LMJ 12 CD COMPANION

Pleasure from Gdansk to Dawn: Eastern European Music:
Contributors' Notes

Tigrics: Everbeener (1:10)
Written and produced by Robert Bereznyei, recorded in Budapest, Hungary, spring 2001.

Contact: Róbert Bereznyei,
Peterdy u. 34 3/38, 1071
Budapest, Hungary.
E-mail:robitigrics@freemail.hu.
Web site: http://www.paradio.hu/tigrics.

Tigrics (a.k.a. Róbert Bereznyei, born 1975) lives and works in Budapest, Hungary. He first became involved in electronic music in 1993 as half of a duo called Rianás (the word is Hungarian for the sound of ice breaking on a river when the weather warms). Rianás played live improvised electronic music, mostly with borrowed analogue synthesizers. In 1998, Tigrics made his first (unreleased) demo, Harddisk Bigband. That same year Tigrics also joined the radio show Haloszoba (Bedroom), consisting of three DJs (Szekreter, Szoba DJ and Tigrics) playing music at ParaRadio, a Hungarian Internet radio station. In 1999, Tigrics's solo act began as a support act for Rianás, which eventually disbanded. His first four-track EP, Lily Drill, was released on the Internet label sensei. In 2001, he compiled an unreleased album entitled Compact Disco. His next record, ChromaLion for the Ultrahang foundation, had a limited release of 100 copies. The German company Keplar also released a CD of new Tigrics material, reusing the title Compact Disco, in 2001.
From 1994 to 2001 Tigrics worked in various venues: at Pannonia Film Studios and Varga Studios as an animation cartoonist, as an illustrator of children's books for a major publisher in Hungary, and most recently as an Internet designer/programmer. Currently, Tigrics focuses solely on music, frequently playing live with his three-piece band.

Olga+Jozef: 7B2 (4:33)
Produced by o+j in Bratislava, Slovakia, 2000.
Contact: Brano Krc, Lesnicka 14, 851 10 Bratislava, Slovakia.
E-mail: anti@uclub.sk.
Websites: http://www.olgaplusjozef.sk/; http://www.uclub.sk.

Wolfram: Sentinel (3:48)
Recorded, produced and performed by Wolfram at Zgoda Sound Facility, Warsaw, Poland, March--August 2000.
Contact: Dominik Kowalczyk, ul. Zgoda 3 m 14, 00-018 Warsaw, Poland.
E-mail: dominik@reaktor.pl.
Web sites: http://polycephal.terra.pl; http://neurobot.art.pl.

When I started to experiment with sounds in the early 1990s, I had at my disposal the following: two cassette recorders, a mono microphone, a Boss delay pedal, a Roland TR-505 and (my birthday favorite) a Casio SK-1 mini keyboard. What I have recorded with all these devices will remain forever confined to the depths of my drawers.

Within 10 years, I had not only acquired the ability of creating and recording on my moderately powerful computer but had also gained the capability of scanning images, printing record covers, making copies---creating distinct packages in self-selected visual formats. In 1990 all my music sounded like lunatic rambling or optimistic sci-fi at best.

Now, with all the tools I use (and the ones I know but don’t use) I am fully aware that the traditional role of the instrument has been taken over by a jumble of binary code, while actual "playing" is effected by means of a keyboard and mouse. This is a long way from clavichords and bassoons, even from such recent inventions as Moog synthesizers! Regarding the influence of technology on music, I guess that we are close to a critical moment, if it hasn’t already happened.

Using the computer as an instrument enables one to conduct some really interesting experiments with synesthesia. Some of my pieces are based on the use of data-processing mechanisms themselves; some are abstract landscapes that interpret reality recorded by means of field recording into zero- and one-laced imperfections [1]. Sometimes corrupt files and jam-smeared CDs serve as sound sources.

Suddenly, I discovered the many sound sources around us. There are even more sound-processing tools available now, and if we try to enlist all possible types to order sonic chaos, we stumble into the territory of potentially overwhelming numbers of choices.

Sentinel is an example of ordering auditory disorder. This piece, which lasts nearly 4 minutes, was created in half a year. It took that much time to shuffle and reshuffle my concepts and approaches. I’m not sure if I would be able to score Sentinel for violin or trumpet. That’s why I’m happy living now and doing what I do.

But, what will happen with digital sound and electronics when there is no more electrical energy? Can you spend a day without electricity? Without electrical energy, our ability to communicate, work and move from one place to another is greatly reduced. The same is true with music, especially computer music. Technology has given me a tool that fits my skills. I can make my music totally independently using only my laptop. But even the most modern and advanced computer is worthless if there is no power. It is only a brick of plastic, copper and silicon. Perhaps my thoughts are a bit apocalyptic, but I am very conscious that the power of electronic music is faint.
Note
1.
I work with digital sound, in combinations of 0's and 1's. Sometimes when I record sounds, the most interesting are the "imperfect" sounds---noises, hums, distortion, errors. After transferring the sounds to digital sound, I work them over and over. Working with such small particles of sound (sometimes shorter than 0.2 seconds) it similar to knitting lace.

Wolfram (a.k.a. Dominik Kowalczyk) was born in 1969 in Warsaw, Poland. He studied sociology and informatics and is currently working as a webmaster/web designer. Wolfram started to play music in the beginning of 1990s. His first record, Projekt Drei, was released in August 2000. He is a contributor to the Polycephal label http://polycephal.terra.pl and to Neurobot http://neurobot.art.pl, a webzine that is also a trio that plays live, improvisational, computer-generated music.

nicron: highpass.2 (5:52)
From the self-published album struktur.2. Recorded in Pécs, Hungary, March 2001.

Contact: Zsolt Olejnik, Dombay u. 7., 7720 Pécsvárad, Hungary.
E-mail: nicron@underground.hu; nox@underground.hu.
Web site: http://porousher.net.

In this project, I aimed to create conceptual sound compositions that apply specific methods of structure and sound formation solely within the digital domain. I strive for clear sound shapes and structures so that the result will continue to evoke reactions from the recipients on an emotional level---whether a positive, negative or intermediate one. All of my pieces are different: they evolve as their antecedents and the experiences gained are reevaluated; because of this I try to lift their world of sounds to a new level. Essentially, I constantly search for a way to examine the past and present together to discover a backbone connecting them. The key to my works is logical development.

Zsolt Olejnik was born in Hungary in 1977. From 1997 to 2002 he studied architecture at the University of Pécs. During this time he also learned graphic and sound design, desktop publishing, Web techniques and programming. He is currently developing sound compositions, live performances, theoretical ideas, Web installations and applications, while working as a graphic designer and Web developer.

EA: s. pool (5:30)
Recorded in Warsaw, Poland, January 2002.

Contact: Kamil Antosiewicz, Broniewskiego 4/30, 01-785 Warsaw, Poland.
E-mail: mem@astercity.net.
Web sites: http://terra.pl/ea/; http://www.vion.pl.

Sounds by EA: A hair dryer in a carton box, a beer bottle on a marble floor, clerks in a bank inputting withdrawal transactions, automatic doors leading to a shopping center garage, a central heating system, a doenner vendor, machines at a dry cleaner’s, putting on pajamas, sunflower seeds, a bathroom drawer for cosmetics, a gear box, rain in a forest, a wild cat under a table, water sounds at a swimming pool, moaning of an elevator, dragging a Christmas tree upstairs, a coffee automate at an MTV office, damaged fridge at midnight, jumping on a bed in a parents’ bedroom, a toilet flush in the changing room of a fitness center, ice tea sipping, talking to a grandmother sounding different on the phone, sweeping a floor while playing with a dog, searching for a torch in a basement, flags in the wind in an abandoned district, breaking wooden sticks, feeding pigeons in an old town, steps in a hospital corridor, a mini waterfall in a garden, rather unrecognizable playground soundscapes, scissors on paper 20 minutes after the start of the new year 2002, throwing books through a window, aluminum cans being squeezed, boiling tomato soup on a Friday, checking in at the Warsaw airport, plastic bags full of nails, old family Hi-8 cassettes, a heartbeat, a crowded square, an air conditioner, chalk on the blackboard, a microwave oven turning on, shoe polishing, touching anything, a plastic bag in the wind, underground, some insects caught in a glass bottle, swallowing, a glow lamp, a paper ball falling from a table, a sustained tone of a trolley passing by, a hard disk and a floppy disk, a dial tone, footsteps on a slippery wet floor, a mechanical clock, water dripping, hair, a pencil, a ventilator, grass, a resonating electrical hum coming from the flat above, a zipper, boiling oil, calmness, undressing, hammering, a cat licking its fur, a summer breeze at the sea, scraping a wineglass against a window, an infected nostril breathing, a fire stake, sand dunes, haikus being uttered, paper towels in the toilet, tram brakes in a tunnel, continuous folding and unfolding of a celluloid plate, an empty office, horses running in the distance, ants in a frenzy, stirring some liquid in a mug, biting one’s nails, birds nesting, cleaning the mirror in a bathroom, metal on metal, workers’ shouts from behind a window, playing under the shower, making faces, touching jack plugs with wet fingers, coughing, lighting a cigarette, playing roulette, putting on a backpack, sorting a bunch of visit cards, air coming through a narrow gap under a door, licking a contact mike, burping, an analogue radio scale, giving birth, crickets, a traffic jam, barbed wire on wood, squeezing a plastic ketchup bottle, ice on the lake "singing" during heavy winter, a ship coming back to port, the Romanian language, a harmonica out of tune, a child in the cradle gurgling, some open space, Rubik’s cube, riding a bike, a vacuum cleaner, freezing water, tubular-shaped objects, dungeons, electromagnetic induction, tearing something apart, frying pork, a CD spinning in a CD player, spraying deodorant, fish in an aquarium, meat, a ball pen, scratching, a quarrel, old women in church in Legnica speaking about their health problems, matches, night.


EA consists of Membrana (Kamil Antosiewicz), Viön (Artur Jaworski) and Patryk Zakrocki.

Membrana (Mem) is Kamil Antosiewicz, a connection-maker and writer/editor who works for WWW, the first Polish Internet magazine, as its cyberculture editor. Antosiewicz released the 3-inch CD Obiekt 640 (with Facial Index on Polycephal) and then Tektonika (with Viön and Facial Index), which links sonic trophies from his Moroccan travels with droning elements. His recent interests include the decontextualization of sound material and experiments with primal structures of non-organic origin---white noise and sine waves---transforming them into sounds of an organic nature.

Patryk Zakrocki releases his work under the name of Meoma. His current interests are concentrated in acoustic music and composition. Believing a score to be equally as important as free expression, he experiments during live sessions and studio works with various techniques as a guitar and violin player. His recent works include performances with a punk-rock string quartet and free-jazz jams with various musicians. He organizes regular improvisation sessions at Warsaw's club Jazzgot, where he plays with invited guests.

Viön (a.k.a. Artur Jaworski) is concerned with the inexplicable magic behind sound and explores the relationship between physical phenomena and human perception. He pays attention not only to the final piece, but to the listening experience itself. A major part of his work is aimed at total sound immersion in a location. He says that it is impossible to create this kind of music---it is only possible to notice and discover it. He experiments with space as a processor of sound, often re-recording sounds in different spaces, revealing the unexpected. VIÖN released his debut album flashbacks on Cpt. Sparky in 1999. Later, as an EA member, he appeared on [~.], r, 11.00 and also on compilation releases. With Membrana (Mem) and Jacek Staniszewski he is part of the trio Viön/Membrana/Facial Index, which released the debut CD Tektonika on Polycephal in 2001. Most of his new sounds appear on his web site <http://www.vion.pl>. Currently Viön is finishing the recording of his 3D album, which will be available as a DVD-Audio.


Daniel Matej: SATIollagE (5:27)
Recorded at Experimental Studio of Slovak Radio, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1995.
Contact: Daniel Matej, Odeska 40, 82 106, Bratislava, Slovakia.

SATIollagE (1995) was written for the project Satie-City, Evenings Of New Music '95 and performed originally as a part of an open-air street performance in the center of Bratislava town. The tape was produced at the Experimental Studio of Slovak Radio, Bratislava. The material for this "collage on Satie" was---with a few exceptions---derived from the recorded music of Erik Satie and then re-mixed and re-shaped into a sort of techno-piece (however, it is missing a basic element of techno, "groovy" drum loops).

Born in March 1963 in Bratislava, Daniel Matej studied composition in Bratislava from 1988--1996 at the ISCM Composer’s Workshop in Dolny Kazimierz (Poland) with L. Nono, L. Ferrari and others. He completed various postgraduate composition studies at Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris; Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague (with L. Andriessen); at AMD in Bratislava (with Juraj Bene_); at Dartington Summer Music School (with T. Wishart and R. Worby); and completed a "composer-in-residency" within the DAAD programme in Berlin in 1995--1996. In 1987 he was a founding member of the Veni ensemble and was artistic director of the Evenings of New Music Festival. His work has been broadcast regularly on Radio Ragtime (New Music Studio), and he currently performs with the Veni ensemble, Vapori del Cuore, Appendix Consort and others. Matej has worked with visual artists such as M. Hnat, J. Ra_ka, P. Rovensk_ and D. Sadovská and with choreographers M. Poláková and B. Young. He composes for Veni ensemble, Arcana Ensemble, Hilliard Ensemble, Slagwerkgroep den Haag and others. His music has been performed and broadcast internationally.

Borut Savski: Birdy Activity (4:03)
Recorded at Radio Student Ljubljana, Ministry of Experimental Initiative, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2000.

Contact: Borut Savski, Kunaverjeva 14, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
E-mail: borut.savski@radiostudent.si.
Web sites: http://absurdevidence.radiostudent.si/borut/; http://www.radiostudent.si/categories.php?op=newindex&catid=12.

I have been exploring the world of sound and complex sound structures since 1997 and have so far produced about five CDs' worth of sound examples, which I have distributed individually. At this moment I am interested in experimenting with dialogue and communication in sound structures---this interest seems to be taking me away from music and into something else. Life? Well, no. What I try to produce are more like words---short-lived sound creatures that (usually) reproduce in synthetic environments in real time. The result is a kind of synthetic "biotope" where musical (aesthetic) qualities give way to something that is closer to communication. I try to find and link together sound creatures with similar qualities.

My involvement is present in the works at three levels: (1) deciding appropriate individual sounds, (2) accepting the resulting characters of three or four layers of such activities and (3) arranging the meeting of all layers in one place and time.

The greatest achievement of nature is the economy with which it produces and sustains life forms. Each and every individual has a certain autonomy over his or her existence---even intelligence, which is the top level of autonomy---but perhaps this is to ensure that life itself is perpetuated. In other words, individuals must find their own reasons (motives) to move in place and time. By doing so successfully they fulfill their roles. Then others come to do the same. Stopping the process is only possible with the destruction of all autonomous individuals (or of the autonomy itself)---but this would be nearly impossible. Looking from the other side of world---the microspace---the organization of individual living specimens is such that each specimen holds the information for the whole in its building parts: the genes in each cell. I believe that the spiritual world (mind) functions in the same manner. We can only think in logical structures---we define nothing but logical structures. Logic is a very elastic apparatus; it can give wildly differing results. But we are destined to think logically and "make the world," producing reason and motive.

I approach sound structures with this logic: individual sound forms, autonomous, yet tightly interrelated. The result does not have to be an art form, but it must be dynamic or show some other sort of liveliness. It is quite easy for a human to add aesthetics to it. The coexistence of sounds is beautiful.

A CD describing in practice the concepts behind "aesthetic machines" is in preparation; a booklet with text and graphics will be included.

Borut Savski was born in 1960 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He studied with the Faculty of Electrotechnics, Ljubljana. He joined Radio Student Ljubljana in 1984, working as a technician, producer and music critic. In 1993 he was employed at Radio Student Ljubljana as chief coordinator, organizing and taking part in many new radio communication projects arising both around Radio Student and internationally. In 1997, he began coordinating the Ministry of Experimental Initiative, an open platform for research in various media, and started to learn about the Internet and computers as media. Savski co-organized Web- and radio-based Xtended Live Radio events in the summer of 1997. From 1997 to 1999 he performed 100 direct radio broadcast events from clubs and homes, using a portable transmitter to broadcast from the airwaves of Radio Student, and also hosted webcasts. In 1998 he was invited to take part in Web activities at Ars Electronica. Since 1999 he has been conducting a regular radio broadcast "Huda ura" (Heavy Weather), which presents sound art (improvised) based on algorithms. About half of his time is dedicated to describing the philosophy, concept and production behind his work. In 1999, along with American sound artist John Grzinich, he created the sound installation Sound Biotope at the Kapelica Gallery in Ljubljana. Since 1999 Savski has continued his varied work---a cartoon soundtrack, a radio round table, a sound installation and writing.

Molr Drammaz: niezano(zano) (5:01)
Recorded in Skoczów, Poland, summer 2001. From the album boazeria, released by mik.musik.!.
Performers: Asia Bronislawska (voice, toys), Wojt3k Kucharczyk (electronics, keys, cuts, percussion, engineering). Guest performers: Jacek Bronislawski (French/wald horn), Gosia Walug (flute).

Contact: Wojt3k Kucharczyk, Ul. Klonowa 26, 43-430 Skoczów, Poland.
E-mail: wojt3k@artcom.pl.
Web site: http://www.molr.terra.pl/.

Molr Drammaz performs on the Polish experimental scene with a double drumkit and a combination of old and new electronic instruments and vocals, without the use of MIDI. We improvise with a pop-skeleton and post-plunderethno blueprint, using wide dynamics, virtuosity without virtuosity. Our favorite stage of being is being on stage. The track niezano (zano), which appears on the Pleasure from Gdansk to Dawn CD, has a sibling track, zano (niezano) (telling other stories); this piece is one of our most totally arranged pieces, using almost all of our techniques. Our aim in this piece was to prepare a new kind of fake orchestral sound, with many references to sometimes cheesy and always maximalistic former styles---science-bollywood-fiction-sentimental-no-opera-wave-cutup. Molr Drammaz's mik.musik.!. releases are mostly distributed by a-musik/cologne and their cooperatives.


Molr Drammaz was founded around 1995, beginning with acoustic-only percussion events; the group also currently plays electronic-only shows. Molr Drammaz is interested in music in itself, without such limits as style or time boundaries. Molr Drammaz has accomplished many recordings, primarily underground CD-Rs, but also CDs and LPs. The group performs concerts in Poland and Europe. Wojt3k Kucharczyk, born in 1969, has been playing in this band since its beginning and has invented most of strategies the band uses. Kucharczyk is a hypersoundactivist who also plays in other projects and runs the mik.musik.!. label, which was established to release Molr Drammaz records, but currently also releases music by other groups. Kucharczyk is involved in art education as a new media assistant for AOFA in Katowice. Asia Bronislawska, Kucharczyk's sister, brings unique energy to Molr Drammaz performances through her interests in music and theater. Bronislawska educates young children about living comfortably with music and art. Molr Drammaz often invites other musicians to play with them. Maciej Morus performs frequently on drums.

The Abstract Monarchy Trio: Schrattenberg (6:40)
Recorded by Janos Horvath at Arion Studios, Budapest, Hungary, December 2001.
Performers: Franz Hautzinger (quartertone trumpet), Zsolt Sörés (electric viola, electronics, samples, DAT recorder), Zsolt Kovács (electric guitar, drums, Oberheim synthesizer, electronics).

Contact: Franz Hautzinger, Kleine Neugasse 4/10, A-1040 Vienna, Austria.
E-mail: hautzinger@t0.or.at.

A special kind of nothing in a lovely environment takes no longer to think as another kind.
Nothing in a longer think.
Kind and kind is no kind of kind.
The environment takes it all!
Nothing is a lovely environment.
A special kind of nothing takes another kind.
No longer a special kind of nothing!
---Franz Hautzinger


Abstrakte Musik
ZB: Artefakte: wenn man sie untersucht, wenn man sie benutzt, wenn man sie beschützt und wenn man sich an ihnen versucht, wenn man sie verleitet, auch wenn man sie ermuntert, studiert, analysiert und ähnliches, dann geschieht etwas, was wir vorher nicht wissen können. . . . Aber nachher! . . . was das vorher nicht mehr beeinflussen und ungeschehen machen kann . . . aber das Verständnis über das vorher wird nachher anders sein.
---Franz Hautzinger

Franz Hautzinger, born in 1963, is a composer and performer of contemporary and improvised music. He studied trumpet and composition at the University of Music in Graz and at the Conservatory of Vienna. Since 1989 he has been a lecturer for ensemble playing, composition and arrangement at the University of Music, Vienna. Hautzinger is a guest soloist with many ensembles and partners (Elliott Sharp, Gil Evans, Sainkho Namtchylak, Ensemble Zeitkratzer Berlin, John Cale, Christian Fennesz, Yoshihide Ohotomo, Phil Niblock, Klaus Öhring, Radu Malfatti, Christian Wolf, Joachim Kühn, Derek Bailey, Klangforum Wien) and also leads his own projects (Franz Hautzinger Speakers Corner, Dachte Musik, Regenorchester, Gomberg).
Zsolt Kovács was born in Révfülöp, Hungary, in 1969. He is a guitarist, improviser, composer and conceptual artist. He is one of the managing editors of the avant-garde, experimental art periodical Magyar Mûhely (Hungarian Workshop). Along with Zsolt Sõrés, he was a co-founder of three hungarian experimental music groups, SoKaPaNaSz, Talesco and Spiritus Noister. He has been in an improvisational duo with Zsolt Sõrés since 1994. As a musician he has performed music with a number of international artists, including Phill Niblock, Martin Klapper, Alexander Frangenheim, Thomas Lehn, Dorothea Schürch, John Butcher, Phil Durrant, Tim Hodgkinson, Roger Turner, Veryan Weston, Mats Gustafsson and Raymond Strid. He has performed music and conceptual performance pieces in Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Poland and Slovakia. He is currently developing interactive "noise-music" software.
Zsolt Sõrés was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1969. He is a violinist, improviser and conceptual artist. His field of interest, in addition to music, involves the borderlines of different art forms. He is one of the managing editors of the avant-garde, experimental art periodical Magyar Mûhely (Hungarian Workshop) and the editor of Jump Contemporary Performance Art magazine's music column. Since 1992 he has been the program managing editor of Tilos Rádió (Forbidden Radio). As a musician he has performed with Peter Herbert, Ernõ Király, KJ Holmes, Martin Klapper, Johannes Bauer, Alexander Frangenheim, Wolfgang Fuchs, Paul Lovens, Thomas Lehn, Birgit Ulherr, Dorothea Schürch, Dieter Ulrich, John Butcher, Peter Cusack, Rhodri Davies, John Edwards, Phil Durrant, Tim Hodgkinson, Stuart Jones, Phil Minton, Evan Parker, John Russel, Pat Thomas, Alan Tomlinson, Roger Turner, Veryan Weston, Mats Gustafsson and Raymond Strid. He has performed music and conceptual performance pieces in Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia.


Arszyn: Oho! rzek_a _ydówka, ukazuj_c drugie, du_e, czarne oko (cz___ druga) (4:24)
Recorded and produced by Krzysztof Topolski, Gdansk, Poland, March 2001.

Contact: Krzysztof Topolski, Opolska 10g/14, 80-395 Gdansk, Poland.
E-mail: krzysztoftopolski@wp.pl.
Web site: http://www.arszyn.terra.pl/.

1 sazen rosyjski (an ancient Russian measure of length) = 3 arszyns = 7 feet = 84 inches = 2.1336 meters, so an arszyn = 71.12 cm and contains 12 werszeks.

Krzysztof Topolski was born in 1973 in Kalinowo, northeast Poland. He studied Russian philology at the University of Gdansk. He is a drummer focusing on rock, funk and improvisation. He has played in blues-rock, hardcore and pop bands. Topolski has collaborated with the Polish avant-pop band Kobiety (Women) and is currently collaborating with Marcin Dymiter's Emiter project. He is a drummer in the improvising, groovy pro-hip hop band Ludzie (Folks), an integral part of the multimedia collective Pracownia Ludzie (The Folks Workshop). Since 1998 Topolski has experimented with computer-music software. The main areas of his interest are electroacoustic, improvised, electronic and computer-generated music. He considers himself a big fan of interactive computer mixed-media ideas. The first CD-R realization of the Arszyn project, entitled Z werszkow pierwszy (Werszek the 1st) was released in March 2002 on the Nefryt label.


Vladimir Djambazov: The Secret Life of a Can (5:52) (excerpt)
Recorded at composer's studio, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2001.

Contact: Vladimir Djambazov, Z.k. "Chr. Smirnensky" bl. 65 vh.A apt. 7, 1574 Sofia, Bulgaria.
E-mail: djambazov@olb.net.

Alongside the world of the traditional sound of musical instruments perceived as "music," at a lower dynamic level a close microphone reveals a surprisingly diverse and dynamic parallel audio microcosm: a full-blooded and varied society of discrete and not-so-discrete "parasitic" noises that inevitably accompany the playing of music. It is from this world that the material for The Secret Life series comes.
The Secret Life of a Can (2001) researches a "nonmusical" object---as opposed to earlier compositions The Secret Life of a French Horn and The Secret Life of a Violin. With sensitive microphones placed inside and outside the object, I recorded various sounds. The primeval sounds result from putting the can in situations quite similar to those in everyday human life. Probably because of this placement the sounds have imprinted upon them certain relevant emotions. The Secret Life of a Can also contains dreams of other worlds.

Vladimir Djambazov was born 1954 in Sevlievo, Bulgaria. After studying at the Music academy in Sofia he won a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) scholarship and graduated from the Folkwang high school in Essen, Germany, having studied electronic music composition with Dirk Reith (Institut für Elecktronische Musik und Computermedien) and horn with Hermann Baumann. Djambazov composes electroacoustic and acoustic music, music for theater and cinema. He participated in the festivals Synthese in Bourges; Elektronischer Fruhling and Elektrokomplex in Vienna; November Music in 'S Hertogenbosch, Ghent, and Essen; Bienal Internacional de Música Electroacústica de São Paulo, Brazil; and also in festivals in Athens, Sarajevo, Sofia and Rostrum in Belgrade. The confrontation of "live" instruments with electronic sound is an important aspect of Djambazov's works. He is active in educational and public spaces: He teaches virtual studio technologies and MIDI at Sofia University and at New Bulgarian University. He serves as treasurer of the executive board of the Society for New Music in Bulgaria and is a member of the selection committee for the festival "Musica Nova." He is co-founder of the Bulgarian Classic FM Radio and the Pianissimo Foundation, which organizes the annual international festival for new piano music ppIANISSIMO in Sofia.

Jeanne Frémaux: Fret Accord (4:12)
Composed and recorded in Zagreb, Croatia, autumn 2001, for the dance production raster/skin/wave by the Gravity Group; remixed and edited for Some People Call It a One Night Stand, but We Can Call It Paradise (egoboo.bits label) in 2002.

Contact: Jeanne Frémaux, Martiæeva 63, 100000 Zagreb, Croatia, or Baboniæeva 44, 100000 Zagreb, Croatia.
E-mail: jf-passionmine@angelfire.com.

Jeanne Frémaux duo of Toma Bacic and Luka Bekavac was formed in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2000 and works in the area between electroacoustic music and glitch-pop. The group has released several self-distributed CDs (for example, Monoblock Endurance Test AER 022 and Disk Space Recovery). The group has performed live at the Project: Broadcasting http://www.projectbroadcasting.mi2hr and the Critical Update http://www.newmediaculture.net/CRITICAL_UPGRADE/newslog/ festivals. Jeanne Frémaux recorded the soundtrack for raster/skin/wave, a contemporary dance production by the Gravity Group, which premiered in January 2002. The group has collaborated on various visual arts and media projects.

Toma Bacic was born in 1976 in Zagreb, Croatia. He studied art history and comparative literature at the Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb; he also played violin at Zagreb Secondary Music school. Bacic works as a journalist for cultural magazines (specializing in visual art criticism) and is a collaborator in theater, dance (including Gravity Group) and visual arts projects.

Luka Bekavac was born in 1976 in Osijek, Croatia; He studied comparative literature and philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb. He works as a journalist (specializing in music and film criticism) and has played in various non-electronic bands. He collaborates in various visual arts and theater projects (including Gravity Group).


Arkona: Komputerliebe (3:22)
Recorded at Sandoz Lab, Warsaw, Poland, 2002. The piece also appears on the album Black Box Party.

Contact: Karol Suka (a.k.a. Karol Kazimierski), Ul. Zeromskiego 21 M. 64, 01-882 Warsaw, Poland.
E-mail: arkona.suka@wp.pl. Web site: http://www.arkona.terra.pl.

Arkona is a one-man project first created by Karol Suka about 10 years ago. The name itself first appeared in 1996 as Suka became fascinated with the heroic Postawa of the defenders of Arkona, the Slavic Swiatyni, which was one of the last pagan cultures in Europe to resist the Christian invasion. Arkona has no limits in musical forms---sound penetrations vary widely, from chaotic deconstructions to deep, ambient, organic soundscapes based on a dub pulse. All the sounds are generated on an analogue synthesizer in a simple home ministudio. Arkona's motto is: Make the music (and art in general) on everything at hand, within reach of your abilities. This idea is apparent in Suka's paintings. His early artworks, created at the end of the 1980s, were painted on everything and were wildly cruel, refusing to be limited by academic norms. During the 1990s his works evolved into complicated, fluorescent mandalas as a result of his deep fascination with the aboriginal energy of techno. Suka co-originated the first acid parties in Poland. In the mid-1990s the commercialization of techno culture caused Arkona's return to the deep underground. We dig tunnels for a new revolution. (What revolution? We don't know yet!)

Vapori del Cuore: Great Dance (4:01)
Recorded live in Brno, Czech Republic, May 2001.

Performers: Marek Pia_ek (flute, objects), Ronald _ebesta (clarinets, bass clarinet), _ubomír Burgr (violin, electric guitar), Martin Burlas (keyboards), Peter Zagar (keyboards), Daniel Matej, artistic director (keyboards, CD player, turntable, objects), Roman La__iak (sound engineer), Günter Müller (electronics).
Contact: Daniel Matej, Odeska 40, 82 106, Bratislava, Slovakia.


The Vapori del Cuore ensemble was formed as an open group late in 1993 by members of other various contemporary music ensembles in Bratislava (Tule_, Veni Ensemble, Vitebsk Broken, Forgotten Band, etc.). The group’s name refers to the expressive poetry of Edoardo Sanguinetti, analyzed by Luciano Berio in his piece Laborintus II. The music of Vapori del Cuore crosses various genres (American experimental music, experimental rock, performance, etc.). The group has recently been focusing on improvised music. During the period of 1994 to 2000, the group collaborated with David Dramm, Peter Machajdík, Nicolas Collins, Daan Vandewalle, Chris Newman, Beth Griffith, Mikulá_ _kuta, DJ Ghalagha and Alfred Zimmerlin. Along with the dance group of Marta Poláková Vapori del Cuore produced the improvised dance performance Open, and early in 2000 it took part in Tri_tvrte Revue magazine’s project of joining live improvised music with the screening of the movie Microcosmos. In November 2000, the group performed at the 11th Evenings of New Music Festival with guests Otomo Yosihide, John Oswald and Marián Varga. The ensemble, along with the Monika _ertezni dance group, is currently working on a project combining music and dance called Big-Time Dance, which premiered in May 2001 at the Exposition of New Music Festival in Brno, Czech Republic.

Martin Burlas: monika vypovedá (4:22)
Recorded in Bratislava, Slovakia, 2000.

Contact: Martin Burlas, Silvanska 29, 841 04 Bratislava, Slovakia.
E-mail: azachronic@hotmail.com.
Web site: http://www.errornet.host.sk.

During his secondary school studies Martin Burlas took private piano lessons from Mária Masariková and composition lessons from Juraj Hatrík. From 1975 to 1980 he studied composition with Ján Cikker at the Academy of Music and Drama in Bratislava. From 1980 to 1986 Burlas worked as music director of the Opus Publishing House, and in 1986 he founded the Matthews ensemble, which was later renamed "Matkovia." From 1987 to 1994 he worked as music director at Slovak Radio in Bratislava and was active in Veni Ensemble and the Sleepy Motion and Vitebsk Broken ensembles. From 1986 to 1999 worked at Sonicca. In 1999 Burlas co-founded, along with Lubo Burgr, Zuzana Piussi and Daniel Salontay, the band Dogma. Since January 2000 he has been employed at the Music Centre in Bratislava and along with Lubo Burgr is co-founder of the Association for Contemporary Opera.

LMJ12: Pleasure

Updated 9 November 2005
Leonardo On-Line © 2005 ISAST
http://leonardo.info
send comments to isast@leonardo.info