The first in the series of new music performance collective Improve.
Notes on the programme:
It’s about spy stations, piece by Svetlana Maraš
Ana Gnjatović (voice), Karolina Baeter (bass recorder), Milana Zarić (toys, cymbal), Woo (el.guitar), Milena Pavlović (computer keyboard), Svetlana Maraš (electronics)
"59372 98324 19043 78903 95320...". The mechanized female voice drones on and on... What have you stumbled on to? Instructions to spies? Messages exchanged between drug dealers? Deliberate attempts at deception and mis-information? Chances are, all of the above! What you've tuned in to is called a "Spy Numbers Station".
They've been on the air for several decades, and only recently have the mysteries started to unfold. But there's stillmuch we don't know about these mysterious stations. (www.spynumbers.com)
Spy Numbers Stations are shortwave radio stations that are speculated to have been broadcasting since World War I. The true origin and purpose of them are unknown.
They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually women's, though sometimes men's or children's voices are used. (Wikipedia)
The piece was premiered in Vilnius in 2009, by the ensemble Loos.
*****
Strange strings, structured improvisation
Milana Zarić (harp,zither) & Woo (el.guitar, cyclo-harp*)
The piece is inspired by the eponymous Sun Ra album from 1966, which ‘deconstructed’ string instruments, by putting them in the hands of brass players on the spot. Milana and Woo use makeshift instruments, like cyclo harp, a stringed bicycle wheel, and combine these with guitar,harp and Eastern European chord zither. Using a special tuning system, all these strings bound together, building and deconstructing patterns, form a hypnotic effect of sorts.
*Cyclo harp was constructed by the visual artist Incredible Bob
******
Burda Schnitt, collective improvisation on a graphic score
Lukatoyboy (analogue electronics), Igor Stangliczky (electronics), Svetlana Maraš (electronics), Woo (el.guitar), Milana Zarić (harp)
Starting off with a notion of different uses of graphic notation since 1950s, Improve collective performs their own graphic piece entitled Burda schnitt. Electronics and live instruments interpret a ‘ready-made score’, from the sewing magazine Burda. The score is a sewing model, used usually to make clothes. In this case it becomes an instruction for improvisation, and the visual parts (of a sleeve, leg, front or back) dictate the structural parts of the piece.
The score is visually striking, and the process is both strict and ironic.
It also reflects a multifaceted intention of the Improve performances, in which music and humor are connected and combined, also computers and acoustic instruments, composed and improvised pieces, visuals and sound experiments, workshops and installations…
Notes on the programme:
It’s about spy stations, piece by Svetlana Maraš
Ana Gnjatović (voice), Karolina Baeter (bass recorder), Milana Zarić (toys, cymbal), Woo (el.guitar), Milena Pavlović (computer keyboard), Svetlana Maraš (electronics)
"59372 98324 19043 78903 95320...". The mechanized female voice drones on and on... What have you stumbled on to? Instructions to spies? Messages exchanged between drug dealers? Deliberate attempts at deception and mis-information? Chances are, all of the above! What you've tuned in to is called a "Spy Numbers Station".
They've been on the air for several decades, and only recently have the mysteries started to unfold. But there's stillmuch we don't know about these mysterious stations. (www.spynumbers.com)
Spy Numbers Stations are shortwave radio stations that are speculated to have been broadcasting since World War I. The true origin and purpose of them are unknown.
They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually women's, though sometimes men's or children's voices are used. (Wikipedia)
The piece was premiered in Vilnius in 2009, by the ensemble Loos.
*****
Strange strings, structured improvisation
Milana Zarić (harp,zither) & Woo (el.guitar, cyclo-harp*)
The piece is inspired by the eponymous Sun Ra album from 1966, which ‘deconstructed’ string instruments, by putting them in the hands of brass players on the spot. Milana and Woo use makeshift instruments, like cyclo harp, a stringed bicycle wheel, and combine these with guitar,harp and Eastern European chord zither. Using a special tuning system, all these strings bound together, building and deconstructing patterns, form a hypnotic effect of sorts.
*Cyclo harp was constructed by the visual artist Incredible Bob
******
Burda Schnitt, collective improvisation on a graphic score
Lukatoyboy (analogue electronics), Igor Stangliczky (electronics), Svetlana Maraš (electronics), Woo (el.guitar), Milana Zarić (harp)
Starting off with a notion of different uses of graphic notation since 1950s, Improve collective performs their own graphic piece entitled Burda schnitt. Electronics and live instruments interpret a ‘ready-made score’, from the sewing magazine Burda. The score is a sewing model, used usually to make clothes. In this case it becomes an instruction for improvisation, and the visual parts (of a sleeve, leg, front or back) dictate the structural parts of the piece.
The score is visually striking, and the process is both strict and ironic.
It also reflects a multifaceted intention of the Improve performances, in which music and humor are connected and combined, also computers and acoustic instruments, composed and improvised pieces, visuals and sound experiments, workshops and installations…
