LOOKING FOR THAT BEAUTIFUL DETAIL

New film by new media artist and art activist Morehshin Allahyari. Sound design: Ivo Bol. Premiered at the Dallas Biennale april 13 2012.

Februari 18 2012

SnakeCharmers’ Ball at the Something Raw Festival, Expozaal Brakke Grond 18.00 – 22.00 hrs. Benoît Lachambre and SNDO Students Sound: Ivo Bol

Demonstration of my new instrument: the Yourock Guitar with Wii mote & Nunchuck attached.

In November 2011 I stayed at the Center for Experimental Music & Intermedia (CEMI), part of the Composition Studies of the University of North Texas in Denton TX, as a visiting composer. The residency was made possible with the support of the Netherland-America Foundation
and the Fonds Podiumkunsten

I had access to a great studio, equipped with a beautiful surround sound setup, being able to work undisturbed on my new setup. I recently bought a Yourock Midi guitar to control my ever changing setup consisting of LiSa,  a Nord Micro Modular  and Ableton Live. Even though it feels like a plastic toy guitar it turns out to be pretty cool controlling midi notes and cc data with it, especially since I did play guitar at some point in my life. I experimented with attaching a Wii mote and Nunchuck (data conversion by JunXion) to the guitar, enabling me to send more midi CC information when rocking out.

I concluded my stay in Denton with a concert with the new setup, performing my piece Amanda (originally made for this performance) in a surround sound installation an my composition Cosmological Flight in a 8 channel version.

Afterwards it was my great pleasure to visit New Orleans

My gracious hosts Dana Jessen and Mike Straus at a microbrewery, the day after our performance at the Blue Nile.

Wave Field Synthesis is a technique for distributing sound through space in a realistic way. It is based on the Huygens principle, applied to sound. The WFS system from the Game of Life foundation is the only portable system in the world, consisting of 192 speakers set up in a square of say 10 by 10 meters. Amazingly, it is possible to move the sounds outside the square of speakers, as if they come from 50 meters away. The interface for the system is very capable of working with sounds algorithmically or draw movements with a mouse or pen, registering the speed of movement, thus enabling a very precise and organic way of composing.

The inspiration for Cosmological Flight, my first piece for the system, is the way painters Jackson Pollock and Kazemir Malevich used space. The recording here is a stereo mix, not representative for the actual piece. Panning is simulating the spacial design a bit (listen with your headphones). The graphic descritptions below of the piece gives an idea of the spacial development (opens in a new tab).

Cosmological Flight by Vinkepeezer

To get an idea of the complexity this is a screen print of the editor showing the design around 4 minutes in the piece.

It was first performed at The Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht on September 11th, the week after in the Stevenskerk in Nijmegen (see pictures below), and on september 23rd – 24th at Todays ARt festival in Den Haag. The next schedule performance is at the Wavefields Festival, december 2nd at OT 301 in Amsterdam, along with some other great works by Kees Tazelaar, Ji Youn Kang, Arthur Sauer and Funckarma. Don’t miss it, this is really something special.

Cosmological Flight was commissioned by the Fonds Podiumkunsten.

My friend Ties Mellema programmed the Uitgast festival last summer, a music festival in the nature park Flevoland in Lelystad. It had a great program, with a fantastic performance of the Ploctones and a performance of Schonbergs’ magnificent Verklarte Nacht. He invited me and composer Bart de Vrees to produce a soundwalk on august 20th through the park. The soundwalk was inspired by the Planets from Gustav Holst. Bart took fragments of the Planets and rearranged them for musicians to be performed on the way. The soundwalk ended with my cacaphonic, 8-turntable”live remix” of the piece.

Short clip from a broadcast by omroep Flevoland (in Dutch):

Yes we slept in a Swifterband- village

I have been working with Luis Lara Malvacias since 2005. Our latest collaboration is a wonderful performance called AMANDA & THE BLACK VOID OF SPACE, directed by Luis, which we made this spring at the Warehouse 9 in Copenhagen, and performed at the Joyce Soho afterwards in New York. AMANDA might be his most radical piece (from what I’ve seen), it is also amazing and I will encourage everyone to go see it september 8th at OT 301.

In a black void, dreams, reality and fiction become intertwined. The only thing remaining is the body, and its history. In AMANDA & THE BLACK VOID OF SPACE, Lara Malvacías explores unpredictability and theatrical narrative.

AMANDA & THE BLACK VOID OF SPACE is produced by 3RD CLASS CITIZEN, Warehouse 9 in Copenhagen en Joyce Soho in New York. Luis Lara Malvacias / 3RD CLASS CITIZEN has created several touring performance/installation projects that involve multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary collaborative projects and events presented in non-conventional spaces. Luis Lara Malvacías has been presenting experimental dance works in New York, Europe and Latin America since 1994.

LUIS LARA MALVACIAS / 3RD CLASS CITIZEN Performers: luis lara malvacias, jeremy nelson, manuel alfonso perez torres Music: ivo bol Lights: david tirosh, katinka marac and luis lara malvacias

New York Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/arts/dance/amanda-the-black-void-of-space-at-joyce-soho-review.html

Last year ensemble Brooomm! asked me to make a piece for them. I do not write notes or scores, but I was excited about the idea since they are a unique ensemble playing contemporary music with harpsichord, saxophone, cello and percussion / turntables. The piece I came up with is called Synthese (Synthesis), I wanted to merge my own sound world with the sounds and skills of the ensemble.

First I made an electronic composition with four parts, each of them small musical stories. Each instrument triggers the playback of one of the four parts, with an audio to midi trigger (using junXion software). The task of the players in the first part is to interrupt each other and improvise with the material. The second part was a quiet part, with some electronic playback of the recorded cello, improvisation on the turntable and a continuous sound of harpsichord notes using an ebow. I imagined the third part as a very short, dreamy ending soaked in reverb, where everything comes together in a strange way.

Click here to have a listen at the recording in Korzo 15.10.2010:

Synthese

The piece was premièred at Club Brooomm! in Korzo (Binck location) in Den Haag, together with other music and dance performances, october 15th 2010. Dancer Joeri Dubbe improvised to the music. The piece was also performed at the Kikker in Utrecht December 10th.

SYNTHESIS 14:32″ Ivo Bol 2010
composition for ensemble, turntable and LiSa
performed by Ivo Bol and ensemble Brooommm

In this new piece for electronics , turntable and LiSa software the musicians trigger and improvise with small electronic sound events, merging and combining everything in a new synthesised sound world. The electronic music events are based upon samples from soul records from the seventies, this time not used in a hiphop context but to create a dreamy alchemy with the instrumentalists of ensemble Brooommm.

Frank Wienk – turntable, Nina Helvert – Soprano Saxophone, Jan WiIlem Troost – Cello, Teodora Stepancic – Spinet (Korzo) / Goska Isphording – harpsichord (Utrecht), Ivo Bol – Electronics / LiSa

Interviews: Toos Sax van der Weijden, editing: Ivo Bol

Drive-in performance about life in Escamp

Life Cinema was an art-performance project made by Toos Sax van der Weijden, Arianne de Vos Burchart, Ivo Bol and Mike Reinierse, in collaboration with inhabitants of the Escamp neighbourhood in The Hague. It was performed October 29 and 30 2010. The performance took place in a flat at the compound of the Haga Hopspital. The lights in the flat and movements of the performers were linked with the soundtrack that was broadcasted by a radio frequency, and could be heard and seen by the audience members in their car. Life Cinema was produced by Koorenhuis.

Drive-in voorstelling over levens in Escamp

Life Cinema aan de Leyweg was een drive-in voorstelling voor en door bewoners van Escamp en medewerkers van het Haga Ziekenhuis. Vanuit je auto kon je op 29 en 30 oktober 2010 kijken naar 66 kamers van de zusterflat op het Haga-terrein. Achter elk raam gebeurde iets. Tegelijkertijd luisterde je naar de autoradio waarop de bijbehorende geluiden en verhalen uit de wijk te horen zijn.

Locatie: Het parkeerterrein voor de woonflat van het Haga Ziekenhuis tussen de Florence Nightingaleweg en Prof.Dr. A. Verjaalweg.

Concept en begeleiding: theatermaker/regisseur Toos Sax van der Weijden, choreografe Arianne de Vos Burchart, geluidskunstenaar Ivo Bol en lichtkunstenaar Mike Reinierse. Productie: Koorenhuis

Met dank aan: Fonds 1818, medewerkers van het Haga Ziekenhuis, bewoners van de woonflat, bewoners en vrijwilligers van de wijk Escamp en Leyenburg in het bijzonder, stichting Mooi.

Some pics from last’ summers visit to Moscow to perform JA!! July 29th 2010 with Luis Lara Malvacías and Manuel Perez Torres at the Tsekh Festival. The smog and heat were unbearable, it got even worse after we left. How can the Russians stand this?

In Russia they seem to put Dill in everything. The first time you think “great, dill!, what a great thing to put in my salad!”, the second time you think “yes, dill”, after the third time it becomes too much. This Siberian mushroom tomato soup was great however, comes with a mushroom shaped bread as cover.