Mikromusik 2015 ######################### :date: 2015-10-20 16:00 :modified: 2015-10-20 16:00 :tags: daad, gustavo alfaix, micromusik, berlin, dreaming smetak, berliner künstlerprogramm, villa elisabeth, elisabethkirche, sophienkirche, walter smetak, electronic studio, tu-berlin, daad, a-trio, aamm :category: events :slug: mikromusik-2015 :summary: Information regarding "How to build large audio installations in just a short amount of time." and "How did we manage to run this festival with so few people?" :authors: David Runge | The |daad| sponsors a yearly |neue_musik| and |experimental_music| festival in Berlin, called |mikromusik|. It's usually spread over several locations in Berlin. | This year those included |villa_elisabeth|, |elisabeth_kirche|, |sophien_kirche| [#]_ and |kapelle_der_versoehnung|, with |mikromusik_flyer|. | | The |electronic_studio| at |tu-berlin|, where I'm currently working/ tutoring is the partner for all things technical for these venues during this event and puts my collegue and I in the position of helping to realize different artistic setups. | While some of the installations and concerts are based on multi-channel/ spatialized audio (and thus sometimes have a complex speaker setup), others require many more tweaks and additional work, before they are ready to go. | One of those was |dreaming_smetak| by Gustavo Alfaix. | | His installation was supposed to use 36 acoustic guitars in a aeolian setup, meaning they are to be played by the wind! | This is the kind of thing your momma warns you about! | No seriously, if you ever find yourself working on a large-scale technical setup, involving many acoustic guitars, that have to be amplified, plan ahead accordingly. | Gustavo's installation space was the attic and spire of |sophien_kirche|, which further complicated the whole story due to long cable lines (we ended up making a couple of hundred meters of custom cables). | We got ready just in time for the opening. | The resulting |dreaming_smetak_audio| however was very mystic and dreamy sound wise (just as the name suggests). | You can find a |dreaming_smetak_pictures| (some by me) and a |dreaming_smetak_video|, that further explain the whole thing. | File under: Worth it! | | This was not my only involvement with the festival, though. | During setting up |dreaming_smetak|, Gustavo and I could listen already to the rehearsals of the in-house choir (not too bad actually!) and of |quatuor_diotima| (an excellent string quartett) below us in the nave, which I would record later on. | The |electronic_studio| also dealt with the setup of Karen Powers' installation/ performance piece |once_below| at |kapelle_der_versoehnung|, which proved to be demanding from a gear point of view. | The chapel is semi-open to the outside, consisting of wooden bars, marking an oval space (much like a wooden prison... weird concept for a chapel, right?), enclosing a concrete building (also ovally shaped). | This plus rain is pretty much speaker apocalypse and makes you get all paranoid about those Meyer UPL-1. | Although I didn't hear much of Karen's piece, I dealt with the technical setup of another installation/ performance of hers earlier this year. | She is a nice person to work with, collecting sound scapes from all over the world, that she turns into pieces. | Another interesting place of involvement for us was the |elisabeth_kirche|, a bombed out church in Berlin-Mitte, that has seen only mild renovations to now house concerts, perfomances and installations. | There, we dealt with the gentlemen John Tilbury and Eddie Prévost of AMM and Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui and Raed Yassin of A-Trio (both alone and in combination: |amm_a_trio_aamm|), alongside Boris Filanovsky and Arno Fabre showcasing |componiums_la_machine_fleuve|. | The first two needed a classical concert setup, in which we took care of the sometimes very dynamic output and a recording for |deutschlandradio_kultur|, the latter, as a performance piece, based upon a cyclist-driven multitude of music boxes, needed some fine tuning for the piezos in use. | | Closing, there was the pretty exhaustive tear-down and another concert (we nearly could ''just be part of''): |audiovisual_concert| by Kerbaj and others, showing steep similarities to seeing some first generation Postrock, like GY!BE live. | In respective, I'm still astounded by how much has been accomplished by so few people. | Although obviously planning of such events can always be better, much can still be pushed towards a good direction by applying some hard work! .. |dreaming_smetak_video| raw:: html video documentation .. |dreaming_smetak_pictures| raw:: html series of pictures .. |dreaming_smetak_audio| raw:: html audio .. [#] The church interior would actually prove as great fun to every Illuminati fan. .. |daad| raw:: html Berliner Künstlerprogramm (DAAD) .. |neue_musik| raw:: html "Neue Musik" .. |experimental_music| raw:: html experimental music .. |mikromusik_flyer| raw:: html many different installations and concerts .. |dreaming_smetak| raw:: html "Dreaming Smetak" .. |once_below| raw:: html "Once Below" .. |quatuor_diotima| raw:: html Quatuor Diotima .. |amm_a_trio_aamm| raw:: html "AMM, A-Trio, AAMM" .. |audiovisual_concert| raw:: html "Audiovisual concert" .. |componiums_la_machine_fleuve| raw:: html "Componiums. La Machine Fleuve" .. |mikromusik| raw:: html Mikromusik .. |deutschlandradio_kultur| raw:: html Deutschlandradio Kultur .. |villa_elisabeth| raw:: html Villa Elisabeth .. |elisabeth_kirche| raw:: html St. Elisabeth Kirche .. |sophien_kirche| raw:: html Sophienkirche .. |kapelle_der_versoehnung| raw:: html Kapelle der Versöhnung .. |electronic_studio| raw:: html Electronic Studio .. |tu-berlin| raw:: html TU Berlin