Hello loyal friends!
This Sunday I leave for Japan for the first time, to complete my first tour as a solo artist. I am extremely excited to see how things go in a completely different world from the one I am in at the moment. I have eight shows all up -
KANSAI 4th – 8th
4th Hokage, Osaka
6th Socrates, Kyoto
8th Socio, Osaka
Tokyo 10th – 17th
10th Nanahari
11th (an) (s) arrangement – Otto Mainzheim Gallery
12th Qvirivsha
13th Special colors
14th Muzenji
I must thank Kouhei Harada, Go Tsushima and Harico very much for getting me all these great shows..... I am overwhelmed by their generosity.
I will have a tour EP to give out at these shows, titled Two Clouds, it features four tracks (23 minutes) of material that I have been working on over the last year and a half. It also features great artwork by Claire Krouzecky. I'll try to put this online as a free download soon, on the nearly completed kynantan.com.
See you in Japan!
Kynan
25.11.09
17.10.09
Ambassador from Everywhere, tonight at Scitech
Tonight I am performing with Lawrence English (Brisbane / Room40, Touch) and Splendid Friends at Scitech. The world of science is pretty fun and it should prove an interesting backdrop. I have seen Lawrence English play once before, providing electronic scores to a collection of Harry Smith short animated films. It was incredible, the textures and shaped morphed and twisted and it worked beautifully with the films. Lately I purchased his albums A Colour for Autumn and Kiri No Oto, both of which feature amazing washes of organic sounding ambient electronics.
The event tonight is presented by Meupe.
meupe.net
The event tonight is presented by Meupe.
meupe.net
22.9.09
Ménilmontant Review
Hello!
In addition to my musical creation endeavors I also write reviews for Australian online magazine Resonate.
The internet is a big place, and I feel it is important to have good writing about music to promote, document and analyse in an interesting, expert and critical manner. I'm trying to improve my writing, for the good of music (or something like that).
Here is my review of the Ménilmontant film score by Chris de Groot. Enjoy. The full review can be found here. Resonate has stack of great articles and journals, please view, interested parties.
_______________________________________________________________
Western Australian composer Christopher de Groot's live score for the dynamic and sensational silent film Ménilmontant (1927) by Dimitri Kirsanoff was performed recently with a screening of the film at the Astor Cinema in Mount Lawley. The composition was performed by Annexia, a 19-piece ensemble formed by de Groot for the purpose of performing his large-scale film scores. This ensemble features string and brass sections in addition to keyboards, accordion, extensive percussion and electronics. The event itself was spectacular: the black and white film was mesmerising on the big screen, the amplified ensemble with electronics created a huge sound, and the seats were filled with an appreciative audience. One of the key elements to the success of this show was the spectacle - a live film score of this magnitude is a rare event and one that deserves a lot of attention.
One of the earliest films to completely refrain from using explanatory titles, Ménilmontant is a powerful psychological deconstruction and an impressive and beautiful experimental film. The imagery in this film explores a range of textures, atmospheres and moods, defying storyline with its abstract nature. The film also serves as an impression of conflicting day and night characters of Paris - the hustle and bustle of the urban city by day, and the seedy night-time of dark cobblestone alleyways, crime and prostitution. It tells the tale of two sisters who move to the suburb of Ménilmontant in Paris after the brutal and shocking murder of their parents, and traces their involvement with the city's working class, and their encounters with poverty, loneliness and death. The contrast between contemplation and action in this beautifully tragic film provided an amazing compositional opportunity that de Groot took complete advantage of.
De Groot's composition provided some great introspective moments such as the solemn, desolate organ which chimes at the young woman's realisation of the death of her parents. The opening scream, string motif and high-pitched dissonant chords were a powerful setting for a brutal first scene. From here, de Groot evoked the rhythmic flourish and movement of young children playing and the turning of wheels on the streets of Paris. Each of these was captured with a precision that seemed to express the movement of the city with solemn undertones, rather than the joy of the characters. Found sound recordings were introduced, some which acted as sound effects or diegetic sounds, some that enhanced the ensemble parts and others used for atmospheric or emotional purposes, such as the scattered whispers that echoed the doubts in the sisters' minds.
The full ensemble was utilised to great effect throughout the entire score, producing a range of ensemble timbres and fusing electronics with instruments to create music that shifted and evolved according to the needs of the film. This gave the soundtrack an amazing sense of openness. Towards the latter half of the film the contemplative material really came into its own, with drawn-out discordant harmonies, sleazy jazz improvisation-style soloing and recorded material meshing with the live music. In particular, the use of vibraphone, music box and accordion created rich textures and demonstrated de Groot's talent for interwoven ensemble scoring.
In the context of this particular film, it is important to mention the usefulness of music and sound to help to explain and give context to parts of the story. Ménilmontant, a silent film that was designed to be abstract (no guiding titles were provided), benefited from music which at times directed the motion and feeling of a particular scene. This in turn meant that more abstract, reflective scenes were met with more reflective music, and overall the sound world evoked both the concrete realities presented in the film and the psychological narrative of the characters.
While the score didn't follow an overarching form throughout the film, it did augment each scene and imbed itself into the visual material. It both enhanced and contrasted with each moment of the film, giving in to its fast-paced changes and enveloping its listeners in a rich, immersive experience.
In addition to my musical creation endeavors I also write reviews for Australian online magazine Resonate.
The internet is a big place, and I feel it is important to have good writing about music to promote, document and analyse in an interesting, expert and critical manner. I'm trying to improve my writing, for the good of music (or something like that).
Here is my review of the Ménilmontant film score by Chris de Groot. Enjoy. The full review can be found here. Resonate has stack of great articles and journals, please view, interested parties.
_______________________________________________________________
Western Australian composer Christopher de Groot's live score for the dynamic and sensational silent film Ménilmontant (1927) by Dimitri Kirsanoff was performed recently with a screening of the film at the Astor Cinema in Mount Lawley. The composition was performed by Annexia, a 19-piece ensemble formed by de Groot for the purpose of performing his large-scale film scores. This ensemble features string and brass sections in addition to keyboards, accordion, extensive percussion and electronics. The event itself was spectacular: the black and white film was mesmerising on the big screen, the amplified ensemble with electronics created a huge sound, and the seats were filled with an appreciative audience. One of the key elements to the success of this show was the spectacle - a live film score of this magnitude is a rare event and one that deserves a lot of attention.
One of the earliest films to completely refrain from using explanatory titles, Ménilmontant is a powerful psychological deconstruction and an impressive and beautiful experimental film. The imagery in this film explores a range of textures, atmospheres and moods, defying storyline with its abstract nature. The film also serves as an impression of conflicting day and night characters of Paris - the hustle and bustle of the urban city by day, and the seedy night-time of dark cobblestone alleyways, crime and prostitution. It tells the tale of two sisters who move to the suburb of Ménilmontant in Paris after the brutal and shocking murder of their parents, and traces their involvement with the city's working class, and their encounters with poverty, loneliness and death. The contrast between contemplation and action in this beautifully tragic film provided an amazing compositional opportunity that de Groot took complete advantage of.
De Groot's composition provided some great introspective moments such as the solemn, desolate organ which chimes at the young woman's realisation of the death of her parents. The opening scream, string motif and high-pitched dissonant chords were a powerful setting for a brutal first scene. From here, de Groot evoked the rhythmic flourish and movement of young children playing and the turning of wheels on the streets of Paris. Each of these was captured with a precision that seemed to express the movement of the city with solemn undertones, rather than the joy of the characters. Found sound recordings were introduced, some which acted as sound effects or diegetic sounds, some that enhanced the ensemble parts and others used for atmospheric or emotional purposes, such as the scattered whispers that echoed the doubts in the sisters' minds.
The full ensemble was utilised to great effect throughout the entire score, producing a range of ensemble timbres and fusing electronics with instruments to create music that shifted and evolved according to the needs of the film. This gave the soundtrack an amazing sense of openness. Towards the latter half of the film the contemplative material really came into its own, with drawn-out discordant harmonies, sleazy jazz improvisation-style soloing and recorded material meshing with the live music. In particular, the use of vibraphone, music box and accordion created rich textures and demonstrated de Groot's talent for interwoven ensemble scoring.
In the context of this particular film, it is important to mention the usefulness of music and sound to help to explain and give context to parts of the story. Ménilmontant, a silent film that was designed to be abstract (no guiding titles were provided), benefited from music which at times directed the motion and feeling of a particular scene. This in turn meant that more abstract, reflective scenes were met with more reflective music, and overall the sound world evoked both the concrete realities presented in the film and the psychological narrative of the characters.
While the score didn't follow an overarching form throughout the film, it did augment each scene and imbed itself into the visual material. It both enhanced and contrasted with each moment of the film, giving in to its fast-paced changes and enveloping its listeners in a rich, immersive experience.
16.9.09
Totally Huge
The Tura Totally Huge New Music Festival is in full swing in Perth. Fantastic events of new music in the form of ensembles, electronics, projections and installations. These have mostly taken place in the museum, I just returned from Ensemble Offspring performing with Pimmon, improvising and playing Stockhausen's Kontakte. Amazing stuff.
We have also had some great artist talks and performances from Camilla Hannan, Thembi Sodell and Tarab who have interesting takes on field recordings, performing and electronic music in general.
I had my work, Hypnogenia performed on Monday night, and performed laptop with viola and cello in Kelly Curran's minimalist composition. All in all I am exhausted but having a great time, trying to support the festival as best I can.
This Friday my installation work Threads is premiering at free range gallery, an artist-run, not-for-profit gallery space. This has been included in the festival which I am thrilled about. I didn't mean for the event to take place during the festival programming, but I hope having it draws more people into the festival schedule of events and sound installations.
Finally just a few more images I have been creating lately.
We have also had some great artist talks and performances from Camilla Hannan, Thembi Sodell and Tarab who have interesting takes on field recordings, performing and electronic music in general.
I had my work, Hypnogenia performed on Monday night, and performed laptop with viola and cello in Kelly Curran's minimalist composition. All in all I am exhausted but having a great time, trying to support the festival as best I can.
This Friday my installation work Threads is premiering at free range gallery, an artist-run, not-for-profit gallery space. This has been included in the festival which I am thrilled about. I didn't mean for the event to take place during the festival programming, but I hope having it draws more people into the festival schedule of events and sound installations.
Finally just a few more images I have been creating lately.
3.9.09
Hypnogenia
In less than two weeks, on the 14th of September I will be performing in Breaking Out: Young Composers Concert as part of Tura's Totally Huge New Music Festival. This is at the Western Australian Museum and is an exciting ordeal.
The work I am going to be performing is Hypnogenia, for laptop processing of a video score. I created a max/MSP/Jitter patch which interprets any video or image into sound by locating it's largest objects, and transferring this information into pitch, density, playback position, spatialisation for a granular sound engine. I then made a bunch of videos in Jitter in order to create a musical score.
Here are some of the screenshots from the project (which is yet unfinished)
When the project is finished I plan to invite various visual artists or composers to make videos for the setup and have them arranged into a exhibition / installation. Also I hope to release the software as a stand alone application for everyone to have fun with.
More soon
The work I am going to be performing is Hypnogenia, for laptop processing of a video score. I created a max/MSP/Jitter patch which interprets any video or image into sound by locating it's largest objects, and transferring this information into pitch, density, playback position, spatialisation for a granular sound engine. I then made a bunch of videos in Jitter in order to create a musical score.
Here are some of the screenshots from the project (which is yet unfinished)
When the project is finished I plan to invite various visual artists or composers to make videos for the setup and have them arranged into a exhibition / installation. Also I hope to release the software as a stand alone application for everyone to have fun with.
More soon
19.7.09
Hypnogenic
Several weeks ago I was invited to play with Abe Sada, performing as part of the ADSA conference held at WAAPA. We set up in alcoves along a glass corridor, a mix between performance and installation. The audience walked around and through the space, and listened from down the hall and outside the glass while sipping their coffees and taking a relaxing break. Abe Sada is a group of 4 or more (up to 25) bass guitars, with scored instructions to play in a particular low range using particular techniques and sounds.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Ewing. Other performers - Predrag Delibasich, K-Ford and Jarryd Bird.
I have a very very busy month ahead! Upcoming performances -
04/08/09 - Club Zho 87: Axis 21 - New experimental and electronic chamber works.
21/08/09 - Ambassador from Everywhere 16, Live solo electronic performances w/ Kouhei Harada (Japan), Adam Trainer and Dan DiPaolo.
15/09/09 - Totally Huge New Music Festival: Breaking Out concert - New Music by emerging composers.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Ewing. Other performers - Predrag Delibasich, K-Ford and Jarryd Bird.
I have a very very busy month ahead! Upcoming performances -
04/08/09 - Club Zho 87: Axis 21 - New experimental and electronic chamber works.
21/08/09 - Ambassador from Everywhere 16, Live solo electronic performances w/ Kouhei Harada (Japan), Adam Trainer and Dan DiPaolo.
15/09/09 - Totally Huge New Music Festival: Breaking Out concert - New Music by emerging composers.
30.6.09
Just put the pillow under my head
Ok News.
Finished university work, for now.
Finished Dance Score first run through. The dance work is very good and I am proud of how it has come out, hopefully the final touches to the music will give it a really close audio/visual relationship. I will post some audio from this up soon.
Recordings for first solo release. This is really exciting, I have begun work on this, it will be an acousmatic electronic feast. More news soon.
Japan Tour! - this is planned for December this year, more news soon.
Revel8 - Super8 film competition, part of the Revelations International Film Festival. I have scored films in this for many years, winning "Best Soundtrack" in 2007. Great competition. This year's theme is Audacity.
In other film festival news, the video I created for The Vice Chancellor's song "We Are Your Gods" is featuring in the show Music Camera which is curated by Cat Hope and Andrew Ewing. A catalogue of the weird, great and unusual relationships between music and video from the years of Perth music.
Finished university work, for now.
Finished Dance Score first run through. The dance work is very good and I am proud of how it has come out, hopefully the final touches to the music will give it a really close audio/visual relationship. I will post some audio from this up soon.
Recordings for first solo release. This is really exciting, I have begun work on this, it will be an acousmatic electronic feast. More news soon.
Japan Tour! - this is planned for December this year, more news soon.
Revel8 - Super8 film competition, part of the Revelations International Film Festival. I have scored films in this for many years, winning "Best Soundtrack" in 2007. Great competition. This year's theme is Audacity.
In other film festival news, the video I created for The Vice Chancellor's song "We Are Your Gods" is featuring in the show Music Camera which is curated by Cat Hope and Andrew Ewing. A catalogue of the weird, great and unusual relationships between music and video from the years of Perth music.
17.6.09
Critical Listening / Club Zho 85
Last night Club Zho 85 was presented by Tura New Music and Meupe at the Ellington.The performances were based in the electronic / experimental realm and all featured sets of singular pieces, composed what seemed like semi-improvised electro-acoustic sounds. The artists were M. Rosner + Greg Taw, Paul Fiocco + Tristan Parr and finally Seaworthy member Cameron Webb.
Each artist featured looping and electronic manipulation as a key feature, all with field recordings and gradually building structures. M Rosner's set was particularly minimal, very cautiously approaching each sound. Tiptoeing around carefully, while very sparsely interacting with some cymbals splatters and camouflaged computer looping.
Paul Fiocco and Tristan Parr used mainly contact microphone'd cymbals and objects along with looped cello. The mass of sound was intriguing, it built up and stayed constant, but shifted and melted throughout to create multitudes of movement. Mixed in with field recordings, this was a very powerful set.
Cameron Webb performed with a projection consisting of a slideshow of location pictures, and utilized sparse field recordings of birds and co. mixed in with looped guitar. I could only describe the music as very 'nostalgic' which I do find odd as I have no direct connection to the sounds and images, other than the medium. However the music was subtle and transforming, evolving in the end to a blissful epiphany of tonal noise.
These electronic performances all drove a hard line towards listening durations and each approached temporal sampling in different ways. The obviousness of a minimal, rigorously constructed sound mass is much too appealing for some, and leaves the listeners happy. I still question what else can be done with electro-acoustic music, but the methods and compositions are strong and these performances help me to take note of what is happening now, and how this can be used differently, if not possibly improved upon.
I highly recommend Paul Fiocco's album Torsions and Drifts available from Meupe
Seaworthy's 1897 can be found on 12k
M. Rosner's Morning Tones can be found here
Each artist featured looping and electronic manipulation as a key feature, all with field recordings and gradually building structures. M Rosner's set was particularly minimal, very cautiously approaching each sound. Tiptoeing around carefully, while very sparsely interacting with some cymbals splatters and camouflaged computer looping.
Paul Fiocco and Tristan Parr used mainly contact microphone'd cymbals and objects along with looped cello. The mass of sound was intriguing, it built up and stayed constant, but shifted and melted throughout to create multitudes of movement. Mixed in with field recordings, this was a very powerful set.
Cameron Webb performed with a projection consisting of a slideshow of location pictures, and utilized sparse field recordings of birds and co. mixed in with looped guitar. I could only describe the music as very 'nostalgic' which I do find odd as I have no direct connection to the sounds and images, other than the medium. However the music was subtle and transforming, evolving in the end to a blissful epiphany of tonal noise.
These electronic performances all drove a hard line towards listening durations and each approached temporal sampling in different ways. The obviousness of a minimal, rigorously constructed sound mass is much too appealing for some, and leaves the listeners happy. I still question what else can be done with electro-acoustic music, but the methods and compositions are strong and these performances help me to take note of what is happening now, and how this can be used differently, if not possibly improved upon.
I highly recommend Paul Fiocco's album Torsions and Drifts available from Meupe
Seaworthy's 1897 can be found on 12k
M. Rosner's Morning Tones can be found here
8.6.09
Sound Spectrum Festival
Hello all
Tomorrow night I will be performing at Spectrum for the Sound Spectrum Festival. I am playing two sets, the first is a streaming performance collaborating with Griffith University in Brisbane, our node is called the Aletheia ensemble. Streaming in a loop is full of feedback and amazing sounds.
I will also be playing solo, in quadraphonic. Probably some no input mixer, theni will be playing guitar, and maybe vocals, processed by my computer. I haven't quite decided what I will do yet, but I am sure something will come to me.
Anyway just a brief update, I have applied for a residency at Radialsystem V in berlin for september. Let us all hope I get it.
I have patched max/msp all weekend long and my brain is fried.
Good night
Tomorrow night I will be performing at Spectrum for the Sound Spectrum Festival. I am playing two sets, the first is a streaming performance collaborating with Griffith University in Brisbane, our node is called the Aletheia ensemble. Streaming in a loop is full of feedback and amazing sounds.
I will also be playing solo, in quadraphonic. Probably some no input mixer, theni will be playing guitar, and maybe vocals, processed by my computer. I haven't quite decided what I will do yet, but I am sure something will come to me.
Anyway just a brief update, I have applied for a residency at Radialsystem V in berlin for september. Let us all hope I get it.
I have patched max/msp all weekend long and my brain is fried.
Good night
2.6.09
Openess / No one.
Hello blog world,
It has been a while since I have spoken to you. I guess I've been busy, but mostly felt I didn't have enough to show for my work, or anything solid to upload.
University work has been great, but I want to put all these great ideas, compositional constructions and programming to use. I am on the brink of doing some things which I hope will be really great. I need to break out from these constraints.
I am going to try and record at least 40 minutes of works over the holidays and see about playing more shows and releasing something. It will be dreamy and devastating I hope.
Also I found out that my name spoken in German (keinen) means "No one". What a relief.
Shortly to come - scores, recordings, max patches for generating visuals, Finished works.
Tides Mvt1
Tides Mvt1
Movement 1 + 2 of my work for piano and laptop, diffused through 4 speakers. Enjoy.
K
It has been a while since I have spoken to you. I guess I've been busy, but mostly felt I didn't have enough to show for my work, or anything solid to upload.
University work has been great, but I want to put all these great ideas, compositional constructions and programming to use. I am on the brink of doing some things which I hope will be really great. I need to break out from these constraints.
I am going to try and record at least 40 minutes of works over the holidays and see about playing more shows and releasing something. It will be dreamy and devastating I hope.
Also I found out that my name spoken in German (keinen) means "No one". What a relief.
Shortly to come - scores, recordings, max patches for generating visuals, Finished works.
Tides Mvt1
Tides Mvt1
Movement 1 + 2 of my work for piano and laptop, diffused through 4 speakers. Enjoy.
K
29.3.09
Thank you, Meupe
Hello!
Big thanks to everyone who came down last Tuesday to see me play, and Meupe for graciously allowing me to play and being ultra nice. Spectrum is a great venue.
Here is a treat for your earbuds, somewhat like what I played the other night.
Composition for guitar / laptop, this is a recording of a live performance. You may be able to hear all the on train max patching.
We Cross the Bridges that lead to the Sea
Ok so it's a low quality MP3 and I am so poor with html that I can't get the flash player to work here. Yikes.
Love
Kynan
Big thanks to everyone who came down last Tuesday to see me play, and Meupe for graciously allowing me to play and being ultra nice. Spectrum is a great venue.
Here is a treat for your earbuds, somewhat like what I played the other night.
Composition for guitar / laptop, this is a recording of a live performance. You may be able to hear all the on train max patching.
We Cross the Bridges that lead to the Sea
Ok so it's a low quality MP3 and I am so poor with html that I can't get the flash player to work here. Yikes.
Love
Kynan
21.3.09
Ambassador from Everywhere
The Ambassador from Everywhere, no.10. Excellent night of solo, eclectic and electronic performances.
Spectrum Project Space, Beaufort St. From 7pm onwards, I am on early, with voice, laptop and projections.
K
11.3.09
Listen
Intently
Dance No.1
This is a piece that I composed for a 3rd year dance piece by a nice lady named Molly. The work reflects sentimentality and longing, I am very happy with how the piece turned out.
Gold!
Soundtrack to a short silent film for Revel8.
Stretched Limb from Light
Scored work for clarinet and laptop composed last year. Clarinet notes are held for extended periods of time forming complex, intricate layers.
Love
Kynan
Dance No.1
This is a piece that I composed for a 3rd year dance piece by a nice lady named Molly. The work reflects sentimentality and longing, I am very happy with how the piece turned out.
Gold!
Soundtrack to a short silent film for Revel8.
Stretched Limb from Light
Scored work for clarinet and laptop composed last year. Clarinet notes are held for extended periods of time forming complex, intricate layers.
Love
Kynan
7.2.09
1.1.09
Salon Bruit
Last month I played at a new music / electronic event called Salon Bruit (roughly translated to noise lounge). The other group that played were UK based Left Lung Right Lung, who were excellent. The gig was amazing and I would like to thank Phil and the guys for giving me the chance to play. Small computer errors will not get in my way.
The gig was recorded and I will post some snippets up soon!
The gig was recorded and I will post some snippets up soon!
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