Unburying, from Liminals, Emerging: Three Contexts for a Microtonal Prepared Piano
(2025)
author(s): Matt Choboter
published in: Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
Can an acoustic grand piano be sonically and conceptually reimagined so as to re-negotiate its foundational assumptions around tuning and timbre? Why should the piano continue to be so accustomed to only one tuning system? In contrast, how can “pure sounds” (ratios found in the harmonic series) co-exist with ethnically diverse microtonal tunings?
Spanning a period from 2020-2022, “Unburying, from Liminals, Emerging” explores a microtonal prepared piano in three artistic contexts. These include: a solo project called “Postcards of Nostalgia; a chamber ensemble consisting of saxophone trio, percussion and piano; and a “percussion ensemble with soprano saxophone called Juniper Fuse.
Dialoging with a newly invented tuning system, what emergent properties might we find when magnetic piano preparations are used to evoke specific timbral effects from Balinese Gamelan and Indian Karnatik music? Collectively, how can this expanded notion of “piano” merge with spatialization to facilitate interactive experiences for audiences? How might a process-oriented Jungian-inspired dream work communicate itself so as to distill and coalesce a fertile musical landscape?
En Pladespiller Symfoni
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Turkman Souljah
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Historien om Pladespiller symfonien startede dengang Lawand Shakur Othman fandt en paldespiller i en skraldespand i et socialt udsat boligomåde. Sammen med denne pladespiller var der et par plader, og en af disse plader var en klassisk plade. Den skulle vise sig at kickstarte drømmen for Lawand om at skrive en Symfoni for pladespilleren.
Igennem sin forskning som er præsenteret her på hjemmesiden samles der empiri, ideer og der bliver foretaget en række forsøg som udmunder sig i værker af både audio og video formater. Der bliver forsket i byggeklodser som kan udvide den pladespilleristiske værktøjskasse, disse byggeklodser kredser om scratching, pladeformater, Præpareret, melodisk og polyfonisk pladespillerisme.
Denne forskning har været fundamentet for at Lawand nu skal opføre sin pladespiller symfoni den 23Juni 2022 på Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium i København.
Men kan man bare tage en masse pladespillere og skrive polyfonisk musik på dem ved at sammenspille dem? Eller er det dogmer omkring bruget af ordet Symfoni? Denne forsknings opgave kommer ser også på den historiske Kontekstualisering af pladespilleren og sætter den op imod nutidens samfundsmæssige værdier, hvorfor der også redegøres for vigtigheden af at et vestligt klassisk musikudtryk som “Symfoni” bliver sammensat med et forbrugsprodukt som “pladespilleren”.
Lawand Shakur Othman aka Turkman Souljah
Although Changed, I Arise the Same (The Spirituality of Spirals)
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Calum Builder
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Although Changed, I Arise the Same (The Spirituality of Spirals) is a personal artistic exploration into the artist’s shifting context & practice derived from the utilisation of spiral formations in the creative process. Originally conceived as an intervallic system based on spiral formations, this project evolved to encompass an investigation into the metaphorical and conceptual implications of spirals. This is a different form of a system — one not built on intervals but on swirling water & howling winds. It is a story about shifting from the concrete & practical to the abstract & conceptual.
It explores how, where & why I utilise spiral formations.
Yet, more pertinently, it discusses how working with spirals redefined my own artistic context.
A spiral became a symbol that transcended inspiration.
It became a form of spirituality.