Shackle
shackle |ˈ sh akəl|
1. used in reference to something that restrains or impedes.
2. a metal link, typically U-shaped, closed by a bolt, used to secure a chain or rope to something.
ORIGIN Old English of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schakel ‘link, coupling’.
Shackle is Anne La Berge on flute & electronics and Robert van Heumen on laptop-instrument. Their aim is to explicitly and subtly exploit shackling in both concept and material.
This extraordinarily inventive duo has a way of making music all their own. At the heart of their duo is a self-designed, cutting-edge digital cueing system which operates as a sometimes visible third member. Both prodding and reactive, the Shackle system suggests musical directions and textures to these two highly gifted performers, opening up a fascinating array of sonic choices for La Berge and van Heumen to play with and against.
Improvisation and structure coincide effortlessly in Shackle’s music. Working with a computerized communication system that proposes various compositional elements to each player, they can then choose whether or not to cooperate with the proposed material.
Proposals involve aspects of restriction, either in sound material, timing, dynamics or other musical parameters.
Shackle’s performances explode the line between improvisation without borders and tightly controlled forms that are both playful and daring. With uncanny transitions that turn on a dime and long, spun-out tapestries of sound, Shackle’s music works on two levels at once: full of delightful discoveries that can happen in the blink of an eye, La Berge and van Heumen savor the possibilities that those discoveries offer up.
www.shackle.eu
____________________________________________________________
The VOLSAP FOUNDATION was founded in 2002 by artistic directors Anne La Berge and David Dramm. Through the groundbreaking and internationally recognized Amsterdam Kraakgeluiden concert series, VOLSAP quickly established itself as one of Holland’s most innovative organizations to track and affect change in music-making today.
Currently, VOLSAP organizes small-scale, informal concert series such as Amsterdam muzyQ series, the field of ears mini-festival as well as masterclasses with Anne La Berge and improvisation & technology workshops with Shackle. The foundation’s goal is to bring like-minded artists from various fields together in projects by providing production support including workspace, technical facilities and performance opportunities.
www.volsap.nl
____________________________________________________________
The Treble Girls
Electrifying, moving and covering a wide expanse from avant-garde virtuosity to high energy and heady computer-assisted improvisation, this mother/daughter duo puts together flute & amp; live electronics pioneer Anne La Berge with rising new music violinist Diamanda La Berge Dramm.
Upcoming concerts:
17 April 2013
The Goethe Institute
Boston
18 April 2013
The Red Room
Baltimore
www.redroom.org
20 April 2013
12 Nights Electronic Music and Art at the
Miami Beach Botanical Garden
Celebrating Mother Earth Day
2000 Convention Center Drive
Miami Beach
Miami
17.00
____________________________________________________________
MAZE
MAZE is a new electroacoustic ensemble dedicated to performing music that challenges the idea of fixed form and fixed listening perspectives. MAZE offers the listener different ways to navigate through the music. This is found in not only the repertoire, but also in the musicians’ approach to music making.
Encompassing repertoire from the experimental tradition of John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Tony Conrad and Robert Ashley up to the contemporary work of artists such as Christian Marclay, Elliott Sharp and ensemble members Anne La Berge and Yannis Kyriakides, MAZE aims to build a body of work that reinterprets the relationships between performer, composer, listener and music.
www.maze.nu
____________________________________________________________
Field Of Ears
The Field Of Ears band was formed in 2009 specifically to blur the lines between classical and improvised music. The musicians are equally at home in a broad range of musics and styles. Typically, a field of ears evening is more of a mini-festival than a concert. Special guests include kindred spirits that embrace both improvisation, electronics and silent film.
Anne La Berge – flute/electronics
Joost Buis – trombone/lapsteel
Nora Mulder – piano/cimbalom/keyboards
Rozemarie Heggen – double bass
www.volsap.nl/concert2
____________________________________________________________
KIP IK HEB JE
KIP IK HEB JE is a theater performance for children of ages 2 to 6 years. Anne La Berge plays various musical and theatrical roles as a partner to the extraordinary Dutch actrice Ellen Smets (the farmer) including that of a farm girl, a cow and a sheep. She was also responsible for the music and the sound design for this highly entertaining and somewhat educational production.
____________________________________________________________
Projects with Guy de Bievre
I spent a couple of days in Berlin working with Guy de Bievre where he was rounding up a period of teaching at the Electronic Studio at the TU where The final presentation was at Ausland.
The students played some very personal renditions of Frank L. McCarty: Tactus Tempus, a controlled improvisational process (1969) and then Guy and I played his new piece Time Zones 0.1 and my piece Swamp for film projector and improvisers (2010).
It is always such a dramatically different experience for me when I play my pieces with different musicians. This version was more lyrical than ever. I think it was the slide guitar and Guy’s particular musical statements that led us into the swampy zone.
speakers for Swamp
I Gave My Tongue at the Office is a collaborative interactive sound installation built with Belgian audio artist Guy de Biévre. Long time collaborators, Anne La Berge and Guy De Bièvre created separately their own versions of a sound installation. The only two restrictions they had to take into account were a common technical platform and the fact that the sounds had to be associated with the human voice. Both installations consequently had to enter into a dialogue in a common room, controlled by a single microcontroller.
Anne chose as her sound source the somewhat pathological vocal sounds related to the common cold. Guy favored synthetic voices, pronouncing the separate words, in both French and English, of a Paul Valéry sentence. Together both sound sources comment on each other in a Samuel Beckett manner. Every now and then they are colored by active or interactive electronic manipulations.
I am very sensitive to the colour of the voice, which I prefer to be silvery.
Paul Valéry, Cahiers
Did I tell you of the man I visited last week, who hasn’t lost the ability To move his tongue, his lips, to laugh or cry or sing or use his voice, yet is unable To utter any words, just a few unintelligible syllables, . .
Laurie Sheck, No Summer as Yet
photo credit: Maude Cornillie
____________________________________________________________
Splendor Amsterdam
Splendor Amsterdam is a collective of composers, musicians and stage artists of established renown and entrepreneurial spirit. In 2013, they will transform an old bathhouse at Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 116 into a sparkling cultural mecca.