Archive
18/03/2019
h.19 The World Soundscape Project (free admission lesson with Giovanni Cestino)
In collaboration with the Università degli studi di Milano
h.21 Concert, Auditorium San Fedele
Janek Schaefer
Live
Sound engineer: Filippo Berbenni
An evening with two antithetical facets within contemporary electronic research. Opening the minimal atmospheres of the British sound artist Janek Schaefer: architect by training, he has been engaged for years in constant research on the expressive potential of sound diffusion. His sets, with a strong performative component, are based on a dialogue with unpredictable implications between barely perceptible immersive micro-sounds, melodic hints and concrete noises that are never invasive, generated through the use of the most disparate sound objects. Schaefer’s compositions are situated on the border between sadness and joy, savoring the unpredictability of emotional gravity. One of his most recent musical inventions, developed in the title track of the album What Light There Is Tells Us Nothing (Temporary Residence, 2018), is the result of a commission from the Sounds New festival in Canterbury for the realization of a song entirely based on elements of Robert Wyatt’s album Cuckooland (Hannibal, 2003).
Following, the expected return to Italy of Rafael Anton Irisarri, one of the key names of the contemporary ambient / drone scene. His musical poetics is based on fleeting visions translated into sound through a strongly expressionist perspective, where excerpts of melodies and harmonic stratifications complement each other, condensing into typically minimalist cyclical structures, giving shape to a mixture with a strong emotional impact. His concerts at museums, churches, synagogues and other non-traditional performance spaces explore the physicality of sound. Combining a series of heavy metal bass amps, multiple speaker configurations, synthesizers, bowed guitars, laptops, projections and lighting, Irisarri decontextualizes the audience’s relationship with the venue, creating an immersive and unconventional experiential environment.