Author: admin

Performances 2010

  By

Recent Performances 2010
Europe tour — workshops / performances:
Nov. 4 Orbis-Pictus Gallery, with Michael Delia (opening of “Play” exhibition), Prague
Nov. 5 Workshop at FAMU (Film and TV school), Prague
Nov. 6 Skolska — solo performance
Nov. 8 Altes Finanzamt – with Thea Farhadian, Berlin
Nov. 9 Workshop at Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg
Nov. 10 Hörbar – solo performance

back in NY:
Nov. 13 Magic Names Ensemble (Vital Vox festival) premieres work by Gisburg

Nov. 16 annual “in-C” reading Darmstadt New Music at Poisson Rouge
http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/view/1498
Nov. 22 quartet with Ras Moshe, Shayna Dulberger, Andrew Drury Evolving Voice series Local 269

Franklin Furnace Grant 2010

  By

Franklin Furnace Fund grant for 2010 to continue work on a “Robotica” – for Eric Singer’s GuitarBot and various percussion bots plus gestural controllers. Inspired by the work of Al-Jazari, a 13th century Mesopotamian/Iraqi inventor of the first musical automaton and many other ingenious devices..

The work was presented at Music with a View —  March 26, 2011.

New Instruments For Improvisation and Experimental Approaches 6/28/2010

  By , ,

Symposium on June 28, 2010 at HERE ARTS CENTER, New York: New instruments for Improvisation and Experimental Approaches with Laetitia Sonami, Dafna Naphtali, Matthew Ostrowski and Hans Tammen

New Instruments For Improvisation And Experimental Approaches, an investigation into contemporary sound art and experimental music using custom made electronic instruments, will consider the methods and intentions of 4 artists building new instruments and specialized interfaces. In a day-long series of presentations, talks and performances these artists will discuss how their practice as improvisers, sound artists and experimental musicians lead to inventing their own tools, and how these inventions in turn influenced their musical performance techniques.

New Instruments for Improvisation and Experimental Approaches at HERE ARTS CENTER

Flickr photostream of event:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/harvestworks/8228050123/in/set-72157632128783264/lightbox

 

 

compositions: What is it Like to be a Bat ? – 1997- present

  By ,

In collaboration with composer/performer Kitty Brazelton, these are the compositions written for What is it Like to be a Bat? (our “digital punk” trio with Danny Tunick).

She said, She said, “Will you sing ‘Sermonette’ with me ?” 1997

5 dreams: marriage (NYSCA commission) 2000

StaBAT.mom (recorded, unpublished, presently being mixed..) 2006

 

 

News: Spring 2010

  By

“Panda Half-Life”, my piece for Magic Names vocal sextet plus electronics premiered 6/17/11 at Issue Project Room  (plus we performed an excerpt from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Stimmung!). Dense and sparse, composed and aleatoric, sung and wheezed.. with 6 singers, 15 audio speakers, 6 game controllers.

Made possible with funding from American Composers Forum and support from Harvestworks.

6/28/10 I participated in “New instruments for Improvisation and Experimental Approaches” a day-long symposium June 28th organized by Harvestworks. I will present projects created during my residency this year and perform as well. Also presenting / performing are Matthew Ostrowski, Hans Tammen, Laetitia Sonami.

Panda Half-Life — 2010

  By ,

Panda Half-Life is a 20-minute work for 6 voices, live audio processing / electronics, multi-channel sound and gestural controllers (Nintendo Wii and iPhones) — commissioned for Magic Names vocal ensemble by Jerome Commissioning Program (American Composers’ Forum) and with support from Harvestworks.

The work makes use of extended vocal technique percussive vocalizations as well as more traditional vocal writing, and spoken word.   It is influenced by Stockhausen, Meredith Monk, Ligeti, Trevor Wishart, and also many early music and non-western vocal ensemble traditions (i.e. use of phonemes and overtones,  abstract but very human vocal gestures and melody, clusters, and complex interwoven  rhythmic patterns).

I also wrote a custom computer program for the live audio processing components of the work, using Max/MSP.  The piece is fully scored using traditional and graphic notation, and includes a few aleatoric/improvisational sections.   I explore the musical and acoustic interaction of six voices with a variety of textures and structures.   With six separate live audio processes, I create a uniquely enhanced and interactive electronic vocal ensemble sound using polyrhythmic textures. aleatoric musical gestures, audio triggers, and Morse Code to create rhythmic structures out of text, all controlled via. live pitch tracking, envelope following, with live sampling and vocal processing.

Magic Names ensemble (with Gisburg, Peter Sciscioli, Robert Osborne, Daisy Press, Nick Hallett, Dafna Naphtali) formed in 2007 to perform Karlheinz Stockhausen’s seminal vocal  work, Stimmung.

In June 2010, Magic Names vocal ensemble premiered Panda Half-Life paired with an excerpt of Stimmung, at Issue Project Room  (Brooklyn). as part of the month long 2010 Darmstadt Institute series.  Both pieces made use of the venue’s unique 15-channel sound system to enhance and clarify the electronics and the pure and extended vocal sounds in both pieces.

In April 2011 we recorded Panda Half-Life at New York University’s Dolan Recording Studios and plan a repeat performance in the next season.

 

Robotica

  By , ,

music for music robots / voice / electronics

image: Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Al-Jazari, 13th century)

Robotica is inspired by the person and work of the ingenious early 13th century scholar/inventor Al-Jazari, the Mesopotamian creator of the some of the very first musical automata (as well as many other devices).    Robotica is written for Eric Singer’s “GuitarBot”, his array of percussion “ModBot” robots and “XyloBot”, as well as my spoken and sung texts and live sound manipulations.

I am intrigued by Al-Jazari’s drawings and descriptions of his mechanical inventions in his  “Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices” written over eight hundred years ago in 1206.    “Robotica”  is my imagined music for his automata and in part reflecting on mechanical aspects of his many remarkable inventions, musical and non-musical some of which are still in use today.

The piece has been and ongoing project since 2008 when the first ideas and music were developed with the LEMUR music robots during a residency at Eric Singer’s LEMURPlex (see video bottom of the page).    Through funding from Franklin Furnace Fund it was further developed and presented in 2011 during Music with a View at Flea Theater.
(see video below).    And in March 2016, the piece was once again expanded for performance at Avant Music Festival 2016 (with the Bricolo Music System).

Wil “maraca” controllers of the xylobot

In performance, I control both the notes being played by the LEMUR robots and my audio processing via computer programs which I write (in Max/MSP) and with 2 Wii controllers in tandem physical gestures.     Many of the texts I speak and sing were originally generated using an online poetry robot and I created rhythms and melody and embedded meaning using Morse Code for the word “robot” and texts related to Al-Jazari.  These ideas, plus my use of polyrhythmic metronomes have all been part of my long-term musical work and inquiry.

LEMUR xylobot

This performance/variable media art work was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.  Major support of the Franklin Furnace Fund was provided in 2010-11 by the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, and Jerome Foundation.

Performance and development of the work started during my 2008 residency at LEMURPlex (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, then in Brooklyn, run by Eric Singer).   In 2011 with funding from Franklin Furnace fund and support from Harvestworks (rehearsal space and material support), I finished the next part of the work, recorded and presented the work-in-progress during a Music with  View concert curated by Kathleen Supové at Flea Theater.

In March 2016, songs from Robotica were included on a solo evening performance as part of Avant Music Festival 2016 – Tuesday Tangents series at Wild Project, NYC.  This was an expanded full-evening version of the work, using a mechanical music system by Nick Yulman (Brooklyn). More information about the concert here..

As part of the concert I was interviewed by Steven Swartz for (now defunct) SoundNotion podcast in episode #229.

Documentation from Avant Music Fest 2016:

Working on the piece in my studio prior to the Avant Music Festival show in 2016:

Photos from the concert:
Robotica at Avant Media 2016

Here is some earlier documentation from back in 2008 when developing the first version of the pieces at a residency at Eric Singer’s LEMURPlex (Brooklyn).

CD Chatter Blip

  By ,

Dafna Naphtali – sound processing, electronics & voice
Chuck Bettis – electronics & voice

Buy CD here, or buy at iTunes

Recorded March 2009

1 – council 64 (7:17)
2 – gab jiba (6:33)
3 – hybrid chatter (1:54)
4 – renegade (9:45)
5 – fade flatlands (12:26)
6 – breach (8:05)
7 – blip wiki (6:20)
Total Time: 63:20

CHATTER BLIP is a duo performance piece by Chuck Bettis (electronics/voice and Dafna Naphtail (electronics/processing/voice) — an interstellar multi-character audio operetta involving a multitude of human, alien, and machine voices, in a mash-up of primal and classic sci-fi and electro-acoustics.

Dafna Naphtali + Chuck Bettis: Chatter Blip by hansteg

Track 1:
council_64
a petition from a lowly human causes much debate among the Devices (the hybrid electronic beings from planet_64).   The living oracle predicts that all humans must return to earth in order to survive and will soon start an uprising.   The greek chorus are hybrid children — interrupting the proceedings, invading, and playing some ancient earth music they have discovered.

Track 2:
gab jiba
the Supreme Device agitatedly debates with itself about whether or not it can allow the human petitioner to return to her planet.  It fondly recalls the quaint human traditions, and their influence on the culture of planet_64, and especially a favorite– the ritual office dance.    to calm himself he gives orders for some of the humans to be brought in to amuse him.   Meanwhile, unseen, the petitioner surreptitiously slips into an idle transporter.  She starts desperately hitting random buttons, and is suddenly successful and serendipitously and instantly transported elsewhere in the galaxy.

Track 3:
hybrid chatter
the petitioner, now far from planet_64 discovers that her transporter is also itself a hybrid being (although it is not as intelligent as a Device).   To save herself, she befriends it, impersonating a Device. remaining quiet about her identity, she is able to keep the transporter unaware that she is actually a runaway human.

Track 4:
renegade
back on planet_64, at a renegade human settlement, humans toil side by side and live in harmony with lower caste machines and decommissioned (former) Devices.     The tribal leader calls the humans together and declares that the time has come for the great uprising and for humans return to their home planet as had long been foretold.   Energized, the humans immediately set to the task of completing the work of many generations, secretly building a transporter of materials that humans have grown and mined themselves (and using designs stolen from the Devices).

Track 5:
flatlands
the humans  finally lift off in their homemade transporter, to scour the galaxy and find the petitioner in her stolen craft.    But their navigation system is very primitive.   They can only navigate by using their feelings and intuition to communicate with the instruments and locate the petitioner.    As they built the ship themselves, their transporter is not a hybrid, nor a device.  It is powered with the help of mysterious flat beings who also were long ago enslaved by the hybrids and so are in alliance with and loyal to all humans.

Track 6
breach
on planet_64 the council discovers the breach. They angrily realize that the petitioner has made off with a vehicle, and worse, that a renegade group of humans has followed her in rebellion.

Track 7
blip wiki
the renegades’ transporter has located the petitioner and her ship. The two transporters begin to communicate and discover an affinity for each other —  they begin to move closer and attracted to each other both physically and emotionally.   The petitioner, lonely and hopeful, knows that very soon she will be with her people again and finally on her way back to earth.   She sings an ancient song she remembers from a previous life.  She does not know what awaits her.

cd reviews..
François Couture / Monsieur Délire
There are lyrics buried in the effects (and included in the booklet), sci-fi metaphores that give the music a futuristic aura it wears well. These are not songs but edgy improvisations with in a rough though stimulating style.

Massimo Ricci / TemporaryFault
Certain solutions are quite humorous – occasionally awesome – in their warped glory, completely unrecognizable voices utilized as instruments for the generation of baffling soundscapes abounding in rhythmic diversifications, clustery indeterminations and instant outgrowths dressed with timbres from the depth of a black hole.

Andrea Ferrari / Chain DLK
..strange analog-electronic, bleeps, angel vocals, lyrical intersections, outer space yodels .. creates this strange “life after death” experience.

 

 

Dafna Naphtali & LEMUR GuitarBot / PercussionBots May 2008

  By , ,

This performance was at Eric Singer’s space at the time LEMURPlex, as part of a residency there to create a project for GuitarBot and the PercussionBots.

In 2011, Dafna received Franklin Furnace Fund award 2011 to further develop this work, which was preformed March 26, 2011 at Flea Theater Music with a View, and later again in 2016 further developed and performed at Avant Music Fest using Nick Yulman’s instruments.

More information:

Robotica