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”
Author Archives: Musicworks
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”
Analia Llugdar
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY In her music, Montreal composer Analia Llugdar delves deeply into the primal interior of sound, as evidenced by a sampling of her work from 2003 to 2009. There are compositions for solo cello, small (trio) and large ensembles, often incorporating singing and speaking voices, as well as a music theatreContinue reading “Analia Llugdar”
Charles Stankievech
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY Some time ago, a friend and I were talking outside a gallery, when suddenly we saw a bright green object sear through the night sky. Assuming it to be a stray firework, we waited for the expected explosion and crackles. We waited and waited, then waited some more.Continue reading “Charles Stankievech”
Thierry Gauthier
FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY “My artistic evolution,” Thierry Gauthier writes, “has been characterized by the intensity of impulse, immediacy, and the urgency to create; the quest for a paroxysm and the absolute; the same sense of urgency as found in the punk movement.” This is still true, he maintains, after two decades ofContinue reading “Thierry Gauthier”