October 13
8:00 pm
Performance by
N Collective: DB, SKIF++ and USA/USB
5.1 sound installations by
Jeff Carey and Robert van Heumen
N Collective
The N Collective is a pan-European group of instrumentalists and composers
who work together in many constellations in support of group and individual
projects. The core unit of about 9 composers and instrumentalists can
expand into approximately 20 people. Musical activities range from purely
composed acousmatic electronics to acoustic ensemble pieces, electro-acoustic
improvisation and many sub-variants. For the past couple of years N Collective
groups have been touring regularly throughout Europe and performing in
festivals such as Transmediale, Borealis, Rumor, YULE and have released
a dozen CD(R) releases on labels like: Lampse, Rune Grammophon, Staalplaat,
JDK Productions, ERS Records, NoTV (Universal) and X-OR. Recently, the
collective has produced a number N Events in Amsterdam, Norway (Bergen,
Stavanger), Geneva and Berlin.These events showcase a variety of N constellations
including the core ensembles like OfficeR and PHO, acousmatic pieces by
Jeff Carey and Robert van Heumen, and smaller groups like USA/USB, MoHa!
and SKIF++. http://www.n-collective.com
SKIF ++ (NL, US) Robert van Heumen (laptop LiSa) and Jeff Carey (laptop SuperCollider) are the electronic backbone of the electro-acoustic sextet Office-R(6) that uses structured improvisation in a unique way. Forming SKIF in 2004 (because the rest of Office-R(6) left the building), they work with similar ideas but under a purely digital pragmatism: sonic bursts, melodic melancholy, and beautiful carpets using joysticks and self made controllers to keep it all in line (most of the time). SKIF++ is the collaboration of SKIF and Bas van Koolwijk's (laptop Max/MSP/Jitter) aggressive attack on the illusion of video itself. Independently, and processing the SKIF sound into video, he exposes the face of the machine which lives behind the often-placating veil of the televised image. http://umatic.nl/SKIF++/
DB (NO/NL) DB is '60s style electronic music done right. With a acoustic instruments. Informed by simple physical phenomena of sound DB provides a sonic landscape unheard of for any wind duo. Dirk Bruinsma on soprano sax and Bj¿rnar Habbestad on flutes perform an extremely dedicated and uncompromising set of sound pieces, right in between the freedom and fury of modern improvised music and the spectral refinement from contemporary composition. Dirk Bruinsma, a dutch resident, has performed over all of Europe, Japan and the US with a number of different groups and players like Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp and Tim Hodgkingson. Norwegian based flutist Bjørnar Habbestad has been coined "...another star in the nordic improv-scene" and performs as a soloist and ensemble player all over Scandinavia and Europe.
USA/USB (NO/US) USA/USB, formed in early 2005, is the combined work of Bjørnar Habbestad (PHO, DB) and Jeff Carey (OfficeR, 87 Central, SKIF++) intended to address the impossibility of duo collaboration across oceans and international borders. Habbestads' flute is often over-amplified through feedback and computer processing and is further extrapolated though by Carey's synthesis procedures along with his laptop sound generation. Focusing on digital instrumentalisim, hyper-instrumentalism, and extended technique their first piece 'Machine Gun Etiquette' was premiered at the NuMusic festival in Stavanger Norway in 2005 and the Wire described the performance as "Illuminating." Their tape piece 'Music for Broken Flute and Stolen Computer' was premiered in Gaudeamus Music Week in The Netherlands, 2006. Since then, they've been writing a lot more code and have failed to record a new album because of all their stolen equipment. Ê
Robert van Heumen (NL) Robert van Heumen (1968/NL) is electronic composer and musician, making electronic music in the studio and on stage. Recent compositions include the 5.1 composition '12 Bullets' for STEIM's Noiseroom, music for the choreography 'Drink Me' by Anouk van Dijk, and the audio-visual composition 'Solitude' (with multi-media artist Arnoud Noordegraaf) based on a book by Paul Auster. As a musician he uses STEIM's live sampling software LiSa with all kinds of controllers. He is active as a member of the electro-acoustic sextet OfficeR, electronic audio-visual trio SKIF++ and part of the N Collective, and has shared the stage with Michel Waisvisz, Jeff Carey, Oguz Buyukberber, Anne LaBerge, Guy Harries, Daniel Schorno, Luc Houtkamp, Roddy Schrock and Nate Wooley. In both his composed and live music he uses a mixture of environmental sounds, toys, voices, sounds from kitchen appliances, and in general all kinds of 'found sounds'. Next to all of this he is managing director of the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam. In another life he is a mathematician, trumpet player and software programmer. Selected Works: 5.1 electronic composition 'Fury (after anger)' for Sonic Circuits (2006), 5.1 electronic composition '12 Bullets' for STEIM's Noiseroom (2006), composition for the audiovisual production 'Solitude' (2005), cd 'OfficeR - The STEIM Sessions', cds 'N - Live at STEIM' and 'N Collective - News from Holland' - with various groups of the N Collective, compositions for choreographies 'Amour Fou' (2003), 'Drink me' (2004), 'STAU' (2004), 'Derivatives' (2005) by Anouk van Dijk Selected Bands: OfficeR (electro-acoustic sextet), SKIF++ (electric trio with visuals), Buyukberber/VanHeumen (duo on bassclarinet & electronics), RKS (trio with dj sniff & Keir Neuringer) Ð http://hardhatarea.com
Jeff Carey (US/NL) Electronic music composer Jeff Carey, based in the US and in the Netherlands, has been working with experimental, improvised and composed electronic, electro-acoustic, and acousmatic music since the early 90's. Originally from the suburbs of Washington DC, he has performed a handful of punk/hardcore bands and has played electronic music or presented pieces and installations in the US and Europe at festivals and venues such as Boralis (NO), Gaudeamus Music Week (NL), Chelsea Museum of Art (US), Transmediale (DE), NuMusic(NO), Sonic Acts (NL), Ekko Festival (NO), Cave 12 (CH), DNK-Amsterdam (NL), Trondhiem Matchmaking (NO), MOCADC (US), The Network (BE), and Placard (UK). Having studied Audio Technology at American University (1994), and computer music composition at the Instituut voor Sonologie in the Koningklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag (2002), his work has evolved from an interest in no-input-mixer and field recordings to include a focus on non-standard synthesis, algorithmic composition and digital instrumentalism. Apart from purely acousmatic and electro-acoustic composition, he is focused on performative aspects of computer music and improvisation. He has played in the groups 87 Central, Office-R(6), SKIF++, USA/USB, N-Ensemble, and collaborated or performed with Francis Marie Uitti, Gert-Jan Prins, Cor Fuhler, Oren Ambarchi, Tobias Delius, Jaap Blonk and the numerous members of the N-Collective to name a famous few. Carey builds custom electronic instruments for musicians and teaches courses in the synthesis programming language SuperCollider 3, recently at new media/arts institutions including NoTAM, BEK, TEKS (NO), and STEIM (NL). He is one of many founding members of the N-Collective, a pan-European music collective, and works to promote and present N-Events in the US. http://radiantslab.com
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This tour is funded by
The D.C. Commission
on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts USA
Fonds voor Amateurkunst en Podiumkunsten NL
Gaudeamus, Donemus, DJC, Netherlands Culture Fund NL
Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere NO
STEIM Foundation Amsterdam NL
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