Review and Preview with Trailer

The curatorial sextet responsible for programming the internationally renowned Amsterdam Sonic Acts Festival  (www.sonicacts.com) presented the first edition of KONTRASTE under the motto IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES with cutting-edge sonic experiments, contemporary music and related art forms in thematic, historical and interdisciplinary contexts.

The comprehensive festival programme explored a wide variety of fields and practices and offered unique encounters with extraordinary and unconventional concerts, performances, installations, lectures screenings, exhibitions, a symposium, a soundwalk and a soundtour that invited to a journey through imaginary landscapes.

Several projects in public space supported by Wachau Weltkulturerbe attracted many visitors from abroad as well as people from the region.

Kontraste 2012 will take place from October 12 – 14. You can watch the new Trailer here: Kontraste 2012

Blog

You can watch great pics of Kontraste in our BLOG.

The first Kontraste Cahier

We are proud to present the first Kontraste Cahier (a series of publications of the festival) “The Aelectrosonic” by Douglas Kahn.

You can download the Cahier HERE. You can order a printed version HERE.

Program brochure

We have added the program brochure with detailed information about the projects of Kontraste 2011 in german and english to our Festival section. The first revamped edition will take place from 14-16 October in Krems in Austria, an hour’s drive from Vienna. This edition of the festival explores a wide range of imaginary landscapes created by composers, filmmakers, musicians and artists.
 
Click here to see a interactive version of the program brochure
 
 

Wednesday 5 October

Abstract Landscapes

Celluloid Ecologies
18:30 – 20:00

The refraction of light, dark skies during the night, large open flower fields and small differentiations of movement in a seemingly static landscape, natural forces, bio-chemical processes, time phenomena and personal inner worlds: the visually overwhelming films in Celluloid Ecologies explore the impact of the landscape on our minds.

With an introduction by Martijn van Boven.

Thierry Vincens
Giraglia
music: Pierre Henry
(1968, 5’30’’, 35mm, mono, color)
A visual illustration of an inner world whose music conveys a lyrical echo. Made for a ballet by Maurice Béjart.

Thomas Köner
Nuuk
(2004, 6’30’’, DV, stereo, color)
3000 photographs taken from a webcam in Nuuk, Greenland. A seemingly motionless picture with sounds of howling icy winds reveals the changes of the atmosphere.

Makino Takashi
Inter View
(2010, 25’, digital betacam, stereo,
color)
Takashi’s films work like dreams or escapist drugs. “When the viewers look at total chaos through newborn eyes, they give birth to a new cosmos.”

Elke Groen
Night Still
(2008, 9’, 35mm, dolby surround,
color)
A confrontation between the landscape and an alienating film technique.

Rose Lowder
Bouquet 11-20
(2005–2009, 14’, 16mm, silent,
color)
One-minute films composed in the camera. Each bouquet of flowers is a unique bouquet of film frames.

Emmanuel Lefrant
Overall
(2006, 6’, 16mm, sound, color)
Overall was painted on a transparent film strip. The soundtrack is made by calculating
in real time the color density of the image.

Ryohei Shimada
Garden
(2010, 9’, stereo, color)
Patterns of grasses, trees and flowers, created using 8, 16 and 35mm film, accompanied by
rousing music of the Samurai Jazz Quintet.

Tomonari Nishikawa
Lumphini 2552
(2009, 3’, 35mm, sound, B&W)
Hand-processed film stills showing the organic patterns found in the monumental Lumphini Park in Bangkok.

* Please note that this program takes place a week before the festival.

Sunday 16 October

Line Describing a Cone (1973)

Anthony McCall

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
19:00 – 19:30

Line Describing a Cone (16mm, 30’00’’, B&W, silent) is McCall’s most famous solid light film. The viewer watches the film by looking along a beam of light towards the film-projector. The film begins as a coherent line of light and throughout its 30-minute duration develops into a hollow cone of light. The film is not a projected image anymore, the light-beam outlined against mist turns the projective space into a sculpture.

Anthony McCall (UK, 1946) is one of the seminal artists of avant-garde cinema. His works from the 1970s are a corporeal and sensuous meditation on the medium of film and the politics of the audience’s physical and conceptual relationship to it.

Sunday 16 October
Light Trap (2008)

Greg Pope & Gert-Jan Prins

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
21:00 – 22:00

Light Trap is a performance with four prepared 16mm-projectors and a sound artist. The work is a voluminous and spatial sound/light sculpture, performed live and in constant flux by factors both random and controlled. Light Trap explores the raw elements of cinema: the projector, the film material, the darkened room, and synchronized sound.

Working both collaboratively and individually, Greg Pope (UK) creates video installations, live art pieces and single screen film works, often using 16mm multinotprojection. Gert-Jan Prins (1961, NL) has been performing with self-built electronic systems based on transmission and reception techniques for the past 20 years. He is mainly interested in the musical and visual qualities of interference, so-called noise.

Sunday 16 October
Conflux (2010, extended version)

Yutaka Makino

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
19:30 – 20:30

Conflux tackles the phenomenon of perception and is based on concepts that Makino developed from his research on dynamic systems, phenomenology and experimental psychology. Conflux was inspired by James J. Gibson’s theory of ecological perception, which focuses on the perceiver’s interaction with particular properties of their environment. Makino creates a visually and acoustically artificial environment, which makes for a unique experience in which shifting modes of perception are made tangible – from the perception of the surroundings to the proprioception of the perceivers themselves. The perceivers are active parts of the performative installation.

Yutaka Makino’s (JP, 1976) works deal with multimodalities of human perception through the construction of dynamic systems as empirical environments. With a background in art and science, his research involves sound/ form synthesis, spatial perception, complex dynamical systems, and new materialities.

THE AUSTRIAN BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION WAS 1 WEEK BEFORE THE PERFROMANCE IN KREMS TO TALK TO YUTAKA MAKINO: WATCH TRAILER HERE.

Sunday 16 October
Landscapes of Light and Fog

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
19:00 – 22:00

Changing landscapes of light and fog transform the church space, immersive sounds capture your attention and create an otherworldly experience.

Sunday 16 October
Abstract Landscapes with Musique Concrete

Kino im Kesselhaus
16:00 – 17:30

During a period of two decades at INA (Institut National del’Audiovisuel) in Paris, a small group of filmmakers and composers worked in close collaboration to create a unique body of animation films. Thoroughly experimental, and often abstract, these films are truly visual music, and feature electronic soundtracks by the leading composers of musique
concrète like François Bayle and Bernard Parmegiani. Many of these animations were made by Piotr Kamler (PL, 1936), one of the unsung masters of animation film.

Piotr Kamler
Structures
Music: Ivo Malec
(1961, 2’14’’, 16mm, color)
Red squares originate from the dark and with different paces descend back into the void, all in harmony to the music.

Piotr Kamler
Continu discontinu
Music: Luc Ferrari, Iannis Xenakis
(1959/1975, 9’03’’)
Kamler submerges the viewer in an abstract, colored world; the strangeness is emphasized by the music of Ferrari and Xenakis.

Piotr Kamler
Galaxie
Music: François Bayle
(1964, 8’)
Deep red cloud-like shapes are interspersed with line drawings against electronic distorted organ sounds.

Piotr Kamler
Meutre
Music: François Bayle
(1964, 3’)
Natural and graphical shapes become a play in form and movement, resulting in bouncing and glowing dots, rotating circles and red clouds.

Piotr Kamler
Coeur de secours
Music: François Bayle
(1973, 9’)
A stop-motion animation, a subdued and highly poetic short and narrative film.

Peter Kassovitz
Steinberg
Music: Bernard Parmegiani
(1960/65, 12’38’’, 35mm, B&W)
Steinberg shows a variety of urban scenes created by hand-drawn animations.

Piotr Kamler
Danse abstracte
Music: Bernard Parmegiani
(1960, 4’31’’, 16mm, color)
A formal, abstract film made of red rectangles spinning in and out of the frame.

René Blanchard
Chimigrammes
Music: Bernard Parmegiani
(1962, 5’47’’, 16mm, color)
A short film about relationships between image structure, editing and accents in music.

Valerian Borowczyck
Jeux des anges
Music: Bernard Parmegiani
(1964, 9’12’’, 35mm, color)
A figurative conceptual film built out of objects, empty spaces and semi-abstract forms which are all illuminated from a red color field.

Peter Foldès
Plus de vite
Music: Bernard Parmegiani
(1965, 7’59’’, 35mm, color)
Sample madness from 1965. A highly paced montage of traffic alternating with audio samples.

Saturday 15 October
Acousmonium Session VI
Commissioned Works & Live Performances

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
22:15 – 23:30

Thomas Lehn & Marcus Schmickler
Live performance
A clash of analogue and digital sound synthesis.
Thomas Lehn (GE, 1958) creates analogue live electronic music using an EMS Synthi A modular analogue synthesizer.

Marcus Schmickler (DE, 1968) plays the digital synthesizer and the computer. They are considered to be the best synth duo ever, combining the feel of classic, composed electronic music with the raw, crackling energy of a free improv-session.

Hilary Jeffery
Forrest
(2011, premiere)
Forest is a synthetic sound world, suggesting a forest environment and designed to trigger a form of “peripheral hearing”. The music is made using a variety of digital and analogue electronic techniques, designed to evoke the sounds of an imaginary forest with material which is reminiscent of insects, birds, crickets, frogs, air… Almost all the sounds will be high frequency. The music will be played back (diffused) spatially at a very low volume, sometimes quite imperceptibly. The sound is conceived as a representation of an actually existing place – projected from inner-imagination into the performance space in a way which will induce a particularly concentrated state of mind, but one which is not focused on an exact image. The idea is that the sounds will invite listeners to form their own associations, there will be space left for their imagination and for them to connect the externally projected sounds with their own “inner sounds”. The peripheral / low volume nature of the music will cause a form of searching in the minds of listeners. The sounds will be mostly high frequency electronic loops, with rhythmic patterns which could induce a slightly hypnotic state – so that the landscape connects with a subconscious part of the listeners, bringing the landscape alive in their inner-imagination. The diffusion of this music via the Acousmonium will be considered to be a visit to this imaginary landscape, or as a door opening into it. A recording of this live-diffusion will be considered to be a “field recording” of this landscape. Hilary Jeffery has been creating and collecting raw materials for this environment during summer 2011. These materials will be constructed and tried out in September at GRM Studios in Paris. The main idea is not to make a classical composition, but to create a complete multi-channel forest landscape designed for the Acousmonium which will be “visited” during the performance.

Hilary Jeffery (UK) is a trombonist and composer. He performs with many groups and musicians, including Zeitkratzer, Catherine Christer Hennix, Lysn and The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation. His current research is into new compositional forms conceived as maps to explore spatial dimensions of sound.

KTL
New commissioned work
(2011, premiere)
KTL is the collaboration between computer music innovator Peter Rehberg (AT, 1968) and composer/guitarist Stephen O’Malley (US) of the drone metal band SUNN O))). KTL has created soundtracks for silent films, performed live at venues all over the world, and has worked on several scores for the French theatre group D.A.C.M., directed by Gisèle Vienne.

Saturday 15 October

Acousmonium Session V
Contemporary GRM

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
21:00 – 22:00

Daniel Teruggi
Transmutations
(2009, 20’)
The challenge in Transmutation as to use whatever sound to produce good music. The sounds are almost chosen at random and transmuted into music. Yet another transmutation becomes obvious: that of the sounds in the space, where the movement of sounds changes the perception and transforms the listening.

Daniel Teruggi (AR/FR, 1952), director of Ina/GRM, composes music for fixed media, small instrumental groups and tape, and real-time processing of instruments.

Christian Zanési
Constructions Metalliques
(2001, 15’30’’)
The sounds for Constructions Metalliques come from an ancient iron workshop. Bell chimes, welding, sawing. Sparkles, crackles, quietness. Hammer banging to bend the iron. Noises of machines cutting iron. And there are voices, the iron craftsmen’s voices…

Christian Zanési (FR, 1952) joined GRM in 1977 and is currently the group’s artistic director. For his compositions he draws his inspiration from the poetic encounter with remarkable sounds.

Benjamin Thigpen
Still (excerpts)
(2009)
Calm like the sea; Like a high wind that never ceases. – Lao Tzu
Benjamin Thigpen (US) is a composer whose music is concerned with issues of energy, density, complexity, movement, simultaneity, and violence. He often works with space as a primary compositional parameter. Music does not exist in time but rather creates it; music is not the art of sound but the art of the transcendence of sound.

Saturday 15 October
Acousmonium Session IV

Dutch Electronic Compositions

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
20:00 – 21:00

Jan Boerman
De Zee
(1964/65, 25’45’’)
De Zee (The Sea) is one of Boerman’s purest works. Noise sounds, distributed according to the Golden Section, create a tidal flow. The abstract sounds have a visionary power and physical impact that invites comparisons to natural phenomena.

Jan Boerman (NL, 1923) has composed electronic music since 1959. He integrates concrete acoustic sounds with synthesized sounds to create ‘music spaces’ that take the listener into the unexplored areas between tone and noise. During endless experimentation in the studio, Boerman, like a true alchemist, transformed ‘dead’ tones into ‘live’ sounds and created works of great dramatic power.

Dick Raaymakers
Canon I super augere
(1964, 5’15’’, reconstruction by Kees Tazelaar)
Canon I: super augere (about extension) consists of a gradual multiplication of eight micro-tones. A minimal landscape made of pure electricity.

Dick Raaymakers (NL, 1930) pioneered Dutch electronic music in the 1950s. As a groundbreaking multimedia artist, he was ahead of his time. His compositions,
installations, music and theatre performances resonate with originality. Throughout his career he has focused on the relationship between image and sound, in particular concept and sound.

Kees Tazelaar
Rayons de son
(2010, 17’15’’, 8 channels)
Electronic work based on a text about the projection of sound in space, spoken by Edgard Varèse. The work is dedicated to Dick Raaymakers.

Kees Tazelaar (NL, 1962) is a composer and the head of the Institute of Sonology in The Hague. He is occupied intensively with the restoration and reconstruction of major electronic works from the past (Koenig, Boerman, Varèse, Xenakis, Ponse).

Vicinity Songs
Circumstance

(2011, commissioned work)
Departure from Krems train station,
the piece will start at station Campus Krems
Duration of the piece 1 h, duration of journey in total about 2 h
Saturday 15 October at 16:00
Sunday 16 October at 13:00

Step on to a train from Krems to Dürnstein and let the windows become a cinema screen. As the carriage fills with soundtracks and stories that reflect the passing world, find yourself in the middle of this traveling film. Arriving in Dürnstein you are handed a small speaker that lets you carry this movie out into the village streets. As you walk, the sounds you hold harmonize with those being carried by your fellow audience members, performing an ephemeral symphony in the streets. Circumstance makes films without cameras, creating alternate worlds and poetic layers in the everyday. Circumstance is led by Duncan Speakman, Sarah Anderson and Emilie Grenier. They are known internationally for their applications of mobile technology in live performance.

Saturday 15 October

Symposium – Session IV
Jan Peter E.R. Sonntag & Edwin van der Heide / Eliane Radigue & Keith Fullerton Whitman

Kino im Kesselhaus
16:00 – 17:30
The last session mixes presentations with interviews. The topics are composition techniques, the love for analogue technology, the aura of early electronic music, drones, modalities of experience, meditative listening, and immersion. With a double presentation by Jan-Peter Sonntag & Edwin van der Heide focused on Extended Atmospheres and interviews with Eliane Radigue and Keith Fullerton Whitman about their ways of working with sound. Jan Peter E.R. Sonntag’s and Edwin van der Heide’s Extended Atmospheres is exhibited at Kontraste; Van der Heide’s LSP is the opening event. Eliane Radigue’s L’île re-sonante is performed on Friday 14 October. Keith Fullerton Whitman performs his commissioned work for the Acousmonium on Saturday 15 October.

There will be time from 17:30 – 18:00 for Questions & Answers.

Saturday 15 October
Symposium – Session III – HC Gilje & Joost Rekveld

Kino im Kesselhaus
14:30 – 15:30
Two work presentations by contemporary artists who work with light, film and generative computer images, followed by a short discussion. HC Gilje created the light design in the Minoritenkirche for Kontraste 2011. Joost Rekveld (NL, 1970) makes experimental films and light installations—originally starting out from the idea of a visual music for the eye. He also creates projections and light for dance, theatre and music productions and is expanding his activities from filmmaking and light to robotics and algorithmic art. He is often inspired by the lesser frequented by-ways in the history of science and technology.

Saturday 15 October

Session II

Kees Tazelaar & Daniel Teruggi

13:30 – 14:30
A lecture by Kees Tazelaar about the reconstruction of early electronic works and a presentation and talk with Daniel Teruggi and Kees Tazelaar about acousmatics, electronic composition, spatiality, and ways of listening. Kees Tazelaars’s Rayons desson is performed on Saturday 15 October. He restored the works of Koenig, Raaymakers and Boerman.
Daniel Teruggi is director of Ina/GRM. His piece Transmutations is performed on Saturday 15 October.

Saturday 15 October

Symposium – Session I – Duncan Speakman & Gilles Aubry

Kino im Kesselhaus
11:30 – 12:15

About creating alternate worlds and poetic layers in the everyday, using emergent and commonplace technology, including a presentation of the work of Circumstance. Duncan Speakman is a member of Circumstance, whose work Vicinity Songs can be experienced at Kontraste on Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 October. Gilles Aubry will make a presentation of his work that he will show on Friday 14 October.

Saturday 15 October
Keynote Lecture
Douglas Kahn

On the Aelectrosonic

Kino im Kesselhaus
10:30 – 11:30
Douglas Kahn’s keynote lecture will explain the ‘Aelectrosonic’, a new term which is the electrical equivalent of the Aeolian. This concept redefines the notion of nature in electronic music and media arts.
Douglas Kahn is Research Professor at the National Institute of Experimental Arts (NIEA), College of Fine Arts, at University of New South Wales, in Sydney. He is a historian and theoretician of the media arts and music, with a focus on sound, electromagnetism, and natural media. His books include Noise Water Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts (MIT Press, 1999), the newly published Source: Music of the Avant-garde, 1966-1973, a rich documentary source of experimental music, edited with Larry Austin, and the forthcoming Mainframe Experimentalism: Early Computing and the Foundations of the Digital Arts, edited with Hannah Higgins. His major project, Earth Sound Earth Signal, is the product of a decade of research into natural electromagnetic and acoustical phenomena occurring at a geophysical scale in the arts, media, science and military from the late 19th century to the present, and includes an attempt to theorize media in terms of nature.

Saturday 15 October

Symposium – Imaginary Landscapes and the Aelectrosonic

Kino im Kesselhaus

10:30 – 18:00

The symposium brings together theoreticians, artists, musicians, and composers to discuss different aspects of ‘imaginary landscapes’. Ephemeral and physical landscapes made of electronic sound, electromagnetic waves, pure light or dreams—how are these explored and made manifest for an audience? What kind of experience is sought after by art and music that creates an environment or a landscape to discover? What are the modalities of experience researched in such works? What previous invisible and inaudible landscapes are made perceptible by modern science and how does this change our living environment? What is the role of spatiality in contemporary electronic music? What landscapes open up when you closely listen to a sound? What is the force of the metaphor of a landscape? Conceived as a trip for the intellect, the symposium mixes lectures with artist presentations and interviews.

Moderation & presentation: Arie Altena
The symposium will be held in English.

Friday 14 October

A Grammar for Listening

Luke Fowler

Kino im Kesselhaus

16:00 – 17:00

Sound: Lee Patterson, Eric La Casa, Toshiya Tsunoda (2009, 58’, 16mm, sound, color)

The three parts of Luke Fowler’s film A Grammar for Listening explore the soundscape of our environment and how we listen to it. A Grammar for Listening is a response the relentless attempt of Western culture to distinguish music from noise and everyday sounds. Ordinary noises are perceived as annoying and not musically interesting. John Cage’s 4’33’’, Pierre Schaeffer’s concept of ‘acousmatic’ listening, and the burgeoning scene of composers using field recording have changed this. Created in close collaboration with the sound artists Lee Patterson, Toshiya Tsunoda and Eric La Casa—who all work intensively with field recording—the film poses questions about how to develop new dialogues between looking and listening through the possibilities provided by 16mm film and digital sound recording devices. Ever noticed the aftereffect of sound rustling through a cityscape? What happens when images recede to the backdrop and sound takes on the leading role?

Luke Fowler (UK, 1978) is an artist, musician and filmmaker based in Glasgow. His unorthodox documentary films explore counter cultural figures like the Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing and the English composer Cornelius Cardew, and investigate the material properties of film. Two key themes underpin his practice: the forging of collaborative relationships and the interest in ‘small phenomenal things’.

Extended Atmospheres (2011)

Jan-Peter Sonntag & Edwin van der Heide

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche – Kapitelsaal

Friday 14 October, 11:00 – 20:30

Saturday 15 October, 11:00 – 20:30

Sunday 16 October, 11:00 – 20:30

As a deep listening space the ‘re-staging’ of György Ligeti’s Atmosphères (1961) spatially and compositionally opens up this radical response to serialism. Atmosphères became famous overnight as film music in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Fifty years later, Van der Heide and Sonntag enter into a sonic discourse with Ligeti’s futuristic audio icon.

Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (DE, 1965) is an artist, researcher and composer, focusing mainly on spatial works with sound and electromagnetic waves. Edwin van der Heide (NL, 1970) is an artist and researcher in the field of sound, space and interaction. He extends the terms composition and musical language into spatial, interactive and interdisciplinary directions. His work comprises installations, performances and environments.

www.evdh.net

Electrical Walk

Christina Kubisch

Friday 14 October,  10:00 – 18:00
Saturday 15 October,  10:00 – 18:00
Sunday 16 October,  10:00 – 18:00

Stadtcafe Ulrich

Pick up the special headphones and a map at Stadtcafe Ulrich, Südtirolerplatz 7, Krems.

Take an auditory tour through Krems with Christina Kubisch’s Electrical Walk. It will bring you to interesting electromagnetic hotspots. Special headphones allow you to listen to an invisible and surprising landscape of electromagnetic fields emitted by cash machines, security systems and other devices.

Christina Kubisch (GE, 1948) is a pioneer of sound art. She focuses on sound sculpture and sound installations that often involve ultraviolet light, solar energy, and electromagnetic induction. In 2003, she began the ongoing project Electrical Walks employing purpose-built headphones that receive electromagnetic signals from the environment and convert them into sound.

www.christinakubisch.de

Video: Electrical walk in Denmark

Friday 14 October

Opening performance – LSP

Minoritenplatz

19:30 – 20:00

Kontraste will begin under an open sky with an imaginative landscape of light and sound: LSP – a spectacular laser and sound performance from Edwin van der Heide.

www.evdh.net

Video: LSP – alveole 14 (Laser / Sound Performance)

Landscapes of Sound

Friday, 14 October, 20:30 – 24:00

Saturday, 15 October, 20:00 – 23:30

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche

Listen to imaginary sound landscapes, spatialized and performed on the Acousmonium. Submerge yourself in theww sounds of pioneers of electronic music. Experience different modulations and dimensions of spatial sound in new commissioned works which take you on a trip to actual places and through purely electronic soundscapes. And prepare for intense and meditative listening experiences.

The Acousmonium is the sound diffusion system designed in 1974 by François Bayle and used originally by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), the French organization for research into sonology and electroacoustic music, founded in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer. The Acousmonium is an orchestra of eighty speakers of different sizes placed across a stage at varying heights and distances. Their placement is based on their range, their power, their quality, and their directional characteristics. When built, Bayle stated: “It puts you inside the sound. It’s like the interior of a sound universe.” It was conceived as “another utopia, devoted to pure listening, (…) as a projection area, arranged for the immersion in sound, and a spatialized polyphony”.

Friday 14 October

Acousmonium Session I

Pioneers

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
20:30 – 21:30

Iannis Xenakis
Orient-Occident
(1960, 11’09’’)
A classic piece of electronic music which exploits the dramatic richness and coloration of concrete sounds.

Avant-garde composer and architect Iannis Xenakis (GR, 1922–2001) pioneered the use of mathematical models and had an important impact on the development of electronic music.

VIDEO: Orient Occident

Luc Ferrari
Presque Rien avec Filles
(1989, 14’)
A sound photograph of a landscape. Presque Rien avec Filles is a vast area filled with simple drum thuds, shuddering electronic curtains, birds, random pops, electronically-transformed drum bursts, crickets, and female voices whispering.

Luc Ferrari (FR, 1929–2005) was a French composer of electronic music, soundscapes and radiophonic works. He often used environmental sounds to suggest a dramatic narrative.

VIDEO: Presque Rien avec Filles

Gottfried Michael Koenig
Klangfiguren II
(1955/56, 10’24’’, reconstruction by Kees Tazelaar)
Klangfiguren II is clean, hard, unspectacular, and wonderful.

Gottfried Michael Koenig (GE, 1926) was one of the first composers to create purely electronic music, and is also a pioneer of computer music and sound synthesis.

Soundscapes I
October 14, 2011

The soundscapes are an extraordinary sound experience, created and spatialised through the Acousmonium, an orchestra of 80 loudspeakers invented in Paris in the late 1970’s, in collaboration with the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales). Simultaneously, HC Gilje’s light pieces will permeate the church. Immerse yourself in the sounds of the pioneers of electronic music: Iannis Xenakis, Ivo Malec, Luc Ferrari, Gottfried Michael Koenig and Jim O’Rourke’s piece “What is cold is new again.” Eliane Radigue’s composition promises to be a particularly intense and meditative sound experience. Finally, commissional works by Gilles Aubry and Keith Fullerton Whitman will carry you off to purely electronic worlds of sound as well as very real places.

Soundscapes I
October 15, 2011

Hilary Jefferey and Peter Rehberg / Stephen O’Malley have created commissioned works for Kontraste that make the various modulations and dimensions of spatial sound come alive. Thomas Lehn and Markus Schmickler explore the Acousmonium in a new configuration. Additionally, works from Dutch composer and contemporary composers from the GRM enrich the program. Listen to the sea, as it sounds in Jan Boehrman’s recently restored classical electronic composition “De Zee,” accompanied by a performance of Canon I of the eclectic Dick Raaijmaker, as well as multichannel-compositions of Kees Tazelaar, Daniel Terugi, Christian Zanési and Benjamin Thigpen.

Landscapes of light and fog
October 16, 2011

Immerse yourself in worlds of light, fog and sound, which can lead to almost transcendental experiences at total concentration. In Yutaka Makino’s “Conflux,” large and fluid landscapes of smoke and light transform the nave. “Light Trap” by Greg Pope is live cinema of pure light with a soundtrack by Gert-Jan Prins. The light installation “Line Describing a Cone,” a classic of Anthony McCall is both minimalist and magical.

Edwin van der Heide and Jan-Peter Sonntag’s immersive installation “Extended Atmospheres” – a reinterpretation of György Ligeti’s composition “Atmosphères” – can be experienced every day during the festival.

Film – abstract landscapes
October 5 and 16, 2011

Contemporary experimental film of the Celluloid Ecologies Programme with works by Rose Lowder, Makino Takashi, Emmanuel Lefrant, amongst others, are a perfect first taste of the festival. The experimental short films by the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) from the 1960’s present abstract visual landscapes with electronic soundtracks of François Bayle, Bernard Parmegiani and other leading composers of the musique concrète. Some of these films are being shown for the first time outside of France. This will be a rare opportunity to see them in Austria!

Symposium – Fictitious landscapes and the Aelectrosonic
October 15, 2011

This symposium is an intellectual journey with a keynote by Douglas Kahn on the “aelectrosonic” and presentations of and interviews with artists of the festival.

ONLINE-TICKETS (book your tickets online and receive a discount):

If you choose to book online, you will be directed to the homepage of Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche.

10/14 | Day ticket | EUR 22,- / 20,- (reduced) | ONLINETICKET

10/15 | Day ticket (incl. Vicinity Songs) | EUR 22,- / 20,- (red.) | ONLINETICKET

10/15 | Single ticket Vicinity Songs | EUR 11,- / 9,- | ONLINETICKET
Duration approximately 2 hours.

10/16 | Day ticket (incl. Vicinity Songs)| EUR 22,- / 20,- (erm.) | ONLINETICKET

10/16 | Single ticket Vicinity Songs | EUR 11,- / 9,- | ONLINETICKET
Duration approximately 2 hours.

10/14-16 | Pass-partout (Weekendpass) | EUR 45,- / 41,- (reduced) | ONLINETICKET
Admission to all events; holders of a pass-partout receive the publication free of charge.
Please let us know which day you prefer to attend Vicinity Songs (Soundtrains on Sat or Sun). Tickets must be reserved at tickets@kontraste.at at least 3 days before the event.

SHUTTLEBUS  KREMS – VIENNA:

SHUTTLEBUSTICKET | 10/14 | € 9,- | ONLINETICKET

SHUTTLEBUSTICKET | 10/15 | € 9,- | ONLINETICKET

SHUTTLEBUSTICKET | 10/16 | € 9,- | ONLINETICKET

Single ticket film program
EUR 5,50
Only available at Kino im Kesselhaus.

Publication
EUR 7,-

TICKET- AND INFOLINE
02732 / 90 80 33
(Mon-Thu 9 am – 4 pm and Fri 9 am-1 pm)
Per E-Mail: tickets@klangraum.at

Booking/sales via eps online-bank transfer, credit card free of charge, pick up at box office. Tickets by c.o.d. for a fee of €7 up until 8 days before the event.

BOX OFFICE

1 hour before the show.

PRE-SALE

NÖ Festival-Ges.m.b.H., Minoritenplatz 4, A-3500 Krems
(Mon-Thu 9 am-4 pm, Fri 9 am-1 pm)

Presale at Raiffeisen in Vienna and Loweraustria.

People in financial straits shall not be excluded from enjoying the arts and culture. A special culture pass grants the socially deprived free admission to numerous cultural institutions.

The campaign “Hunger auf Kunst & Kultur”, initiated by Schauspielhaus Wien in co-operation with the Armutskonferenz, thus highlights the significance of and the accessibility to the arts and culture for all members of society.

All prices include 10% VAT. The general business terms of the NÖ Festival-GmbH apply.

Ticket exchanges are not possible due to changes in the programme or schedule. Please understand that last-minute changes to the line-up schedule might occur.

Film bar at Kino im Kesselhaus / Campus Krems
Regional, freshly prepared organic food (all day until 9pm), great breakfast menu (every day from 10am), gorgeous sun terrace with a view of the vineyards; bar at night
www.filmbar.at
02732 893 3599

Grasl & Salomon / Kunsthalle Krems
open from 10am – 11pm
Great local kitchen served with wine from Salomon Undhof.
www.kunsthalle.at
02732 90 8010 168

3493 Hadersdorf am Kamp
opening hours:
April: Sat 11am – 10pm, Sun 10am – 5pm
May: Thu 5 – 10pm, Fri & Sat 5-10pm, Sun 10am-5pm
Please make a reservation at Mr. Schwaighofer (0043/676 925 64 88)
www.spoerri.at

Further recommomendations:
Medium Price Class:
Pizzeria-Restaurant „Piccolini“
Pfarrplatz 8
Tel: +43 (0)2732/85 461
www.piccolini.at

Opening hours:
Mon – Sat starting from 5pm

Stadtcafe Ulrich
Südtiroler Platz 7
Tel.: +43 (0)2732/82 094

Opening hours:
Mon – Thu 7 am – 11 pm
Fri & Sat 7 am – midnight
Sun & Hol 9 am – 11 pm
Food until 11 pm (Sat/Sun until midnight)

Restaurante „Al Capone“
Untere Landstr. 30-32
Tel:+43(0)2732/82632

Opening hours
Mon – Sun 11 am – 2.30 pm & 5 pm – midnight
Food until 11 pm

Restaurant Gozzoburg
Margarethenstr. 14
Tel: +43 (0)2732/85 247
www.gozzoburg-krems.at

Opening hours:
Food until 11 pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Soho im Steinertor (Japanese)
Obere Landstraße 36
Tel: +43 (0)2732/75 722

Opening hours:
Daily. 11 am – 3 pm & 5 pm – 11 pm

Restaurant Alte Post
Obere Landstr. 32
Tel: +43 (0)2732/82276

Opening hours:
Thu – Mon 7 am – midnight
Tue until 2 pm
Food until 10 pm

Higher Price Class:
Ulli Amon-Jell
Hoher Markt 8-9
Tel: +43 (0)2732/82 345
www.amon-jell.at

Opening hours:
Tue – Fri 10 am – 2.30 pm & 6 pm – 11 pm
Food until 11 pm (Sat/Sun until 2 pm)
Closed on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 pm!

Gasthaus “Zum Elefanten”
Schürerplatz 9
Tel: +43 (0) 2732/85 016
www.zum-elefanten.at

Opening hours:
Wed – Sat 11 am – 3 pm & 5 pm – 10 pm
Sun 11am – 3pm

Restaurant Mörwald Kloster Und
Undstr. 6
Tel: +43(0)2732/70 493
www.moerwald.at

Opening hours:
Tue evening – Sun noon 12 noon until 2 pm & 6 pm – 10 pm
Food until 10 pm

Late Stein Brasserie
Steiner Donaulände 56
Tel: +43 (0) 2732/74 745
www.late.at

Opening hours:
Mon – Sat from 5 pm
Terrace with view of the Danube
Food until 11 pm

SUPPORTERS

MAIN SPONSORS

SPONSORS

PARTNERS

MEDIA PARTNERS

CO-OPERATIONAL PARTNERS

Tel: +43(0)2732/ 90 80 30
Ticket-Hotline: +43(0)2732/ 90 80 33
Fax: +43(0)2732/ 90 80 31
UID-Nr.: ATU 16043902
Firmenbuch-Nr.: FN 32393 m

Kontraste Team

Curators
Arie Altena
Nicky Assmann
Martijn van Boven
Gideon Kiers
Lucas van der Velden
Annette Wolfsberger

Management
Albrecht Grossberger / Paul Gessl

Secretary and Organization
Eva Huber

Production
Liselotte Grand / Paula Haslinger / Ernst Steindl

Marketing
Florian Schulte / Klaus Moser
marketing@kontraste.at

Press
Barbara Pluch / Klaus Moser

Ticketing
Birgit Wanker / Maria Öhlinger
tickets@kontraste.at

Design
Femke Herregraven

Website Development
Henrik van Leeuwen

Press contact

NÖ Festival-Ges.m.b.H.
Minoritenplatz 4
3500 Krems
Tel: +43(0)2732/90 80 30

Barbara Pluch, Klaus Moser

Promotional photos / press release

Promotional photos and our latest press release you can find HERE.

Downloads

Logos, mapflyer and subject you can find HERE.

Press Photos

All press photos you can find HERE.

Our Photoblog

Take a look at our photoblog HERE.

Kontraste 2011 – Imaginary Landscapes

Imaginary Landscapes is obviously a reference to the groundbreaking compositions by John Cage. His Imaginary Landscape #4 is probably the first composition to exclusively use pre-recorded and electronic sounds. In fact, Imaginary Landscapes presented itself simply as the best term to cover the different works and ideas that we hoped to bring together in this festival: The Acousmonium as an utopia of sound and a way of listening to spatial music, and the stunning compositions of the pioneers of electronic music which often are landscapes to listen to. New works by artists who explore spatial characteristics of sound and light; films which expand on the language of abstract cinema, creating landscapes in which sound and vision are one; and immersive environments from fog and sound waves. The metaphor of a landscape is alluring, and is often used in reference to such works. All such works aim at a direct effect on the senses. It is art which has to be experienced, which challenges the senses and sharpens them, often using minimal material to attain a maximum impact. We hope you enjoy the trip through these Imaginary Landscapes.

Friday 14 October

Acousmonium Session II

Eliane Radigue (L’île re-sonante)

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
21:30 – 22:30

L’île re-sonante is the final piece Radigue composed on her beloved ARP 2500 synthesizer. She took her inspiration from an image: an island in a lake, in the water of which her face is being reflected. The sounds refer to the depths—the water of the lake—and the heights—the island which rises above. It also takes its inspiration from the special moment in music when the ear ceases to hear the preceding notes but does not yet hear the notes to come. Nothing is forced upon the listener, on the contrary: everything invites one to listen to the resonance of one’s own interior.

Since the 1960s Eliane Radigue (FR, 1932) has created a singular, powerful and individual body of work that explores slowly evolving states where musical change is perceived as environmental in scale, constant in evolution and virtually imperceptible in transformation. Often monumental in duration, her music communicates a sublime spiritual power, taking the listener on a journey into the very heart of sound. From 1970 till 2000 she almost exclusively worked on an ARP 2500 synthesizer to create her electronic compositions, since 2001 she writes for acoustic instruments. A true original, Radigue has followed an artistic path unfettered through association to any schools and trends. She is now celebrated as a true innovator, pioneer and musical visionary. (Bio from Triptych: The Music of Eliane Radigue).

Friday 14 October

Acousmonium Session III

Commissioned Works & Live Performances

Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche

22:45 – 24:00

Jim O’Rourke
What is cold is new again performed by Christian Zanési
(2010, 15’50’’)
Electronic composition, commissioned by Ina/GRM for Presences Electroniques 2011, in which O’Rourke ran the sounds of piano, cello and percussion through a Serge synthesizer.

Jim O’Rourke (US) is a composer, producer and musician; he played in numerous groups including Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth.

Gilles Aubry
L’Amplification des Âmes
(2011, premiere)
L’Amplification des Âmes (The Amplification of Souls) is an audio essay on the amplified religious soundscape of Kinshasa in Congo. Aubry documented the sound of ‘charismatic’ church ceremonies in Kinshasa. The use of powerful sound amplification systems is an
essential element that contributes to the creation of new ‘modern religious identities’ and connects to traditional ritual elements. Gilles Aubry uses this material to create a new composition for the Acousmonium. As product of Western late-modern ideology, the loudspeaker orchestra will act as a material counterpoint to the tradimodern ideology echoed by the Kinshasa loudspeaker sounds.

Gilles Aubry’s (CH) artistic practice is based on a phonographical and ethnographical approach of sound environments. His compositions and sound installations are informed by researches on auditory perception, cultural acoustics, history of sound technologies, and address issues related to the politics of the audible.

Keith Fullerton Whitman
New commissioned work
(2011, premiere)
Keith Fullerton Whitman (US, 1973) is a composer/performer obsessed with electronic music. His work is concerned with synthesis, utilizing an array of techniques in debt to both the analogue and digital history of electronic music. He was a performer of real-time computer music (as Hrvatski), and now uses a variety of hardwarebased synthesis asynthesis and processoriented music.