Artist : Tomoko Sauvage
[ performance ]
Time : 23.04 • 21:30 - 22:15 (40-45 min)
Location : Radar
A combination of water, hydrophones, porcelain and glass bowls, stones, shells and electronics make up Tomoko Sauvage's unique instrument.
Info about the piece
Having spent the last 10 years working primarily with multimedia, found material, and theatrical formats, Simon Steen-Andersen – who is turning 50 – wanted to focus on some of the sounds and musical ideas that often ended up in the background in service of broader concepts or theatrical elements. The idea of found material or readymades remains the starting point in grosso, but in terms of the musical and physical properties of specific instruments and objects, such as their pitch selection, layout, mechanics, timbre, and resonance. At the centre – almost as a fifth performer in the quartet – stands a Leslie speaker, the legendary double-rotary speaker system associated with the Hammond organ. Not just its signature pulsation and Doppler effect, but also the mechanical sounds of its inner workings are examined and followed as musical motifs. The piece is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and the New York ensemble Yarn/Wire, which will be performing in Denmark for the first time. The ensemble is a new music quartet dedicated to the promotion of creative, meaningful live musical experiences in the US and abroad. grosso is a co-commission from Donaueschinger Musiktage / SWR Orchestra, IRCAM / Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra.
Kredit: Johannes Berge
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Tomoko Sauvage (1976) is a Paris-based Japanese composer and artist who is best known for her long-time musical and performance practice on her original instrumentarium assembling water, ceramics, and electronics. She animates the inanimate through tuning water and vessels, making them vibrate and magnifying their tiny sounds that are otherwise quasi-inaudible. Her work centers on tactile materiality of vibrant objects, metaphorical listening and the use of the chance as a compositional method. For two decades, she has been performing internationally at institutions and festivals such as Barbican Centre (London), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Maerz Musik (Berlin), Musée d’art moderne (Paris), Haus der Kunst (Munich), Nyege Nyege Festival (Uganda) and Wonder Cabinet (Palestine). Her installation and video works have been shown at Sharjah Art Foundation, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, Sauvage moved to Paris in 2003 after studying jazz piano in New York. Through listening to Alice Coltrane and Terry Riley, she became interested in Indian music and studied improvisation of Hindustani music. In 2006, she attended a concert of Aanayampatti Ganesan, a virtuoso of Jalatharangam, which is the traditional Carnatic music instrument consisting of water-filled porcelain bowls. Fascinated by the simplicity of its device and sonority, Sauvage immediately started to hit China bowls with chopsticks in her kitchen. Soon her desire of immersing herself in the water engendered the idea of using an underwater microphone and led to the birth of the electro-aquatic instrument.
Kredit: Johannes Berge