5th Tehran International Electronic Music Festival, Iran 2022 Part 1.
1/ Languages of the Unheard by Danae Theodoridou & Dimitri Papageorgiou. 06:38.
A live experiment of conversing in the language of protest, participatory performance, 2020. Commissioned by Common Lab – Goethe-Institut Excellency Initiative by Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki & ArtBOX in collaboration with TIF-HELEXPO, Freiraum and Institute Hypewerk for Postindustrial Design, in the context of the State of the Arts.
Concept, creation: Danae Theodoridou.
Composition: Dimitri Papageorgiou.
Participants: Kate Adams (UK), Maria Apostolakea (France), Marijana Cvetkovic (Serbia), Ivana Filip (Croatia), Elena Koukoli (Greece), Janeda Milio (Albania), Eleni Mylona (Switzerland), Stefanie Schweiger (Austria), Elena Stamatopoulou (Greece), Tina Yotopoulou (Greece)
“WHAT WE MUST SEE is that a riot is the language of the unheard.’, Martin Luther King
Following a performance score, i.e. a list of instructions similar to those of a board game, Languages of the Unheard construct an online visual and auditory manifesto based on the language of signs and slogans coming from important protests in different European countries from the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) or ‘Common Market’ in 1957 to 2020.
Playing with the performativity of zoom’s feature to ‘rename’ ourselves, we will change constantly our names using the language of those signs, producing a written dialogue in the language of protest. During this dialogue, parts of our words will be audio processed and fed back into the dialogue in different ways, creating a soundscape of languages of the unheard.
This ‘silent’ conversation aims to reveal the materiality of the language of protest in order to create an embodied experience of its social force. What stays from our common fights in public space when we don’t have the proximity of our bodies? How can we turn immaterial language into a material ‘action’ in the way Arendt defined the term as the human ability to initiate something in public space that addresses the many without being able to control its outcome in advance?
2/ Los niños rojos by Pedro García-Velásquez – Alice Belugou. 14:30.
The modern harp is the direct heir of the salon instrument of the French nobility of the 18th century. Pedro García-Velásquez and Alice Belugou wish to put into play the imaginary attached to the instrument and to do so, create a new visual and sound device: a harp transformed analogically by a set of electric guitar pedals and accompanied by the voice projected in the resonance box of the instrument.
3/ TEMPO BASTANTE by Giacomo Guerrini. 03:30.
The work is the result of distressing thoughts that have characterized this traumatic period of humanity.
The path of work is an uncontrolled race towards madness driven by chaos and the unnatural frenzy to which life subjects us by taking away the illusion of control over it.
A vision from the anguish of Giacomo Guerrini.
4/ The Kaddish by Marco Alberghini. 03:43.
The Kaddish is one of the oldest Jewish prayers, its central theme is the magnification and sanctification of God’s name. Originally it was a closing formula for study or prayer meetings, subsequently its recitation accompanied part of the funeral rituals of Judaism. Maurice Ravel in “Deux mélodies hébraïques” (1941) composed a version of Kaddish for voice and piano. The Ravel’s score is reinterpreted here in electroacoustic way, respecting the original but using the musical material as sound objects and sound bundles. The voice is performed by soprano Serena Saccardi.
5/ Amplitude by SADI (Sam Barreto Cardoso Bertoldi). 07:40.
The “Amplitude”, arises from the investigation of the visual message that can induce sound when it is emphasized or expressed without a structural style and according to the classical compositional form. The piece was composed with the help of a double bass, electronic percussion and modular synths. Created according to the Gestalt creative flow, which from psychology has been brought back into various arts to evoke a structure of investigation different from the predictable. In which time and narration are shaped in becoming by complex forms that repeat, evolve or divert the composer to compose a direct abstraction of temporality, expressiveness. A piece that progressively reaches an evolved space linked to the other, giving the perception of representing emphasized emotions or imaginary actions that lead to a guided narration as if it were a cinematic scene. So “breadth” as “evolution”, “investigation”, a glimpse of something that could constantly evolve in the freest forms of the listener’s imagination.
6/ Parole by Angelo Marrone. 04:30.
The composition “Parole” is developed exclusively through the use of the voice. For its realisation, a voice was sampled which pronounced exclusively the word: “word(s)”. Through the use of different types of synthesis and among the most used the granular synthesis, a destructuring of the voice takes place which makes it almost incomprehensible. At times, if the listener knew the origin of the sounds, he or she might even be able to perceive the word. There are also some synthetic sounds combined with the voice, but they are always used at the same time as it: the syntheses were carried out through virtual plug-ins that offered the use of different oscillators to be used at the same time, so this made it possible to use both waves and audio samples in the same plug-in. It should be pointed out that the voice is not only used to create a sound texture but is also used in the rhythmic parts that can be heard during the track; it is obtained through an attack that dampens the attack transient and a very rapid decay, leaving the pronunciation of the letter “p” in evidence, which has made it possible to use the vocal material also to generate a beat. The track thus created is a synthesis and mixture of electronic music and vocal processing. Audiovisual work.
7/ Solo Voice by Armando Vanzi. 07:05.
inspired by the human voice, one of the oldest instruments and one of the most powerful analog synthesizers in hystory. The composition was made to explore the possibility of human voice. Two main layers: the first one generated by voice fregments modify by the use of effects and electronics, the second one shaped by the ability of the singer Anna Romaldini.
8/ The Sound Pocket Party by Alessia Anastassopulos. 03:19.
In November 2019, I made a survey asking fifty people what they had in their pockets, then recorded the sounds of 39 different objects that came out from the answers. In these recordings, the aim is not to make the objects interact as they would do in our pockets, but is instead a study of the character and timbre of each object in an artificial environment. The listening and recording experience resulted in the composition of The Pocket Sound Party. The piece resembles a party that involves the pocket objects from the survey done in November 2019, balloons and traditional instruments. The balloons open and end the party, guiding the piece, and symbolically making the event a celebration. The score writes (for the pocket sounds performers)’With your sound follow the changes of the balloon. You can follow the change of colour as it changes shape. You can follow its breath. You can follow its growth. You can follow its fear when it is about to explode.’ The performers should interact with the objects as if they had their hands in their pockets. Without looking at the objects, they should feel for them making them speak and look at the balloon, which will guide them with the emotions to follow. If they feel joy or laughter, they must not express it vocally but with their hands using the objects. If they feel scared when the balloon explodes they must not stop and freeze but express it through the objects. The objects have emotions, and the balloons guide them. The traditional instruments are to play three written ostinatos. The written music represents the most static side of the party. The feeling that parties sometimes follow a script of behaviour and social interaction. The instruments playing are the party as an event, not as the participants (which are instead the objects). When the balloons explode, the instruments stop playing, creating the silence that would happen if a glass broke at a party, to start again playing with a kind of monotonous way that can characterise ostinatos.
9/ Tanbur and electronic by Erfan Javadi. 05:10.
At first, the character of the Tanbur is dimmed by the effects that most affected the frequency. Then, after passing the introduction, its personality becomes clearer and the effects are less. In the introduction, tanbur plays in “Sar Tarz Magham”. The same Magham is enveloped at 32:02 in a different register with a different character with electronics. At the main climax of the piece, electronic sounds are placed next to the tanbur with greatness. And after the climax, we have the ‘’Panjeh kari” technique without the accompaniment of electronic sounds.
Composers biographies:
Dimitri Papageorgiou: His music presents a continuous negotiation of the distinction between the self and the other and the fluidity of their relationship (where does the similarity ends between two different entities and where does the difference start?). The core of his work revolves around specific themes: time, identity/similarity/difference, repetition, memory, and order — the fragility of order in the creative process. Papageorgiou perceives the concept of memory – the way we consider the past – not as faithful reconstitution driven by nostalgia, but from the point of view of its creative dimension, that is, as a constantly updated reconstruction of the past from the point of view of the present and through a process of constant reformulation: the workings of memory as a compositional metaphor. All musical ideas are imperfect and vulnerable, ephemeral and distorted. They are constantly in a state of flux and under constant revision. Currently an associate professor of composition, he was appointed at the Department of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloni in 2007. He majored in composition with Hermann Markus Pressl and Andrej Dobrowolski at the University of Music and Drama at Graz, Austria. From 1998-2002 he held a Presidential Fellowship of the University of Iowa, U.S.A., for a Ph.D. in composition with Donald Martin Jenni, Jeremy Dale Roberts, and David Karl Gompper. He is one of the artistic co-directors of the outHEAR New Music Week, a symposium and master class for new music featuring the ensemble Klangforum. Since 2018 he serves as an artistic advisor and member of the scheduling committee of the Tehran International Electronic Music Festival.
Pedro García-Velásquez (1984): is a French-Colombian composer and co-founder of Le Balcon ensemble and BabelScores. Born in Bogota, Garcia-Velasquez started studying composition at the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogota with Harold Vasquez-Castaneda. He moved to France to continue his studies with Jean-Luc Hervé and was later admitted into the Conservatoire de Paris in the class of Frédéric Durieux, where he graduated in 2013. He has been artist-in-residence at Théâtre de l’Athénée,at IRCAM, ZKM, and since 2019 at the Fondation Singer-Polignac. 2016 he received the Prix Pierre Cardin from the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Giacomo Guerrini: Born in Livorno, Tuscany, in 1980. Graduated in piano at 23 years old at “L. Cherubini” Conservatory in Florence. He experimented extensively with local bands, discovering the vibrant underground music scene of his city. The strong belif that music needs to develop and renew itself constantly through time made him pursue experimentation and an avant-garde aesthetic. His work presents innumerable contaminations of musical styles, uniquely important in his productions. Repetitions is a major component of his music. Ex MNT student at Conservatory, “L. Cherubini” in Florence. He composes and performs with piano, bass, guitar, saxophone, keyboards, toy instruments, synthesizers, modular gear, microphones and computer.
Marco Alberghini: He graduated in Communication Sciences at the University of Siena, a first level degree in Electronic Music at the Conservatory “G.B. Martini” of Bologna and a master degree in Music and New Technologies at the Conservatory “L. Cherubini” of Firenze. Expert in multimedia design, he worked in the field of graphic communication and user experience design to whom combined the skills of sound design, reaching the production of sound projects for theater and performing arts. Currently professor of multimedia communication technologies and techniques at the Professional Technical Institute “Margaritone” of Arezzo.
Sam, aka SADI OORTMOOD, is an electronic musician and performer who shares her work with public and other artists since 2007. She produces experimental/environmental music and glitch for contemporary art installations and dance performances. Her inspiration is nature. She creates her artistic and conceptual design, both contemporary and abstract, inviting audience to dive into in a world of surreal dreams. She experiments technological error, textures of environmental sound and interpolation of interrupted rhythms. She is a researcher of sound perception of cognitive-emotional system and eco-systemic of listening.
Angelo Marrone: an Italian composer, arranger, musician and virtual orchestrator specialised in soundtracks. I have got the master’s degree in 2020 in Music and New Technologies at “L. Cherubini Conservatory” (Florence, Italy) and the Bachelor’s Degree In 2011 in “Contemporary Pop Music Composition and Arranging” at “L. D’Annunzio” Conservatory of Pescara (Italy). I kept studying privately with Maestro Stefano Cucci, the closest collaborator of Ennio Morricone and I foregrounded my studies with several masterclasses, such as: instrumental recording and contemporary music production, electronic music, jazz piano, arrangement and composition, choir and orchestra conduction, film scoring. I take classes with the following music artists: Jerry Gates, Nicola Pisani, Antonio Genovino, Dan Moretti, Gianluca Podio, Gil Godstein, Francesco Tarantelli, Andrea Pejrolo, Francisco Navarro Lara. Next, Angelo decided to take online courses of Electronic and Film Music Composition with Hans Zimmer online masterclass. Currently, I work as composer and virtual orchestrator for film, advertising, theatre, videos, audiobooks.
Armando Vanzi: studied Cinema Music and Theatre at Pisa University, and Music and New Technologies at Conservatorio L. Cherubini in Firenze. He took part in several music festivals as author in Italy, Usa and Iran. Currently he is working as electroacustic composer and video artist in Italy.
Alessia Anastassopulos is an Italo-Greek musician. Starting in childhood with a classical training through the study of the violin, she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance in 2015. Developing a musical interest in Music Therapy, she achieved a professional diploma as a Music therapist in 2017 and continued her studies with a Master’s degree in Music and New Technologies that she completed in 2018, obtaining 110/110 Magna Cum Laude by presenting Dialogues, a series of six short audiovisual compositions. In the last seven years, her interest has been directed towards sound and image and from 2016 to the present year, her audiovisual compositions have been selected for projection in Italy and abroad. One of her recent audiovisual compositions The Sound Dealer has been Screened from May 3 2021 to May 9 2021 at the Galerie Analix Forever in Switzerland, has won an Honourable Mention at the Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival June 2021, an Honourable mention at the Sound And Vision International Film & Technology Festival September 2021, was selected for the International Sound & Film Music Festival Croatia October 2021 and is Finalist at the Tokyo International Monthly Film Festival July 2022 Currently a third-year Ph.D. music student at the University of Huddersfield, her research studies concrete mundane sounds for the creation of narrative through audiovisual composition.
Erfan Javadi: From early childhood until 2017, he learned music on his own and gained a lot of experiences. In 2017-18 he received a diploma in music (Classical singing) Since 2019 Erfan is studying Composition at Tehran University of Art. He recorded several pieces in Iran and is learning and experiencing different things in music. Erfan is also active in the field of music teaching.
