Jefferson Park EXP with Visda Goudarzi/Anna Xambó and Gerard Roma – November 21, 2pm

In lieu of free live shows at the neighborhood library, we’re doing free live shows via twitch! The next show is on Sunday November 21 at 2pm (CST/UTC-06), join us!

https://www.twitch.tv/jeffersonparkexp

‘immerse in the lake’ is a remote live coding performance for two laptop performers distributed on two different continents. The performance is based on processing sound generated by crowdsourced and personal site-specific field recordings from Chicago throughout the year. The piece is a real-time improvisation and a free interpretation of John Cage’s ‘A Dip in the Lake’.

Visda Goudarzi and Anna Xambó started this collaboration in summer 2021 for the performance “Livesourcing: Audience Participation in a Live Coding Performance” premiered at Ear Taxi Festival, Chicago, IL, USA. https://youtu.be/FQXAOBvSZBk

Visda Goudarzi is a computer musician working at the intersection of audio and human-computer interaction. Her research interests include sound and music computing, live coding, and data sonification, sound synthesis, and the application of new media in art. She designs and performs using interactive and participatory sonic interfaces. Her sonic works include live electronic performances, live coding and data driven sound. She is an Assistant Professor of Audio Arts and Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago.

https://www.colum.edu/academics/faculty/detail/visda-goudarzi.html

Anna Xambó is an experimental electronic music producer and researcher. Her research and practice focus on sound and music computing systems looking at novel approaches to collaborative, participatory, and live coding experiences. To date, she has released three solo recordings: “init” (2010, Carpal Tunnel), “On the Go” (2013, Carpal Tunnel) and “H2RI” (2018, pan y rosas). Her solo and group performances have been presented internationally in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in music and audio technology at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK) and a member of the Music, Technology and Innovation – Institute of Sonic Creativity (MTI^2).

http://annaxambo.me

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Gerard Roma investigates the inner life of sounds by poking at computers and other electronic circuits. His work often involves digital transformation of recorded sound textures coerced into algorithmic forms via live coding and self-made audio-visual instruments.

https://g-roma.github.io

pan y rosas release dirty dialogues by dirty electronics ensemble, jon.ogara, and anna xambó!

Dirty Electronics focuses on shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. In Dirty Electronics, process and performance are inseparably bound. The ‘performance’ begins on the workbench devising instruments and is extended onto the stage through playing and exploring these instruments. This time around the ensemble consists of John Richards, Amit D Patel aka Dushume, Audrey Riley, Sam Topley, Harry Smith, Zach Dawson, Robin Foster, Jacob Myer Braslawsce, Ben Middle, Samuel Warren, Matt Rogerson. Photo by Susanne Grunewald.

Jon.Ogara started his musical path by learning the flute at school and discovered the delights of classical music. He studied electronics at the University of Manchester with a focus on radio communications. At university, he learnt the guitar and started to create more independent rock music, influenced by bands such as The Fall or Cabaret Voltaire. He discovered the saxophone and Jazz and started to bring together ideas of Jazz improvisation into his composition. With the development of the internet and connected devices, he started to explore the world of experimental music and began to share ideas and compositions.

Anna Xambó is a researcher and musician with a background in computer science engineering, digital humanities and digital arts. She completed her phd in 2015 (the open university), specializing in music computing and HCI, and is currently a senior lecturer in music and audio technology (de Montfort University). Her musical practice includes live coding, multichannel spatialization, tangible music, collaborative interfaces, audience participation with mobile devices, and intelligent music systems for music performance. She has performed internationally and works actively in the music tech and experimental electronic music scenes as a co-founder of the online music record label Carpal Tunnel in Barcelona (Spain); as co-founder of Women in Music Tech at Georgia Tech (USA); as co-founder of Women Nordic Music Technology (Norway); and as a co-organizer of international concerts.

Dirty Dialogues documents a live encounter between Dirty Electronics Ensemble, Jon.Ogara and Anna Xambó in a free music improvisation session after a long pandemic lockdown. Thirteen musicians on stage combining analogue and digital instruments, acoustic and electronic materials, live coding and DIY sound-making techniques. An intense polymorphic journey of sonic exploration and chaos, which is especially recommended for noise music lovers. This album was recorded on May 17, 2021 at PACE (De Montfort University) with no audience due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Get the album here!

kind words for marta smilga, jelena glazova, tay_ploops, lola de la mata, nhung nguyen, anna xambó, and bella!

the extended kindness comes from closer listen. read the whole thing there!

Many labels make an effort to raise the profile of female electronic musicians, but pan y rosa discos goes all out. Of their fifteen releases so far this year, eight are by women. Their music demonstrates an incredible variety of styles and is drawn from a wide variety of countries…

When listening to the first few seconds of attractive synthesis by Latvia’s Līga Smirnova, one thinks, “oh, it’s just another club-based synth track.” But listen just a little longer, and all preconceptions will be destroyed…

Jelena Glazova may be another Latvian artist, but her approach is vastly different from that of her labelmate. Relying on heavily processed voice, Glazova creates soundscapes that flutter and pop without providing any hint of their human genesis…

The script flips again with tay_ploops (Jessica Gabriel). The Vancouver-based artist also uses voice, but her voice is recognizable throughout, delving into poetry, fragment, onomatopoeia, and all manner of stutter and loop. spool oops is a fun album, as one might expect from the title, as well as by some of Gabriel’s other careers (puppeteer, clown)…

Shifting gears once again, we encounter the work of London’s Lola de la Mata, an impossible to categorize artist whose work demonstrates incredible intelligence and complexity. de la Mata’s main interest is the kinesthetic nature of the body in relation to movement and sound. Her work has often been used in dance performances, as the nuances of her compositions lend themselves well to creative interpretations. In Remise en Bouche (Palate Cleanser), one can hear percussive breath and snapshots of song, along with static and feedback, trains and bells, violin and voice…

Vietnam’s Nhung Nguyen (Sound Awakener) offers an intriguing combination of static and chime on the 12-minute single piece Oblivion. The drone influence is apparent along with the “drifting, falling” feel of ambience, justifying the description of the work as “calm, meditative, chaotic and noisy.” While listening, one feels the tug between peace and activity, retreat and forward surge, work and play, regret and letting go…

Those listening to these releases in order may flinch when they reach Anna Xambó‘s H2RI, a collection of twenty one-minute tracks rife with feedback and noise. The album would make a great alarm clock. But there is also pattern in noise: frequency, repetition, dynamic contrast, give-and-take…

The latest label release comes from Brazilian artist Bella, and captures a live half-hour performance inspired by water and light. The piece, titled UN, is as dark as the unmapped fathoms, where furtive movement is often imperceptible and creatures create their own illumination. One can imagine this piece filling the performance space with reverberation, sound waves bouncing off walls and traveling through bodies…

pan y rosas release H2RI by anna xambó!

anna xambó is a researcher and musician with a background in computer science engineering, digital humanities and digital arts. she completed her phd in 2015 (the open university), specializing in music computing and HCI, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the centre for digital music (queen mary university of london).

her musical practice includes live coding, multichannel spatialization, tangible music, collaborative interfaces, audience participation with mobile devices, and real-time music information retrieval. she has performed internationally and works actively in the music tech and experimental electronic music scene, as a co-founder of the online music records carpal tunnel in barcelona (spain), co-founder of women in music tech at georgia tech (usa), and co-organizer of international concerts.

H2RI is an instance of a generative album created by anna xambó in 2018. the 20 tracks of 1′ each have been generated using her self-built tool MIRLC, a library for using music information retrieval techniques in live coding. a basic rule has shaped the audio sources of the album: to only use of short sounds from the crowd-sourced, online, sound database freesound. each track is complemented with the code in SuperCollider and the attribution to the authors of the original sounds.

get the album here!