In addition to having recently won the Musicworks Electronic Music Contest with his first ever acousmatic piece, Buried Gesture, Bennett Jenisch also writes and performs with his live electronic band Moth Vegas. “I would say that probably about half of what I produce is stuff like the Moth Vegas project [an audiovisual project with collaboratorContinue reading “Bennett Jenisch”
Author Archives: Musicworks
Rachael Wadham: Installing A Quiet Sound-World
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY The work of Vancouver-based sound artist, improviser, and composer Rachael Wadham often hinges upon a certain pack-rat sensibility, with sounds scavenged from mundane, remote, or even derelict sources, squirrelled away with humble meticulousness. Even her improvisational playing on a falling-apart zither evinces this sense of coarse rigour, as sheContinue reading “Rachael Wadham: Installing A Quiet Sound-World”
Christopher Mayo
In 2005, Christopher Mayo had a summer that unexpectedly changed his approach to composing. The Toronto-born composer spent three weeks at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute in North Adams, Massachusetts, where he came into contact with composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich. Mayo, who had recently gained aContinue reading “Christopher Mayo”
STEIM
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Maybe someone would have been able to guess what I was getting myself into when I left for STEIM in The Netherlands. After all, there was a pretty clear sign. All passengers had boarded the plane, and we all were eager to get to our destinations or makeContinue reading “STEIM”
Camino De Santiago De Compostela
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY In the spring of 2010 we undertook a walk to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, a pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages. It’s the traditional burial site of Santiago, or St. James, one of Christ’s apostles who somehow made it from Jerusalem to northern Spain around ad 40Continue reading “Camino De Santiago De Compostela”
Émilie Payeur
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Émilie Payeur is young and inspired. “Electroacoustic music is a different kind of music,” she says. “To me, it is even more than music. It’s literally sound painting, and that is why it should be seen from the pictorial composition side.” The influence of painting on her electroacoustic compositionContinue reading “Émilie Payeur”
Dániel Péter Biró
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Composer Dániel Péter Biró talks about his work in long, lucid sentences. He takes his time, he doesn’t double back or digress, and he rarely needs to correct himself. But just when you think his explanation is complete, he adds another layer. His music, too, is multi-layered, butContinue reading “Dániel Péter Biró”
Hyposurface
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY On a 2004 visit to the MIT Media Lab, I encountered a small, flat wall with a skin of silver luminescent triangles covering a background of cables and metal frame. My host, the creator of Hyposurface, Mark Goulthorpe (dECOi Architects, and Professor at MIT) turned on the compressor, causingContinue reading “Hyposurface”
Graham Flett
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Trying to get to the heart of Graham Flett’s musical style is a slippery task. “I have a variable aesthetic,” muses the tall, lean, shaggy-haired composer sitting across from me in a modern Amsterdam café. “I have leanings towards certain things I like to do.” The remark is vague,Continue reading “Graham Flett”
Barry Truax
With a friendly disposition and unassuming personality, Barry Truax would hardly be thought of as a trailblazing radical. But this soft-spoken composer and teacher is a groundbreaking Canadian icon. Not only did Truax pioneer granular synthesis with the PODX computer music system, he is viewed the world over as an electroacoustic compositional guru. At sixty-threeContinue reading “Barry Truax”