Archive
08/04/2019
h.19 Field Recording at the Studio di Fonologia di Milano (free admission lesson with Nicola Scaldaferri)
In collaboration with the Università degli studi di Milano
h.21 Concert, Auditorium San Fedele
Sound engineer: Filippo Berbenni
The final act of 2018/19 season was entrusted to Christina Vantzou, an American ambient composer who has become one of the leading names in the Kranky catalog. Already half of the duo The Dead Texan together with Brian Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid, A Winged Victory for the Sullen), in the course of four solo albums he has shaped a dreamlike and richly evocative sound, which from slender modern classical orchestrations has progressively turned to a chiaroscuro imagery whose atmospheres of abstraction seem to induce a delicate sensory hypnosis.
The evening is closed by the Dutch audiovisual group Optical Machines, which for years has been offering live performances with analogue equipment, elaborating and building abstract plays of light in close connection with the sound score. As in a sort of modern Pandora’s box, the show frees and releases continuous models of animated audiovisual interference, which follow one another in a refined hypnotic juxtaposition of geometric-dynamic visual processing and rhythmic-sound frequencies. Everything is processed and manipulated live through ingenious projective optical machines which – by combining lamps, lenses, analog synthesizers and cameras – mix visual and sound effects in continuous interaction. With the OM3 performance, the duo grapples with the deformation and deflection of the image and sound in rotational motion. Creating an audiovisual environment, with image attenuation, is like a powerful noise that produces a slight disorientation effect. The Optical Machines project aims to involve the viewer in a new perceptual experience.