ECSTATIC MUTATIONS
The arrival of low-budget music technologies in the mid 1980s drastically altered
the relational bonds between humans and machines in electronic music cultures. According to Kodwo Eshun “Atlantic Futurism is always building Futurythmachines, sensory technologies, instruments which renovate perception, which synthesize new states of mind”. The possibility of altering the speed of a record functioned as a key audio-technical transformation with wide-ranging subcultural impact. The bpm (beats per minute) metric, the operating grid of electronic dance music culture, acts as a filter whose fine-grained mesh distributes these audio populations. The sound system driven music cultures of the last two decades, especially in the UK, are populated with thousands of micro-scenes that have been deploying polyrhythmic attacks on this audio metric. Steve Goodman aka Kode9 calls these vertical rhythmic collectives ‘Speed Tribes’, collective bodies swarming around certain speeds of sound. This night is all about these ecologies of speed, “those molecular seepages and rhythmic infections which deviate from social segmentations.”
21:00 Thomas Brinkmann
Thomas Brinkmann (Germany) is one of the foremost figures of the minimal techno movement, which has influenced contemporary music production since the 1990s. His fascination for programmatic and rhythmic structures finds its roots in his background as a drummer and his training as a visual artist, and most particularly in the influence of Minimalism’s principle of reduction. The result is a vast oeuvre of mathematically refined scores made of complex grooves, overtones and doppler effects. In Utrecht he will present for the first time a completely improvised ‘klick’ performance using eight turntables, a series of vinyl records and a knife.
22:15 Arnold Dreyblatt Ensemble
The musical quest of Dreyblatt (USA), a student of the first generation of New York minimalist composers, is driven by an inclination for rhythmic complexity built on resonance and vibration. During the past decades he has developed a number of new instruments, tuning systems and performance techniques, with which he digs even deeper under the rhythmic surfaces in order to find a rich dynamics of textures and timbres. His work remained obscure for years, until it was brought to attention by musicians such as Jim O’Rourke who described one of his albums as “the first genuinely new sound in maybe 10 years”. He has recently brought together an ensemble with Jörg Hiller, Joachim Schutz and Robin Hayward, who will offer a rare and must-see concert during IMPAKT.
Arnold Dreyblatt: Composer, Excited Bass, Laptop
Robin Hayward: Amplified Tuba
Jörg Hiller: Drums, Automated Electric Guitar Joachim Schutz: Electric Guitar
23:30 Oren Ambarchi
+ Robbie Avenaim
Oren Ambarchi (Australia) uses the electro-acoustic transformation of his guitar as a laboratory for tonal research. The result is an abstract and fragile world of sound that continuously searches the borders of time and space. He regularly collaborates with different musicians such as Fennesz, Keith Rowe en sunn0))). This time he will be reunited with his longtime friend and percussionist Robbie Avenaim (Australia), who explores the limits of the sound spectrum using modified and motorised drums. Together they create a visceral and kinetic audiovisual experience.