Allotropes & Via di San Teodoro 8
Saturday 13 August 2016, 7.30–8.45pm V22 Louise House
Allotropes:
A performance exploring the sonic potential of a single sound source using a combination of live improvisation and electronic manipulation. The focus will be on the subtle interplay of textures and timbres, quiet sounds and the silence in between to evoke crepuscular atmospheres that slowly unfold, shift and develop over time, finally reducing to pure timbre. The performance will involve a fully interactive approach to sound making whereby live sound and software processing will be intricately linked in a relational series of responses. All sounds heard will be generated from the objects themselves within the acoustics of the space.
Allotropes are a newly formed duo who explore different structural forms of the same sound element to exhibit quite different timbral properties and behaviours.
Jim Hoult is a London based producer who favours self-made generative, real time systems. Current projects include machine listening interactions with improvising musicians and algorithmic performance as in the Obstructions duo.
Stephan Barrett is a musician who currently performs as part of Georges Kaplan Presents and Postcards from the Volcano. The sonority of objects and sound-based wandering combined with the sonic possibilities of the piano and other instruments form the starting point for his projects.
Via di San Teodoro 8:
Giacinto Scelsi (1905 - 1988) was an Italian modernist composer of aristocratic descent who lived and worked in Rome, taking up residence with his sister Isabella at 8 Via di San Teodoro opposite The Forum. Scelsi, eventually settled into a unique approach to sound using microtonal material deeply indebted to his interest in non-western philosophical traditions. Improvisation was central to this latter phase and he composed his work on an early electronic instrument called the ondiola. The taped improvisations performed on this instrument were given to others in order for them to be translated into traditional notation in order to take their shape as pieces. Research is still ongoing as to how this actually worked - but essentially Scelsi's processes asked questions about the relationship of sound to structure, and of composition to improvisation.
Via di San Teodoro 8, investigates different aspects of the house in Rome: its spaces, sounds and vistas, and its unique ambience opposite the ancient Roman Forum. It lies somewhere between experimental documentary and the filmic poetic essay, also portraying the early electronic instruments (Ondiolas) on which Scelsi composed and improvised in a rare performance by pianist Oscar Pizzo.
David Ryan is a visual artist, writer and contemporary musician living between London and Cambridge.
Venue info
V22 Louise House
Dartmouth Road
Forest Hill
London
SE23 3HZ
(Between Forest Hill Pools and Forest Hill Library)
Overground: Forest Hill
Bus: 122, 176, 197
