uitti, photo Ros Ribas
Musica a Metronom, 2002 new music, new instruments, new paradigms curated by Barbara Held and Bert Bongers
This year, Metrònom’s International Week of Experimental Music brings together a selection of pioneering artists and musicians who use computers to create extremely charismatic and physical live performances, with new instruments, sensors and interfaces that go beyond the traditional capacities for which the computer was originally conceived. New technologies make it possible to erase the traditional borders between disciplines, and for this reason the festival offers a mixture of musical, theatrical, dance and video creations by artists who define the new paradigms of art, interaction and live performance.
Through concerts, workshops, conferences and special projects, the festival will show the results of this research into the development of a human interface in electronic arts. The programme brings together pioneers such as Michel Waisvisz (Holland), who performs with his inven tion The Hands; Laetitia Sonami (United States) with The Lady’s Glove; the virtuoso viola-player Frances-Marie Uitti, (United States-Holland), inventor of the double bow technique and who currently performs with an electroni cally-adapted instrument, the Cello ++; and Jonathan Impett (Great Britain) with his Meta-Trumpet. The group Kreepa performs a show using electrical currents, in a collaboration between the musicians Hilari Jeffery (Great Britain/Holland), on tromboscillator, Cesar Villavicencio (Argentina/Holland), on MIDI bass recorder, and the dancer Gurukirn Khalsa (United States). Yolande Harris (Great Britain) and Bert Bongers (Holland) will present the Video-Organ, a live-performance instrument that uses audio-visual material. From Barcelona comes the per formance of a group consisting of Constanza Brznic, dancer, Héctor Ayuso, video animation, and Oriol Rossell, sound, as well as a presentation by Kònic thtr, a collective consisting of Alain Bauman and Rosa Sánchez, with a performance of electronic music and multimedia theatre.
As well as the individual and group concerts mentioned above, a new group will be created, the Metrònom Meta Orchestra, with artists from different backgrounds who will work on a new piece, to be presented on the last day of the festival.
Constanza Brznic, dansa Héctor Ayuso, video Oriol Rossell, só
Conjunciones & Copulativas | Wooden House, iron be, straw hat Francesc Abad Barbara Held, sound
Musica a Metronom, 2003 curated by Paul DeMarinis
Metrònom asked me to curate a series of live performances, with the focus on musicians and sonic artists working in conjunction with scientific researchers. I was interested in showing not just the artists who use technology, but also those who use scientific processes and research in the actual creation of their work. The artists shown here (myself included) have developed scientific research in conjunction with scientists at research centres as part of their process of creating music and art. Paul DeMarinis, curator
Long Tube with gestural interface, How do You Get to Carnegie Hall Brenda Hutchinson with Alexandra Gardner, Carles Santos, Augusti Fernandez, etc.
Krystyna Bobrowski
Paul DeMarinis
Nigel Helyer
Roberto Morales
Ars Sonora RNE, 13/04/03 Krystyna Bobrowski, Brenda Hutchinson, Paul DeMarinis, Roberto Morales
Installation: Microcòsmics Joan Fontcuberta, comissari 28.02.03 – 29.03.03
Metrònom ha volgut fer un expriment: donar a una sèrie de creadors d’àmbits molt diferents l’oportunitat de reaccionar espontàniament a la percepió d’objectes de la seva elecció a travès d’un microscopi electrònic. En un grup seleccionat per Joan Fontcuberta es troben músics, arquitectes, poetes, escultors, pintors, fotògrafs….Els participants són Barbara Held, Ivan Bercedo i Jorge Mestre, Carles Hac Mor i Ester Xargay, Isaki Lacuesta, Sylvie Bussières, Perejaume i el mateix Joan Fontcuberta.
Joan Fontcuberta, SIPACO (síndrome de Patriotisme Constitucional) Carles Hac Mor i Ester Xargay, Sextina al microscopi Barbara Held, The Innermost Nature of Things Perejaume, Pa d’or Sylvie Bussièries, Anatomia interrompuda Jorge Mestre i Ivan Bercedo, Coreografia del petroli Isaki Lacuesta, Exploració d’un fotograma en estat de descomposició, L’ull de Déu, Microscopías
mega kai mikron José Manuel Berenguer
Musica a Metronom, 2005 curated by IBA
CELLULE D’INTERVENTION METAMKINE Jérome Noetinger, dispositiu electroacústic Christophe Auger, projectors de cinema Xavier Quérel, projectors de cinema
AMM John Tilbury, piano Eddie Prévost, percussió
KALLINICH/SCHLECHTE Jorg Kallinich, diapositives per a 10 projectors Marit Schlechte, piano, reproductors CD
KOBERCE / ZACLONY (catifes / cortines) Ivan Palacky, micròfons de contacte, dictàfons, microenregistraments, objectes Vera Lukasova, Imatges en moviment manipulades per image/ine software
ELECTRET Xavier Charles, superficies vibrants Will Guthrie, percussió amplificada Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Micròfons de contacte sobre tocadiscs Jean Phillippe Gross, taula de mescles, conductors Ferran Fagesm giradiscs acústic Andrea Neumann, piano frame
Video Documentation
Paul DeMarinis concert, 2003Music at Metronom 2000-01 season
Sound installation and performance at Coldcreation Gallery, Barcelona, 2004.
Mantra sung by Dr. S. Mohanambal
Published with text by Luis Lopez “On the Metareality of Things” in FO A RM magazine 5, Autonomy foarm.artdocuments.org
Responding to John Cage’s musical translations of the famed Japanese rock garden, Ryonanji, the audio works in this exhibition are installed in a novel way to create an aural environment in which the pieces can be heard both individually and simultaneously. The speakers from which the sounds are broadcast are arranged to visually mimic the stones and space of the garden. Like the Ryonanji garden, which cannot be viewed in its entirety from any one point, Rock’s Role similarly offers a separate experience from each position within the gallery.
Microcòsmics
Comisiariada per Joan Fontcuberta METRONOM Fundació Rafael Tous d’Art Contemporani
Metrònom ha volgut fer un experiment: donar a una sèrie de creadors d’~ambits molt diferents l’oportunitat de reaccionar espontàniament a la percepció d’objectes que ha elegit a través d’un microscopi electrònic. En aquest grup selecionat per Joan Fontcuberta hi ha músics, pintors arquitectes, cineastes, fotògrafs, poetes, escultors…Els participants són Barbara Held, Ivan Bercedo i Jorge Mestre, Carles Hac Mor i Ester Xargay, Isaki Lacuesta, Sylvie Bussières, Perejaume i el mateix Joan Fontcuberta. Davant d’aquest repte, cada un d’ells ha donat una resposta vinculada a preocupacions plàstiques i conceptuals que els són pròpies. “Microcòsmics” proposa, doncs, el resultat d’aquesta iniciativa, que té la voluntat d’arreplegar la resposta directa de la mirada de l’artista sobre la mirada de la ciència.
Metronom ha querido hacer un experimento: dar a una serie de creadores de ámbitos muy diferentes la oportunidad de reaccionar espontáneamente a la percepción de objetos de su elección a través de un microscopio electrónico. En este grupo seleccionado por Joan Fontcuberta hay músicos, pintores, arquitectos, cineastas, fotógrafos, poetas, escultores…Los participates son Barbara Held, Ivan Bercedo y Jorge Mestre, Carles Hac Mor y Ester Xargay, Isaki Lacuesta, Sylvie Bussieres, Perejaume y el mismo Joan Fontcuberta. Ante este reto, cada uno de ellos ha dado una respuesta vinculada a preocupaciones plásticas y conceptuales que les son propias. “Microcosmics” propone pues el resultado de esta iniciativa, que tiene una voluntad de recoger la respuesta directa de la mirada del artista sobre la mirada de la ciencia.
The Innermost Nature of Things, Barbara Held
Sound installation, with Ferran Conangla and Adolf Alcañiz, Metronom Lab
I was very moved when I first saw these images, the photographic traces made
by the diffusion or scattering of X-rays passing through a painstakingly
crystallized protein, part of the work of researcher Alicia Guasch Mitjans, or the
Institut de Biologia Molecular in Barcelona. Each point and its intensity represents
a reflection of X-rays by the electorns in the crystal, and it is a way of “seeing”
where the electrons are. This sphere of reflected points can then be represented
by a series of virtual 3-D computer programs in order to permit the study of the
molecular structure of the protein, in this case, belonging to a bacteria. I have
taken the process one step further, and again using the computer, have made a
representation in sound of the same structure that is then transmitted into
audible space by means of the “alchemy” of transducers/loudspeakers.
I’m interested in the idea of representation in the Medieval sense, in which the
likeness of any thing and a representation of it must imitate the idea of the thing and not its substance. According to ancient scientific and philosophic thought,
the material of the Universe is structured according to the harmony of musical
ratios, and so the art of music closely reflects the innermost nature of things.
Although we are working with digital technology, this series of representations is
like a mystic’s story, coming around by layers to an idea of order and glistening
harmonious spheres, microcosmos in macrocosmos, the Universal in contrast to
global terror, war and brutality.
The Bowery Ensemble was formed in 1981 by Nils Vigeland and gave an annual series of concerts in The Great Hall of Cooper Union for eight years. The members of the ensemble and their tenure in the group were:
Barbara Held, flute (1981-89) Leonard Krech, trombone (1981-89) Cheryl Pesdan, soprano (1981-3) Tina Pelikan,violin/viola (1985-88) Michael Pugliese, percussion (1981-1989) Nils Vigeland, piano (1981-89)
Season 1 (1981-82)
October 27,1981 Charles Ives Largo Charles Ives Sunrise Morton Feldman Instruments I Nils Vigeland Summer Music
November 17, 1981 Aaron Copland Violin Sonata Leo Smit Scena Cambiata Nils Vigeland Summer Music Aaron Copland Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson
February 23,1982 Netty Simons The Great Stream Silent Moves John Newell Lavender Axes Yvar Mikhashoff Dialogos Y Sobres De Melisande Lukas Foss Curriculum Vitae with Time Bomb John Thow Alpha Libri
April 6,1982 John Cage Day continuous performances from 12 noon 8PM Concert Etudes Australes Concert for Piano and Orchestra Sixteen Dances
Second Season (1982-83)
October 18, 1982 Jon Gibson Untitled William Hawley Three Japanese Songs Charles Wuorinen Percussion Duo Jacob Druckman Animus 1 Frederic Rzewski Les Moutons de Panurge
January 18, 1983 Christian Wolff Duo for Violins Luciano Berio Sequenza I Luciano Berio Sequenza VI Morton Feldman 4 Songs to e.e. cummings David Del Tredici Three Songs Henry Brant Headhunt
April 12,1983 Nils Vigeland Evening Bernadette Speach Moto Phil Niblock 261.6+ and – Dane Rudhyar Theurgy Ruth Crawford Seeger Three Songs
Third Season (1983-84)
November 1, 1983 Music of Lukas Foss Music for Six Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Solo Three Pieces for Violin and Piano Paradigm
January 17,1984 Roscoe Mitchell Nonaah Dane Rudhyar Nostalgia Jo Kondo Sight Rhythmics Jo Kondo Walk Jo Kondo Strands III Jo Kondo Forme Semee Jo Kondo Diptych
March 13, 1984 Iannis Xennakis Psappha John Cage Ryoanji Earle Brown Times Five Malcolm Goldstein Of Star Bright Mushrooms Bursting In My Head
Fourth Season (1984-85)
October 16,1984 Elliot Sharp VX Chris Newman Symphony Chris Newman Sad Secrets Mauricio Kagel 1898
January 15, 1985 Morton Feldman Crippled Symmetry
March 19, 1985 Karlheinz Stockhausen Tierkreis Roger Reynolds “..From Behind the Unreasoning Mask” Alvin Singleton Argoru V/b Nils Vigeland A Loud Piece
Fifth Season (1985-86)
October 8, 1985 Charles Casavant Legacy Stephen Montague Paramell I Steve Lacy Cloudy Nils Vigeland Eleven Pages Yvar Mikhashoff Night Dances Conlon Nancarrow Blues/Tango/Sonatina Poul Ruders Break-Dance
January 21,1986 John Cage Music For 4 Chris Newman Final X Jo Kondo A Scribe Christian Wolff Bowery Preludes
March 4, 1986 Frederic Rzewski To the Earth Joel Chadabe Follow Me Softly Joel Chadabe Interactions 2 Pauline Oliveros Earth Ears
Sixth Season (1986-87)
October 7, 1986 Luciano Berio Sequenza V Jih Hi Kim X5 Zoltan Jenéy Variation on a Theme by Christian Wolff Iannis Xenakis Theraps Zoltan Jenéy Orpheus’ Garden Carl Vine Miniature III
January 20,1987 Dorrance Stalvey Three Pairs and Seven Leo Smit In Woods Leo Smit Flute of Wonder Igor Stravinsky Elegy Nils Vigeland Transparent Things
March 2, 1987 Max Lifchitz Night Voices No. 7 Elias Tanenbaum A Bubble In My Eye Linda Bouchard Transi-Blanc Luciano Berio Folksongs
Seventh Season (1987-88)
October 27, 1987 John Cage 75th Birthday Concert Erik Satie Five Nocturnes Credo in US Five Songs for Contralto Nocturne for Violin and Piano Sixteen Dances
January 26, 1988 Charles Ives Sonata No. 4 Ushio Torakai Movement David Felder BoxMan Charles Ives Largo Nils Vigeland Transparent Things
October 25, 1988 Olly Wilson Trio Jon Deak Metaphor Conlon Nancarrow String Quartet Michael Gordon FourKings Fight Five
January 31,1989 Barbara Held, flute Giacinto Scelsi Hyxos Jacques Bekaert Song I Bun-Ching Lam After Spring Yasunao Tone Aletha:Unconcealment Yasunao Tone Lyricton Robert Ashley Superior Seven
April 4, 1989 Merkin Hall Michael Pugliese, percussion John Cage Music for 4 Iannis Xennakis Psappha Morton Feldman The Kind of Denmark Per Nørgard I Ching Nils Vigeland Progress Mancini/Pugliese Peter Gunn
Planning and execution: Eugenia Balcells Music: Barbara Held Actress: Gemma Sin Text Sellection: Nora Catelli Camera: Jose Antonio Soria Produced by: Centro de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona
