No less impressive is cellF, Guy Ben-Ary’s neuronal synthesizer that enables musicians to perform with neurons. From New Zealand we have Singularity, skillfully blending data, dance, music and architecture into a spectacular show for this year’s Ars Electronica Opening. On the main stage an interactive sound performance entitled Breaking the Wall, under the direction of Oliver Hödl and Peter Purgathofer, invites attendees to get actively involved with state-of-the-art technology and some cutting-edge artists. L’Etude, a project by Vibert Thio and Duanger Du, compiles a live set from melodies specially created via app by former victims of the “Formosa Fun Coast – Explosion.” Then, while still reeling from these unconventional sounds, the audience will be transported into unprecedented terpsichorean realms by _nybble_ from Paris and Kyoka from the Raster-Noton label. Finally, patten, a Warp Records live act will conclude the night.

7:30 PM / Mariendom
First performance of the Taiwanese dance performance L’Enfant (Derjk Wu)

7:30 PM / POSTCITY
The sound artists Ei Wada (JP), Megumi Takei (JP), Rinichi Washimi (JP) and Keisuke Tanaka (JP) present the Sempookin Quartette (Electric Fan Quartette), an electronic musical instrument of the Electronicos Fantasticos! project.

8 PM / POSTCITY (Upper Level)
Entropy

8 PM / POSTCITY (Train Hall)
cellF

8:30 PM / POSTCITY (Train Hall)
Breaking the Wall

9 PM / POSTCITY (Train Hall)
Étude

9:35 PM / POSTCITY (Train Hall)
_nybble_

10:20 PM / POSTCITY (Train Hall)
Kyoka (JP)

11:20 PM / POSTCITY (Train Hall)
SINØ (PT)

12:05 AM / POSTCITY (Train Hall)
patten, Wrap Records (UK)

20 Etudes for 20 Etudes

Twenty real-time parameter-driven visualizations for Philip Glass’s Twenty Etudes for Piano performed by Maki Namekawa

The visualizations can be considered as etudes themselves, exploring visual and time-based relationships between basic topics like pattern and form, symbol and language as well as time and space, motion and position. Most of the pieces work with real-time-generated CGI, with a strong and immediate response to the music based on a comprehensive analysis of the audio signal from two microphones close to the piano. Some are combinations of CGI with photography or video and two use only video but with variations in the playback speed and the triggering of cue points controlled by the live music.

The visualizations, quite like the etudes themselves, have not been developed in their numerical sequence, but when we started to perform the complete etudes most visualizations were modified and some were completely remade to create a more intuitive flow.

The complete set of all twenty visualized etudes was premiered in February 2017 at National Sawdust, New York.

POSTCITY Nightline

* Due to illness of the artist Throwing Shade (Ninja Tune, UK) we have slightly modified the timetable. We ask for your understanding!

POSTCITY Salon Stage hosted by Salon 2000

Getting the party started is Kœnig, the drum and vocals soloist who garnered fame in the Austrian neo-Dada project königleopold, with its intoxicating performance just skirting the edge of insanity. Battle-ax, a native of Australia who has made a home for herself in Vienna, opens the Main Stage with a loud, droning sound performance whipped up with viola and electronics. Spectro Duo’s live multimedia performance segues into the world of microsounds. Students in Linz Art University’s Interface Cultures master’s program once again confront various contexts of media art.

Kœnig
Photo: Paul Gärtner

Dorian Concept
Photo: Philippe Levy

Next up is Nabihah Iqbal aka Throwing Shade (Ninja Tune), who will perform her eclectic mixture of contemporary electronic music, pop and Internet aesthetic. Her local Ninja Tune colleague, Dorian Concept, then steps up to do a melodic, beat-heavy set featuring material from his soon-to-be-released album. He will be followed by Darkstar, Englishmen known for their energetic live performances and an inimitable mix of techno sounds, minimalism, grime and left-field pop. Lorenzo Senni, who got his start as a drummer but whose latest album on the Warp label is 100 percent percussion-free, concludes these proceedings on the Main Stage with melodic, driving trance set-pieces.

Lorenzo Senni

Throwing Shade
Photo: Miya Shen

The night owls among us will be happy to learn that, parallel to the Main Stage lineup, the Salon Stage will feature local Linzer live acts working in the experimental electronic music genre beginning at 11 p.m. At 1:30 a.m., legendary Dutch DJ Marcelle / Another Nice Mess serves up one of her fabled obscure-sample-studded sets—just the stuff for people who need to keep on dancing.

Chaired by Prix Ars Electronica jurors, these discussions provide fascinating insights into the individual categories.

• Cedrik Fermont (CD/BE/DE), Dimitri della Faille (BE/CA), Not Your World Music: Noise In South East Asia (Golden Nica)
• Lucas Abela (AU), Gamelan Wizard (Award of Distinction)
• Marco Donnarumma (IT/DE), Corpus Nil (Award of Distinction)

Chair: Rikke Frisk (DK), jury member of the 2017 Prix Ars Electronica

Ben-Ary had a biopsy taken from his arm; then he cultivated his skin cells and, using iPS technology, he transformed the skin cells into stem cells, which were then differentiated into neural networks grown over a multi-electrode-array (MEA) dish to become “Guy’s external brain.” The MEA dishes consist of a grid of 8 x 8 electrodes. These can record the electric signals the neurons produce and send stimulations back to the neurons—a read-and-write interface to the “brain”. Human musicians are invited to play with cellF. The human-made music is fed to the neurons as stimulation, and the neurons respond by controlling the synthesizers. Together they perform live, reflexive and improvised sound pieces that are not entirely human. The sound is spatialized into sixteen speakers. The spatialized reflects the pockets of activity within the MEA dish. Walking around the space offers the sensation of walking through Guy’s external brain.

cellF was initiated and spearheaded by the artist Guy Ben-Ary. It is also the result of a collaborative work involving Ben-Ary as well as the designer and new media artist Nathan Thompson, electrical engineer and synthesizer builder Dr. Andrew Fitch, musician Dr. Darren Moore, neuroscientist Dr. Stuart Hodgetts, stem-cell scientist Dr. Michael Edel and neuro-engineer Dr. Douglas Bakkum. Each contributor played an important role in shaping the final outcome.

Credits

The project is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Department of Culture and the Arts WA.

The project is hosted by SymbioticA @ the University of Western Australia.

Linz Becomes a Seaport

The fateful voyage of the Pequod, the whaling ship whose Captain Ahab was driven by blind hate to hunt down a white sperm whale, will be performed in a theatrical form that conveys all of the work’s drama and philosophy. The proximity to water and the far-fetched possibility that Moby Dick could have wended his way upriver as far as Linz impart a very special appeal to this production with a local hook. The events played out on the water will be duplicated on land in terms of a performance and visuals that make them comprehensible to the huge audience assembled here. Modern dance and the acrobatic moves by trained gymnasts are the means of expression for a cast of about 100 performers. Before the eyes of Klangwolke spectators, Ahab’s madness manifests itself in a climactic confrontation with his arch enemy, Moby Dick. This production takes spectators on a journey overseas and back to Linz again.

Music and Narrator

This performance is musically based on Ahab!, an orchestral work by American composer Stephen Melillo. Written for an orchestra of wind instruments and a narrator, this piece powerfully underscores the unbending will of a man struggling against God and the whale. Playing Ahab and narrating as well is none other than Christian Brückner, a Grimme Award winner and the voice of Robert De Niro in German versions of the American actor’s films.

“Melville’s text has preoccupied me at least half my life. Recreating it in this extraordinary setting is a fantastic assignment.”

The Fireworks

This year’s fireworks are a substantive element of the production, a means of expression employed intentionally to create powerful imagery. Pyrotechnic effects intensify several of the scenes, culminating in the finale of a shipwreck accompanied by violent explosions.

After-party

Immediately following the 2017 Sparkasse OÖ Klangwolke, Linz AG cordially invites visitors to keep the extravaganza going in Sandburg and the Donaupark. Providing the music at the Linz AG Nachklangwolke is Eugene the Cat.

Credits

Design: Helix Event Inszenierungen
Director, choreographer: Christine Maria Krenn
Producer: Roland Krenn
Technical director: Helmut Scheiber

Sponsors: Sparkasse OÖ, Linz AG, Wiener Städtische Versicherung, Lentia City, VICOM, Austrian Federal Chancellery, Design Center Linz, The City of Linz, ORF—Austria Broadcasting Company—Upper Austria regional studio, OÖ Nachrichten, Kronen Zeitung OÖ, LIVA, Brucknerhaus Linz

http://www.helix.co.at
http://www.klangwolke.at

The results are a wild array of cacophonous noise that is oddly controlled and strangely musical. The instruments’ simple, original and effective premise is a welcome respite from the technically complicated musical performances of modern times. A unique act redefining the expression “don’t try this at home,” this show quite simply needs to be witnessed to be fully appreciated, let alone understood.

It attempts to translate the current climate of demagogy, terror and disdain for the democratic institutions of this Southeast Asian country into sound and visuals. It is based on field recordings, synthetic sounds and visuals and will receive its world premiere at the Big Concert Night.

In contrast to the noisy soundscapes of most parts of South Asia, which tend to become a massive wall of sounds, the composition’s minimalist approach plunges the listener into various meditative states (or let’s hope so!).

The piece emphasizes the contrast between sounds of Southeast Asian instruments, which are usually made to be performed in a collective ensemble, and the isolationism of the listeners (and performer), an unusual concept in Southeast Asian societies, in which social and cultural activities are usually made or attended collectively.