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October
17th Caixaforum 9 pm. Adriana Sa / Margarida Mestre (Portugal) intermedia / portuguese scene / debut in Barcelona |
Adriana Sá is Portugal's most internationally renowned multimedia artist. Her experimental pieces encompass performance, installation and sound art. Her work, which may considered to be in constant development, has been supported by international bodies such as Calouste-Gulbenkian Foundation or the Experimental Intermedia Foundation and has been presented in numerous countries. Some of her pieces, such as This is Just to Do or Interchange Format, are based in the interaction with other artists. This is the case of her first appearance in Barcelona, where she will be assisted by Margarida Mestre, another Portuguese creator with an international exposure in the fields of dance, theatre, voice and combinations of the above. Both an outstanding collaboration and opening of LEM 2002.
http://www.ps1.org/cut/volume/sa.html
October 17th
Caixafòrum
10 pm.
Zipper Spy (US)
intermedia
American multimedia artist Maria Moran's project Zipper Spy comprises video projection, metal sculptures, digital sampling and... zips also. Zipper Spy is a sensation filled performance unfolding a powerful activity -through the mix of analogic and digital means- before which we cannot remain indifferent. The result may be defined as the best of both worlds, a construction of found sounds and undulating frequencies; a combination that connects visual art and technology with remarkable coherence, bringing us a little beyond the international ruidist scene, to a context where noise no longer is an exclusively male prerogative.
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October
17th Caixaforum 11 pm. Convolution (US / Barcelona) intermedia |
Mark Cunningham, emblematic
figure of New York's no wave has for quite some time developed an intense musical
career in Europe; working from his Barcelona base he's been the central sonic
pillar of the mythical Raeo. Member of various line-ups directed by Pascal Comelade,
he has also developed an interesting solo trajectory culminating in his Blood
River Dust CD, which featured the sonic and visual participation of Silvia Mestres
for the first time and gave way to Convolution project. After two lengthy tours
around Europe and the US, Convolution is in its prime: images and sounds creating
electroacoustic atmospheres, oppressive at times, epic at other stages and always
remarkably intense.
For this edition
of LEM, Convolution has prepared a unique show with the
special collaboration of Edith Kelman (Atlanta, GA, USA) and her FIBER &
LIGHT © 2002 :: TRANSDUCTIVE ARRAY, SMILING
a multi-dimensional installation
http://home.earthlink.net/~fiberandlight
http://www.arrakis.es/~silmes/
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October
18th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 9 pm. Margarida Garcia (Portugal) improvisation / portuguese scene |
Starting her sonic trajectory in 1996, Margarida Garcia has participated in numerous collaborations in the fields of music, dance, video, performance and installation. Her itinerary, intimately connected to that of Lisboa-based label Headlights, has involved her use of electric doublebass at the service of some of Portugal's capital most daring improvisational projects as well as traveling to various countries together with such musicians as Manuel Mota or Phill Niblock and dancers as Ludger Lamers or Isabelle Shad. Concerned with the states of mind and the defense of interpretative freedom, her musical style has at this stage reached an admirable level of idiosyncrasy and originality.
http://www.geocities.com/headlights_h/mg.html
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October
18th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm. Akira Rabelais (U.S.) electronics / debut in Barcelona |
It is hard to describe in just a few lines this pioneer and intellectual, who's dashingly come to be known as a designer of software capable of fascinating such musicians as Terre Thaemlitz, Kim Cascone or Scanner: the Argeophontes Lyre, a totally innovative sound production tool, has probably partly eclipsed his own musical production: records such as Elongated Pentagonal Pyramid (Ritornell,1999), Eisoptrophobia (2001) or Spellewauerynsherde (2002) and his fascinating approach to philosophy and literature, which is evidenced by the texts featured in his works or in his internet site. A poetic spirit nurturing his musical work -thus distancing it from contemporary electronic nihilism- and which has stirred the interest of critics worldwide in naive-free comparisons to such artists as Erik Satie. Watch out for his first concert in Spain!
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October
18th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 11 pm. Osso Bucco (US) off / electronics |
This is the name of Gregg Kowalsky's solo project -South Florida born American creator who, after residing in New York for some time established himself in Barcelona in 2001. Interested in computer-created music, his style in spite of frequenting present day creativity's usual destinations: electronic minimalism, textural and abstract music, is overtly removed from mainstream being also permeated by a poetic approach to the damp ambients, fog, snakes and hurricanes of his homeland. His work instances the thrilling relationship between electronic noise and harmony. His recent signing for Barcelona's label oozebap currently puts him in the focus of the local electronic scene.
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October
19th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 9 pm. Manon Anne Gillis (France) Key figures of contemporary music/debut in Barcelona |
From the release in 1984 of Lxgrin, her first album, one of the most personal, distinct and exceptional artists from the neighbouring country came to public life. An extreme confirmed by her next five titles, as well as by her performances -always different, constructed as internal and deliquescent thematic closed pieces. The synthetic sound fuses with the bodily, dreams loom into consciousness as she explores matter with her imagination's microscope causing the molecules of her voice to grow and her body to transfigure all the things coming from outside. Amniotic and cybernetic dreams processed through her digestion and desire. Anne Gillis will be presenting her new performance Oyshoss; without a doubt, a truly unique occasion.
http://www.eternalnetwork.org/erratum/gillis.html
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October
19th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm Tore Honoré Bøe (Norway) electronics / debut in Barcelona |
Member of Origami Republika collective since 1990 and related to the Safe as Milk label, this Norwegian artist can be considered as a link between Dada, Merz or the long collage and concrete music tradition: Bøe creates a personal, crystalline and sparklingly clear sound constructed out of micro physic elements of chance and risk by occasionally using amplified everyday objects and, in other instances, field recordings and processing of all these. A personal creator with a style avoiding comparison and whose choice of unusual formats has led him to work with records, floppy disks or micro-cassettes. The singular beauty of his music stems from this premises, but also from the emotional atmosphere of the spaces where his live interventions take place.
October 19th
Cafe del Sol
11'30 pm
Sonora Mty (Barcelona)
off / electronics
Emerging from their interest in sound, both instrumental and concrete, in the new electronic tendencies as well as in various other styles, this Barcelonese -currently living in Monterey (Mexico)- who got originally involved in music playing the guitar, conceives this project from a functional music composition task for various companies, experience which he develops concurrent with his job as a web designer. Born from this concern, Sonora Mty -a project of sonic exploration through spaces and feelings- shows a completely open attitude to self-transformation out of a creative impulse stemming from a situationist perspective.
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October
19th Mi Bar 12 midnight Javier Hernando (Barcelona) audio menu |
Steering the Silencios de la Radio -exemplary radio program which enjoyed foreign and local acclaim- since 1980 and during two decades, and with a musical background extending from the mythical Xeerox to its current development under his own name in the Micrograma collection of Geometrik label and after the Malodinamika Sensor experience, Hernando has one of the most lucid and least known minds of the invariably unknown Barcelonese scene. The opportunity to listen to a session specially conceived for the occasion by the creator of Luz Nacarina is sheer luxury. Watch out for the menu...
http://www.experimentaclub.com/data/javier_hernando
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October
25th. Centre Artesà Tradicionarius (CAT) 9 pm. Roberto Robao (Argentina) cabaret / peculiar instruments / debut in Barcelona |
Roberto Robao's Electroacoustic Cabaret is a truly striking experimental project for the new millennium. Born in Buenos Aires, researcher of folk traditions and founder of some of Argentina's historic theatre groups, Robao moved to France in the late seventies and combined latin music tours with the invention of new instruments, involvement in electroacoustic music and the staging of Magnetic Fields, a seminal surrealist work. Introduced to the concept of automatic theatre, he subsequently developed his Electroacustic Cabaret, a patafisic dimension of electronic music featuring choreographic elements, unbelievable instruments and a striking sound-visual alchemy. In brief, something not to be missed if you are tuned with the spirit of this festival.
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October
25th. Centre Artesa Tradicionarius (CAT) 10 pm Markus Breuss (Switzerland) peculiar instruments/new Swiss music |
This multi-instrumentalist, known in Spain in his role as founder member of the mythical Clonicos -factory which produced an extense diaspora of genial talents in the last few years- presents Taiyou Kaigan, his most daring and matured solo project. An endless instrument display (from a kang-ling -Tibetan trumpet made from a human femur- to the most sophisticated digital arsenal) to create a similarly restless wandering music which crosses time and space, taking us through cosmic jazz territories, revisiting electroacoustic, introducing us to unknown traditions and offering us the opportunity to witness the birth of new ones yet to be included in the annals of universal music.
http://www.experimentaclub.com/data/markus_breuss
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October
25th. Electric 11'30 pm Marc Egea (Barcelona) off / peculiar instruments. |
Compiler of compositions, adapter of a wide and consistent range of music, composer, Marc Egea has become an unavoidable keystone to understand the present context of such a special and incredibly sounding instrument as the hurdy-gourdy. True contriver to its recovery in our country and indefatigable researcher, pupil of the best Hungarian and French masters, the compositive facet of Egea is the one that interests us most in this Festival: luminous compositions of hypnotic structure taking us to suspended times of mythical meditation such as When the Whole Universe Concentrated in One Point or Recount the Horizon, piece to be premiered in this festival. Far beyond the task of traditional instrument recovery, we are faced with a powerfully interesting and modern work. A delight for those looking for something truly new.
http://usuarios.tripod.es/marcegea
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October
26th. Centre Artesa Tradicionarius (CAT) 9 pm. Balago (Barcelona) rock |
Formed in 1998 by Guim Serradesanferm, David Crespo and Jordi Soldevila, Balago is nowadays the brandish bagde group of restless Foehn Records label. Their first work illustrated that finding new ways of exploring the apparently thoroughly beaten track of rock simply depends on imagination and work. It could be said that their career has experienced a dashing development during these years and that their clever standpoint of coexisting ambient, appropriationism, electronics and guitars has stirred the interest of both critics and audience. Amidst their uninterrupted series of concerts Balago will pay a visit to LEM to display their multifarious music, made up of energy and subtleness, opening up for us the doors of that "beyond" rock.
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October
26th CAT 10 pm 12twelve (Barcelona) rock |
If we consider the entrance to Barcelonese rock as having two columns, the other one is, without a doubt, 12twelve; also born in 1998 this band is comprised of Jaime Pantaleon, Jose Rosello, Javier Garcia y Jens Neumaier. A project defined by its members as "controlled experimentation", it thrives both on jazz's freedom and psychedelic exploration, aspects which can be found in Tears, Complaints and Spaces, first CD published by Boa: intense, climatic and occasionally tearing music. Once again we are faced by a project in its prime: international acclaim, praise from the critics and an overt standpoint in relation to the electric tradition's cul-de-sac: the only way to meet the future is to create new paths for exploring and immerse ourselves in them. They are already doing it.
http://www.boa-music.com/promocion/12twelve/12twelve.html
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October
26th. Cafe del Sol 11'30 pm. C.D. (Argentina) off / electronics |
A vast itinerary that of this Argentinean Plunderphonist, 1998 finalist in Luigi Russolo's contest and 1999 winner of Pierre Schaeffer's, member of diverse mythical formations such as Nuegado de Serpientes or Reynolds, C.D. became known through his first CD Yo Vibro as well as by the Lens Cleanser Trio, formed together with Marcelo Aguirre and Jose Marchi. Furthermore, he has also collaborated in the Brasilian project The Coupling of Psychotrouts and has participated in Elliot Sharp's production State of the Nation 2001. C.D.'s music, which he describes as electroacoustic rock, is organic, psychedelic and polymorphic. In it we witness the coexistence of old sci-fi soundtrack atmospheres and chaotic and mesmeric textures akin to present day music.
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October
26th. Mi Bar 12 Midnight Francesc Feliu (Barcelona) audio menu |
Collaborator of Mondo Sonoro magazine since the end 2000, Francesc Feliu has followed the development of these beyond-rock styles, to which the festival dedicates this night, almost minutely. Nevertheless, his catalogue features plenty of post-industrial 80s and 90s music as well as various other experiments from the last decades. Thus, the menu promises to be dense, intense and with a certain esoteric taste to it.
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November
14th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall Sinsal/Flexo (Vigo) 9 pm. Electronics/debut in Barcelona. |
Here we have the sonic division of Viguese collective SINSALaudio formed by Julio Neboiño, Chiu Longina and Luis Campos, three essential pillars of the Galician city's artistic life. Related to the highly active Vademecum club as well as to numerous radio, editorial and urban dynamization projects, their audio work conceives sound as a malleable, organic substance, as much as a game-like, hedonistic expression or as material for anthropologic research. Their activity ranges from free-audio experimental sessions to the manipulation of formats. The analogic and digital coexist in their live work: scratch, field recordings, rhythmic studies. Real time and audience interaction based in their collaboration with Flexo performers' collective complete the forecast.
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November
14th. Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm. Marek Choloniewsky (Poland) electronics / key figures of contemporary music / debut in Barcelona |
(Masterclass: 15th
november, 6.00 pm. Auditori de l'Estació de França, Universitat
Pompeu Fabra, Passeig de la Circumvalació, 8)
Current director of Crakow's Academy of Music's Electroacoustic Studio, he first started to work there in 1976. Founder member of some of Polands' most relevant collectives, such as Muzyka Centrum society and the ArtBoat project, Choloniewsky has displayed a restless activity, collaborating with musicians such as Krysztof Knittel or Marcel Chrzynski and performing and organizing workshops in Europe, Canada and the US. He has also composed instrumental and electronic music for theatre, cinema and radio. Since 1997 he has been involved in the development of MCOS (Multy Controller Optical System), a system devised to translate the movements produced within an illuminated area into sonic language and transform it into complex audible structures. This system has enabled him to develop numerous works such as the Dark & Light Zone series specially composed for the Arditti Quartet.
http://www.studiomch.art.pl
http://www.cyf-kr.edu.pl/~zbcholon/mch/
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November
14th Electric 11'30 pm. Don Simon & Telefunken (Tarragona) off / cabaret |
From Tarragona to Helsinki by way of Altafulla and Vilabella, this two year old group has come to be known through a simple, iconoclast if, possibly, undeniable motto: "We search for happiness in old-age and infantile culture for Cage is as funny as TV clowns". Weary of a tradition which they feel alien to, they search "the collective unconscious in order to find the traditional and spatial music that we all have inside". Members and instruments include: Don Simon: baton and sodawater. Y: shakers and anise. Telefunken: castanets and peppermint. Although they claim to have been playing telepathically for a thousand years, physically they have just played for two. LEM recommends them. Evaluation (or not) is up to the audience.
November 15th.
Gracia District
Headquarters' Hall
Bravo - Laginestra
(Madrid)
9 pm.
improvisation
/ Madrid's scene
This project arises from the encounter of two experienced Madrid-based improvisers: Antonio Perez Bravo (guitar), Galician by birth, and Merran Laginestra (piano, synthesizers, voice) all the way from Australia, moved to Madrid after long stays in India and Berlin. Bravo has worked with Maria Joao, Greg Moore, Carlos Beceiro, Carlo Actis Dato, Peter Kowald, Phill Durrant and Jorge Pardo. Laginestra composed music for theatre and dance, collaborated in Madrid's seminal projects such as Clonicos and Mil Dolores Pequeños and has played with Wolfgang Fuchs, Lê Quan Ninh, Xavier Charles and Benjamin Dupe. An encounter of two improvisers that will create an irrepetible sound space.
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November
15th. Gracia District Headquarters' Hall Druhb (Madrid) 10 pm electronics / Madrid's scene / debut in Barcelona |
Wholly electronic and instrumental project by Jaime Munarriz and Javier Piñango, contrivers of Destroy Mercedes -group whose respected trajectory places them in some indeterminate space between electronics and cult rock-. Nevertheless, in Drubh ambient and minimalist rhythmic structures are fused in order to create a more calculated music, exploring sonic tension and improvisation and yet striving to break free from contemporary labeling. Magnificently illustrating these features, their first CD Cone of Silence (Geometrik, 2002) features the duo's evolution through a resume of their last two years' concerts. Thus we are faced with a constantly changing, present-bound music.
http://www.experimentaclub.com/data/druhb
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November
15th Oniria 11,30 pm. Blue (Barcelona) off / electronica |
Buick is the electronic project by Leo Cayuela: a Venezuelan musician of versatile background who studied composition, harmony, singing and electric bass with Cuban and Venezuelan teachers between 1986 and 1994 and began working in the fields of sound art and composition software and doing solo work in 1995. Although the trace of his Venezuelan years is evident in the use of latin percussion and other traditional music features featured in his work, he started a series of totally site-specific sound performances. Thus, he has recently accomplished a Funk tour in Chinese restaurants, a Concert for Kitchen showroom or a Concert for Petrol Station. His Buick project, a space open to experimentation in which noise is worked harmonic and rhythmically from an afro and Latin American perspective, has been developed since 1999.
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November
16th L'Espai 10 pm Steamboat Switzerland (Switzerland) New Swiss Music/debut in Barcelona |
Out of the encounter between Dominik Blum (Hammond organ, keyboards, electronics), Marino Pliakas (electric bass, electronics) and Lucas Niggli (percussion) grew one of the most restless bands from the current Swiss scene. Keeping a constant alternation of overt virtuosism, powerful improvisation and interpretation of contemporary composers' pieces, Steamboat Switzerland is an overwhelming and smooth-running machine that has turned live performance into their main asset, as instanced by the extense European and American touring. Rock, Metal, Hardcore and free improvisation within a structure akin to contemporary music for the construction of twenty-first century Hammond trio. Welcome to the hurricane.
http://www.dominikblum.ch/steamboat_e.html
http://www.marinopliakas.com/steamboatswitzerland
November 16th
Mi Bar
12 midnight
Chop Suey (Barcelona)
audio menu
Producer, composer, vocalist and DJ, Wan Tun Lab produces his own records at his studio, located in the very borough of Gracia ( where he produced his first CD Coin-operated feelings or Shiva's debut as a DJ, as well as advertising jingles, TV melodies, remixes,...) His parallel trajectory as a DJ, which has taken him to the best clubs and chill-outs both of Barcelona and various other cities, is the feature that brings him to LEM. An eclectic, if always with a foot resting on smart elegant music (i.e., lounge), and expert ambientalist.
http://www.cosmosrecords.com/artistas/bios/chop_suey.htm
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November
17th. L'Espai 7 pm Schizotrope (France) electronics / key figures of contemporary music / debut in Barcelona |
It is an honour for us to have Richard Pinhas coming to the Festival as he is one of the most relevant creators and intellectuals of our decade. Pupil (and later friend) of Deleuze since 1968, founder of Heldon, group which produced the first electronic experiences in France and not only caused a new generation of musicians to appear but also influenced subsequent generations. Introducer of the concept of minimalism in its current sense, Richard Pinhas foreshadowed industrial electronic music and other current trends as he collaborated with writers Norman Spinrad and Maurice G. Dantec, or composers John Livengood and David Bowie. Universally acknowledged as a keystone of present day's music Pinhas will present his new group, also featuring Antoine Peganotti (from Magma) and Jerome Schmidt (computer), thus creating a sound which gathers the literary and artistic references underpinning the whole of our present day culture.
http://www.multimania.com/heldon/index.htm
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November
21st Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 9 pm. Cat Hope (Australia) electronics / debut in Barcelona |
After her participation in the Extreme Music from Women' CD, her solo concerts in Australia, US and England have run parallel to collective projects such as Lux Mammoth and Gata Negra. Specialized in an extreme usage of electric bass, from which she draws distortions or loops and creates disturbing atmospheres permeated by a dark and wild theatre, the music of Cat Hope -who has been called a 'electric bass turntablist'- ranges from the subliminal to the multidimensional. She has collaborated, among others, with Ikue Mori, Stellarc or Jon Rose. Intelligent noise, sound walls and cyclic sensations for a powerful and uncompromising trance of psychological and industrial music.
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November
21st Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm. Laura Kavanaugh & Ian Birse (Canada) electronics / debut in Barcelona |
Laura Kavanaugh got involved in sound art in the mid 90s, after deciding to bring some immediateness into her visual activities. Her work in real time caused her to start experimenting with prepared piano and violin as well as with the voice. She then explored the possibilities of recorded materials, feedback and electronically generated sounds, ideal aspects to be developed in parallel to her experimental video work. Since 2000 she has frequently presented in Europe and Canada her collaboration work with Ian Birse, musician coming from a traditional and improvised music background who found in the creation of images a path that led him to sampling, amplifying objects and electronic sound processing. The encounter between the two will result in a permanent transformation of image and sound project.
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November
21st Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 11 pm. Mortenson.Nosnetrom (Denmark) off / electronics |
From a traditional training which included the study of accordion (which, according to her c.v. note, was a consequence of her family's activities, for her father was a mechanic and her mother an organist), Heidi Mortenson went on to study modern dance and choreography, practiced piano and acoustic guitar and finally decided to travel to Italy, where she lived in eight different cities until she moved to Barcelona. Electronic music revealed both a new sonic universe and a creative and different scene. Thus, she began studying Roland 505 in depth while recording her voice inside a washing-machine. She has since then moved onto sampler, and a renewed interest in folk made her combine all these instruments with melodica and voice. Magical and melancholic music halfway between noise and melody.
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November
22nd. Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 9 pm. Teleform & Marcus Maeder (Switzerland) electronics/ New Swiss Music |
The history of this group is connected to that of Domizil label, created in the mid 90s by Markus Maeder and Bernd Schurer. Conceived as a platform for the coordination, exchange and cooperation centred in sound production, they display an extense research of digital culture, its sounds, social contents and methods. This thoroughly committed multi-discipline structure produces a music containing concise messages about art's and culture's structures, practices the exchange and experimentation by way of platform for all those artists that are somehow left outside the focus of industry. For a society that has changed far more than we think, new structures that bear in mind those changes and explore possible futures are needed. The music of this duo emerges as yet another possible future.
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November
22nd Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm. Duo des autres (Catherine Jauniaux & Carole Rieussec) (Belgium-France) electronics / improvisation / key figures of contemporary music |
When the voice of Catherine Jauniaux and the sonic universe of Carole Rieussec display those brief invisible encounters colouring music, areas of instantaneous meaning arise that may subsequently disappear. Carole Rieussec practices electroacoustic and concrete music and Catherine Jauniaux sings with an untransferable voice. The former has made her sonic devices available to collaborations with Luc Ferrari, Le Qua Ninh, Martine Altenburguer, Xavier Charles, Kaffe Matthews... the latter has participated in relevant experiments during the last decades together with Aksak Maboul, The Work, Tom Cora, Lindsay Cooper, Heiner Goebbels, Steven Brown, Nick Didkowsky, Barre Philips, Erik M., Fred Frith... and yet all this does not suffice to instance the extraordinary music which we will have the pleasure of listening to...
http://perso.club-internet.fr/stellast/sh/jauniaux/cj0.htm
http://kristoffk.roll.free.fr/Kris_K/Carole.htm
November 22nd
Oniria
11,30 pm.
Blue (Barcelona)
off / electronics
Former drummer and bass player of crush-core bands, DJ and current sound sources manipulation and member of d_inf, M&D and other Barcelonese cult projects. Through his turntables a vast range of the milestones that construct a different history of sound have passed, sounds which can be listed in an unexhaustive way: constructivism, turntablism, musique concrete, minimalism, noise, Duchamp, Coleman, Psychedelic, Futurism, Edison, Buñuel, ambient... sound as a tool for immersion and trance. Depth, apnea, new breathing...
http://www.geocities.com/hazrec/hazard/artists/artists.htm
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November
23rd Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 9 pm. LT Caramel (France) electronics / debut in Barcelona |
Based in his Acteon Studio in Annecy, Lieutenant Caramel composes acousmatic music since 1986, date when he published La Boite de Pandore. Before that "official" start are three years in which he remained under the Denier du Culte identity, a mythical name in the mail-music scene of the 80's. Equally mythical is that of LT Caramel, member of the Luigi Russolo Foundation Prize jury at the Russolo-Pratella foundation after winning the third prize in 1992 with Et sonner les coucous. Caramel conceives creation as a act of resistance against the single and refusable thought. He reminds us: "As Rabelais was interested in such a horrible life as that of the Great Gargantua, in my music I like to manifest the human condition in fragments". According to the title of the 1994 France Musique prize winner composition: Hell is a small principle.
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November
23rd. Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm. Main (England) electronics / key figures in contemporary music / debut in Barcelona |
The origins of Main go back to 1986, when Robert Hampson formed Loop, band that played a seminal role in English Pop (post-punk's early stages, arcane's final) which experimented successive changes, toured extensively and released albums until breaking up in 1991. At that stage, Hampson started his Main project as he joined Godflesh, yet another key name in the popular music of the 90s, if for a short span. In Main, Hampson worked together with Scott Dawson, who also was a Loop member until he withdrew during their last European tour, preventing Hampson to continue with the project, which has produced twenty four titles and an endless list of collaborations with such musicians as David Shea, Paul Schutze or Bruce Gilbert. One of the essential names in the history of aislationism, Main is much more than that.
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November
23rd Cafe del Sol 11,30 pm. Alvaro Cabrera (Granada) off / electronics |
Visual artist, poet and playwright (he has had numerous exhibitions and publications of his works and has also won Federico Garcia Lorca Prize in 1999 for his The Day We Met play and the Fray Luis de Leon Prize in 2000 for his Pentalogy of Afflictive Love), Alvaro Cabrera came into sonic creation with Symmetrics of Electronic Percussion, the very project that he will present in LEM. A work deepening in the concept of symmetry in order to create sonic palindromes, auditive geometry where subliminally familiar organic developments are achieved by means of accumulation, disgregation, inversion...
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November
23rd Mi Bar 12,30 after midnight. k23 (Sevilla-Barcelona) audio menu |
Unstable collective proclaiming itself as heterogeneous and ambiguous; born out of learning and communicative necessities, they conceive electronics as a self-taught, vital phenomenon of which freedom is the most important ingredient. Trained in raves and alternative gatherings they share the common aim of putting forward creativity and imagination as the best possible way of assertion, protest and coherence.
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November
28th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall Ilios (Greece) electronics |
During the last three years Ilios has developed an intense activity both appearing in international festivals throughout Europe and by means of their Antifrost label productions; participating in compilations, pieces for modern dance, multimedia shows and even audiovisual research for companies. They started their work in 1992, when they appeared in Greece and began their Death of the Big Male trilogy. From then onwards, the proliferation of releases in their country reveals an unusual creative flow. Determined to conceive events for unique occasions and incorporating both electronic image and theatrical elements, Ilios reached a maturity which projected them outside their country and granted them a relevant situation in the current electronic music scene with their language, akin to contemporary art.
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November
28th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm. Gisella Frontero (Italy) electroacoustic / debut in Barcelona |
Composer of electroacoustic and chamber music, Gisella Frontero is an specialist in John Cage's work for prepared piano. As a pianist she has also interpreted numerous pieces by Italian composers and has widely toured Europe and the US. She has studied Butoh dance with Ko Murobushi and creates sound installations for visual artist Takeda Katsuya. Her music lies at an interesting crossroads in which elements of Tibetan, Chinese, Indian and African musics as well as arte povera, Fluxus, minimalism or Zen Buddhism may be found. Thus we are referring to a extremely rich and suggestive territory through which Gisella Frontero moves as few other artists can.
http://composers21.com/compdocs/fronterg.htm
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November
28th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 11 pm. Aries (Barcelona) off / electronics |
k11135, error maker uses a DJeing set up, shifts the pitch as a DJ, swaps tracks as a DJ, moves as a DJ, smiles as a DJ but sounds as a low voltage electric tin opener. What is in the tins? Totally useless certainties in the face of error philosophy. Aries is an intelligent and suggestive project of sonic mutation, where results never refer to their origin and in which the process becomes the piece.
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November
29th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 9 pm. LCD (Brazil) improvisation / electronics / debut in Barcelona |
Formed by Paulo Beto, synthesizers, sampler, kaos pad; Eloi Silvestre, self-constructed electronic devices, computer and Miguel Barella, analogic guitar and digital loops. This Sao Paulo based group adds the concept of chance to textural ambients and to the incorporation of noise into music. Literature and sci-fi cinema also play a relevant part in LCD's aesthetics; in their music the space for improvisation prevails so that spontaneity allows its random evolution. Each of the LCD's concerts is unique an irrepetible and their discography only captures passages of their live activity: instantaneous music with a noticeable dose of multidisciplinar background which causes them to collaborate with local visual artists from the countries they visit. Presentation of their "20' of Free Improvisation in Sao Paulo" published by Testing Ground-Bside Project #4.Video improvisation by the Aerica collective, formed by Carlos Aguado and Lili Marsans
http://www.arrakis.es/~testinground/lcd_bio_english.html
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November
29th Gracia District Headquarters' Hall 10 pm. Kaffe Matthews (England) electronics |
(Masterclass: 28th november,
6,00 pm. Auditori de l'Estació de França,
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Passeig de la Circumvalació, 8)
Matthews produces chaos and then takes it, by means of electronic devices, to inaudite territories through quadraphonic systems, reprocessing of ambient sound at the venue, superimposing sonic material by means of Lysa program and, obviously, by using the violin. Considered as one of the most relevant sound artists from the English scene, she has frequently collaborated with renown researchers such as Christian Fennesz, Zeena Parkins, Neotropic, Charles Hayward, Jon Rose or Pan-sonic. In the last ten years she has been to almost every destination in the globe, doing all sorts of events, such as researching the sounds of outer space thanks to the kind collaboration of the NASA or recording music based in weather forecast data. Nowadays her discography is one of the most interesting fragments of this day and age's music.
November 29th
Oníria
11,30 pm.
Lumen (Argentina)
off / electronics
Francisco Mazza started his musical career in Mendoza, Argentina in 1994 together with the industrial band Prozak. He then moved to Buenos Aires where he formed the more ambient oriented Espectro trio with whom he released two albums. With Remot -a two piece band- he explored less amiable and darker sound aspects and released the e.p. Error. Lumen is his current solo project which dates from his settling in England: sonic construction and deconstruction implemented by means of a wide palette of ingredients ranging from digital editing to lo-fi sampling through noise, melody or the use of acoustic guitar and voice.
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November
30th. L'Espai Banda Municipal de Barcelona compositions for Barcelona's Municipal Band - Closing Concert. |
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Again this year, Barcelona's Municipal Band participates in LEM, in what has come to be known as its customary concert in the festival. However, that's all the custom there is to it, for the Band has tackled scores exclusively composed for it by some quite unconventional and often rather innovative creators. From this annual encounter memorable nights stem such as the one that the following composers will surely protagonize on this occasion during the festival's closing concert:
programme
10 pm.
Llorenç
Barber (Aielo de Malferit)
DEVILS' DEVICE
There is no need to refresh the memory about one of the freshest composers in Spain's current scene. Founder member of essential collectives in the past, such as Actum ensemble, Mundane Music Workshop or Flatus Vocis Trio together with Fatima Miranda and Bartolome Ferrando, he currently is one of our most internationally acclaimed artists and lucid intellectuals who has analyzed Cage, Kagel or Satie with the same rigour and sense of humour that caracterizes his intense life. Composer of music for half the belfries in the world, he has also done concerts with the sirens of whole naval fleets and worked with Valencian bands, with which he is deeply acquainted. There is nothing else to be said. Simply, don't miss it.
http://www.cult.gva.es/gcv/agua/agua.htm
http://www.babab.com/no01/llorenc_barber.htm
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10'30
pm. Sergi Jorda (Madrid) |
MACRURUS
Probably best
known for his invention of electronic devices supporting some of
the Fura del Baus' or Marcelli Antunez best known events, Jorda is credited
with a wide career in which he has always combined research, theoretical
reflection and artistic creation. Former member of the imprescindible Clonicos,
he has also composed music for cinema, video, theatre and dance, won numerous
prizes for his audio-visual software design and has written electroacoustic
scores. He currently is a member of FMOL Trio together with Cristina Casanovas
and Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga. In MACRUCRUS Jorda has the support of Roberto
Lopez (arrangements and conduction) composer, visual artist and frequent
collaborator of Jorda's and pupil among others to Cristobal Halffter, Manfred
Trojahn, Toshio Hosokawa and Eduardo Polonio.
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11
pm Philippe Blanchard (France) |
OPEN SECRET
President of prestigious Studio Forum in Annecy where he records his compositions and produces the music of other artists, winner of numerous prizes and radio and institutional (French and foreign bodies) commissions (Bourges: Casimir, Radio France: Captain Cook, Música para La fait mal de Christophe Pellet y Anastassia Politi, Praga: Monkey Music...) Blanchard has displayed an intense career as an electroacoustic and traveling composer, this last feature has taken him to Siria, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran where he was during the eclipse occurred on August 11th 1999 and performed the legendary recording before the Mashad Mosque.
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11,
30 pm. Yolande Harris (England) |
TIDAL
Composer and visual
artist concerned with the border between these and other disciplines, Yolande
Harris works with performance and improvisation. Her compositions often
take the form of graphic or visual scores exploring the currently interchangeable
roles of composer, performer and improviser. Specialized in 20th century
composition, performance and architecture she has lived in various European
cities where she carried out her research work; her music has been performed
by Joanna MacGregor, The Composers Ensemble and Evan Parker. Creator of
video-organ, a device capable of manipulating real-time video she has developed
numerous performances, often with the collaboration of Dutch artist Bert
Bongers and always exploring the symbiosis between sound and the space
in which it is produced.
http://www.meta-orchestra.net/metronom
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November
30th Mi Bar 12 midnight. Games Addiction (Guadalajara) audio menu / closing party |
LEM 2002 comes to an
end and does it, sure enough, with a closing party in which all the people involved
in the daily work of the festival want to celebrate together with the artists
and professionals that made possible this sixth stage or state that the project
has reached. And to do so, as is customary, we will have a session by the resident
artist 2002, i.e. the winner of the off-LEM 2001: Games Addiction, who few days
after receiving the news of having won their residency won the SGAE's Iberoamerican
Electroacoustic Prize and embarked in a year of recordings and concerts throughout
Europe culminating in this night session: from their most abstract tendency
to the preference for Futurist dub, Games Addiction may well have a surprise
in store for us, something far beyond our imagination. Enjoy the Party and see
you in LEM 2003!