Robert van Heumen Composer Improvisor Laptop-Instrumentalist Sound-Designer
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Composition Stipend 2013-2014 | Posts

Supported by the Performing Arts Fund NL through a composition stipend for 2013 & 2014.

February 13, 2015

Shackle at ‘a special evening at the Kunstenlab’

Shackle performed a concert at the Kunstenlab in Deventer, NL. Invited by Harco Rutgers from esc.rec. Shackle played a 50-minute set presenting their Shackle Bits project.

Shackle-JG-1

Martijn Holtslag from VPRO's 3voor12 also liked it (in Dutch, translation following soon):

"Een verrassende en spannende reis, waarbij twee muzikanten in opperste concentratie aan het werk zijn om de gemaakte signalen te verwerken tot een klankreis die even zacht als snoeihard durft te zijn. Alsof dat niet spannend genoeg is om te zien, of te horen, worden er korte, stille fragmenten uit oude jaren 20-50 films weergegeven, die net te vaag zijn om te snappen waar het over gaat, maar visueel een prachtige aanvulling geven aan de sfeer. Hierbij zijn niet de beelden maar is het klankbeeld lijdend.

Niet voor de meezingers, niet voor de cafésfeer, niet voor een gezellig avondje bandjes kijken, maar wel een prachtige reis waarbij je even tijd nodig hebt om te verwerken wat je eigenlijk hebt meegemaakt en waarbij de klanken even experimenteel zijn als de uitvoering. Kortom: een bijzondere avond in het Kunstenlab."


The full review can be found here (in Dutch).

Shackle-JG-2

The beautiful photos were made by Jelmer Gremmen.




February 5, 2015

The second rehearsal for Detuning Guitar

Yesterday Jasper and I had our second rehearsal of our piece Detuning Guitar, after a great concert the previous week. We spend some time on the various sections, made some changes and did one runthrough. Below some excerpts.



Click on the titles to play





January 30, 2015

Detuning Guitar

Detuning Guitar is a composition for acoustic guitar and live sampling, performed by Jasper Stadhouders and Robert van Heumen using the Shackle System.

The composition encompasses 13 parts which are descriptions of musical sections that limit the players in concept or material. Within these limitations the players can freely improvise the way they see fit. The parts are presented by the Shackle System as visual cues in a random order and last for a random time between the preset boundaries. When the System announces a new part, there is a 15 second countdown in which the players can prepare for the new part or cancel it using a foot-switch. At any time, each player can request a new part from the System with the same foot-switch. After 25 minutes, the System announces the end.

Some parts prescribe a detuning of one of the guitar strings, and one part prescribes a retuning to the initial tuning. Some parts are accompanied by a brief score. The names of the parts are: PATTERN, STUMBLE, SLOGRO, FASGRO, RIPP, RATTLE, SCRATCH, SLIDE, VIBRA, BOLT, JML, FLAG, FUNERAL.

Below is an excerpt from the first rehearsal where we perform PATTERN and RATTLE.




Shackle Bits

A futuristic city scene from Fritz Lang's 1927 film, Metropolis

With their latest project Shackle Bits, Shackle is including silent film excerpts in their performances as yet another ingredient for improvisation. The excerpts are controlled from the Shackle System and switch most of the time in sync with the musical sections but every now and then have a life of their own. As improvisors we are then faced with the question what will take precedence: sound or image.

Below are some examples of live situations.

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irvine2 irvine3 irvine1

Here is a top-10 list of silent movies. See if you agree.




MOROS / final wrap

MOROS for contrabass clarinet and bass clarinet is wrapped. Some excerpts can be heard on the MOROS page. I hope there will be more possibilities to have the piece performed in the future.




January 21, 2015

Wrapping up 2014

I've been a bad boy in not posting regular updates, especially regarding the composition stipend I received so generously from the Performing Arts Fund NL. Can't really make up, but this is an attempt to clean the slate so I can talk about new projects for 2015.

It was an exciting and busy half year, the fall of 2014:

The premiere of Sonata for 10 pedals in Darmstadt and then in the Gaudeamus Muziekweek (video), which was a fruitful and succesful collaboration with composer Lucas Wiegerink. Lucas came up with the concept and wrote the notes, I developed the live electronics.

Soundtrackcity organized monthly walks of the soundwalk Steenklank. Exciting to see so many people interested in this new medium.

After the premiere of A Short Piece of Decay in July, another performance at festival PARKMUSIK in Bad Münster-Ebernburg.

In September I ran the installation GeluidjesFabriek ZAAG55 near Rotterdam. A great place with great people. The kick-off of the Soundlings Factory. (See post)

The fall of 2014 also saw ABATTOIR getting back together for a collaboration with the Cologne-based Timeart ensemble. Documentation can be found here (the video doesn't seem to work in Firefox). (See post)

The First Law of Kipple was performed by Michael Bonaventure in London, with the sound tech by myself. The Catford church is a wonderful 60's church with great acoustics. The program worked very well as a whole, and we're working hard getting this performed in other spaces. (See post)

December brought to light the premiere of MOROS, my 'science-fiction film in sound for bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet and live electronics'. A hard piece to tame, the premiere was succesful.

Furthermore, concerts with Jodi Gilbert & Albert van Veenendaal, Shackle Affair, Han Burs cs. at STEIM and Shackle at VROOOM.

Now that's off my chest, I'm ready to talk about what's new. In the next post though, first fix the light on my bike first. Click.




Sonata for 10 pedals | documentation video

This is a video of the rehearsal right before the premiere of 'Sonata for 10 pedals', a collaboration with Lucas Wiegerink. The premiere took place at KuuB, Utrecht, in the Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2014.




October 14, 2014

MOROS trailer

Working hard finalizing MOROS for contra bass clarinet, bass clarinet and electronics. This is a sneak preview of the sound world. Premiere on December 14 at Splendor in an exciting program with 5 other composer/performers.




September 24, 2014

Update

A lot has happened since the last post.

'Sonata for 10 pedals', my collaboration with composer Lucas Wiegerink, had its try-out (Gaudeamus Sessions in June), world premier (Darmstadt in August) and Dutch premier (Gaudeamus Muziekweek September). It took some time for the piece to grow, but the Dutch premier was very good. Hopefully there'll be a documentation video soon.

'A Short Piece of Decay', my piece for the Black Pencil ensembe, has its premier in Lingen Germany in July. It went well, and the press agreed. More info here.

After the summer I worked again on the GeluidjesFabriek (LittleSoundsFactory), an ongoing project to generate SoundObjects from basic sounds, semi-randomly produced. This time the application was at a fabulous old motor factory called Zaag 55 in Krimpen aan de Lek NL. I was invited by a local group of artists to participate in their yearly exhibition, and I developed the GeluidjesFabriek further for this event. Documentation can be found here.

I've also been working on two funding applications: one for a werkbeurs (work grant) for 4 new pieces: 'Untitled for Anne' (for Anne La Berge), 'Parish of Tama' (for band and cementmixer), 'De Jacht' ('The Hunt', a radioplay in collaboration with Nienke Rooijakkers) and 'Songs of Love and Decay' (with Evelien van de Broek). I'm very excited about these plans, and hope to realize them in 2015.

The other funding application is a composition commissioned by Miriam Overlach, harpist. That piece will be called 'Spill', and will deal with fossil fuel disasters. Should be flammable.

Furthermore the teaching season has started. I'm again teaching SuperCollider at the Master of Live Electronics at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and I'm also involved in a CineDans collaboration with the Graphic Design departement of the Utrecht School of the Arts, as sound expert.

Last but not least (at all!) I've been playing last week with Spoon3 and a Shackle Affair. That was good.

Exciting times!

What's to come: finishing MOROS and making a piece for Jasper Stadhouders and I. Plus a soundwalk in the infamous Bos en Lommer in Amsterdam.




May 31, 2014

A Short Piece of Decay | video




May 28, 2014

MOROS, the continuing saga

After having put the work aside for almost a year, I started working on MOROS again this spring. As opposed as what I wrote in my last post on MOROS, I got into the 3rd generation of the family tree before I called it a day. Over 200 samples, most of them between 30 sec and 1 minute long. Putting this together with the notated material was a joy, and the piece seems in its final stage now. The premiere is not before December 2014, I'll start working on it with Oguz and Laura somewhere late fall, and then we'll see how it really works out. Because MIDI-instruments only get you so far.

O, and I will also put this into my Score System, a SuperCollider program that I'm developing to be able to have cues for players to trigger electronic events that more or less then run on their own.

In a way this piece was forshadowed during the Shackle tour in April, as I've started using some of the samples from the family tree in my live set. I like this: quoting yourself, disregarding time.




Sonate for 11 pedals & the Score System

Together with Lucas Wiegerink I'm working on a composition for Disklavier, harp and live electronics. Lucas came up with the concept and will write the notes. Together we will work on the live electronics, and I will implement that in SuperCollider. An exciting project!

Lucas has sent me the first version of the score, and I've started to put this into my Score System in SuperCollider. I've created this system (which is still under development) to be able to sync acoustic music with electronic actions. A typical Score instance contains a list of cues that are indicated in the score of the musician to be triggered at a certain moment. When triggered, a cue runs on its own. Every cue is a timeline on which events can be scheduled. An event can be: play a soundfile from harddisk, record a live action by a musician, play back that sample, play back a certain MIDI file (to the Disklavier in this case), etc.

Below is a preview of how it might look (click on the image for a bigger version).

I will also use this Score System in my composition A Short Piece of Decay, for the Black Pencil ensemble.




May 26, 2014

A Short Piece of Decay

I'm currently busy finalizing a composition for the ensemble Black Pencil. It's a piece for panflute, blockflute, percussion, viola, accordion, soundtrack and live processing. To be premiered on July 6 2014 in Lingen, Germany. Here's the official blurp.

'A Short Piece of Decay' is about the process of cooking a dish from basic ingredients that is subsequently being devoured.

"How does the living organism avoid decay? The obvious answer is: by eating, drinking, breathing and (in the case of plants) assimilating. The technical term is metabolism. What is that precious something contained in our food which keeps us from death? That is easily answered. Every process, event, happening (call it what you will; in a word, everything that is going on in Nature) means an increase of the entropy of the part of the world where it is going on. Thus a living organism continually increases its entropy (or, as you may say, produces positive entropy) and thus tends to approach the dangerous state of maximum entropy, which is of death. It can only keep aloof from it (i.e. alive), by continually drawing from its environment negative entropy -which is something very positive as we shall immediately see. What an organism feeds upon is negative entropy. Or, to put it less paradoxically, the essential thing in metabolism is that the organism succeeds in freeing itself from all the entropy it cannot help producing while alive." From 'What is life?' (1944) by Erwin Schrödinger

'A Short Piece of Decay' is a continuation of a train of thought that has also produced the compositions 'The First Law of Kipple' (2012) and 'Stranger' (2008). Composition by decomposition.
Further reading: 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert M. Pirsig and 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' by Philip K. Dick.

Commissioned by the Black Pencil ensemble and written under a composition stipend from the Performing Arts Fund NL.




February 10, 2014

Shackle Bits

Shackle’s new project is to extend the Shackle System into the visual domain by using silent film bits as a compositional component. We’re building a list of questions that include how we will synchronize the film bits with our music and our cueing system, what will take precedence: music or film, and what is the optimal size of the projections on the screen. We’ll keep you posted!

nosferatu1




January 15, 2014

Meursault: Expired, 80 Miles, Coma

Last week I've been working on some songs I created last year.

Expired is a song created for my collaboration with Piet van Tienen. 'Electro Rock'? My first attempt at writing lyrics and composing for a traditional vocal/guitar/bass/drums combination. We haven't gotten together yet to arrange the song and record it, but I did make my own version.

80 Miles is a song created for the band Spoon3. Rather straightforward with a catchy chorus. Not enough rehearsal time before Spoon3's concert in November last year unfortunately, and there are no gigs scheduled, so I'm working on my own version. Experimenting now arranging it for vocal/guitar/bass/drums. I really enjoy trying to make midi versions of those instruments sound good, adding lo-fi and other effects.

Coma was my first piece for Spoon3, and that wasn't working very well. Too rigid, too composed for this group. I still like it, so I might also work on a midi version.

I will create these songs under the moniker of Meursault, the protagonist of Camus' L'Ètranger. I feel very connected to that character.




Tubes in Chains / wrap

The performance on Nov 3 in Orgelpark went really well. I've finally finished mixing the recording, documenting the piece and creating a webpage for it. Hopefully we can play it more often; the challenge would be adapting it for other organs. But I gladly accept that challenge!




December 13, 2013

Steenklank is getting very good responses!

On the frontpage of the local newspaper. We're getting very good responses to our soundwalk. If you haven't walked Steenklank yet, make sure you do. Especially nice in sunny winter weather!





December 9, 2013

First Law of Kipple / wrap

Documented. Web page with excerpts created. Done.




December 6, 2013

MDFreeze / final wrap

MDFreeze was played at Cafe Oto in London in September. Some issues came up, I fixed them, and that's it. More info about the piece here. Another MDFreeze rendition can be heard on Soundcloud.

For people who'd like to program or just listen to MDFreeze: the piece is available as a standalone application for a flexible number of channels and can be played with any Mac computer with OS X 10.6 or higher and a multichannel audio interface (depending on the number of channels required). Email me for a download link.

And just because I'm proud of it, a screenshot of the app below ;)




November 13, 2013

Steenklank / finished

I've uploaded the files, this Friday will be the premiere! No spots available anymore for that day, but there are plenty of opportunities to walk, individually or in a group. Check out the Soundtrackcity website of the Steenklank page.

It was a very interesting process. Steenklank was developed using a score-process: Anne Rooschüz took photographs of architectural details and converted them into abstract drawings. Then I took those drawings and put them to music as if they were notes in a traditional score. This turned out to be very inspiring. Some score-to-sound mappings are very one-to-one, some are very far-fetched. But in any case it made all the creative juices flow. I'm planning to use this technique more often for future projects.

Steenklank is accompanied by a booklet containing these scores. More info, sound excerpts and the booklet can be found here.




October 29, 2013

Steenklank soundwalk

While working hard on the Tubes in Chains and First Law of Kipple premieres this Sunday, I also keep myself busy creating a soundwalk together with Anne Rooschüz. Here's the promo text:

Theater maker Anne Rooschüz and sound artist Robert van Heumen take you on a journey along buildings of the Amsterdam School. Children’s voices in your headphones playfully make you aware of all kinds of special aspects in the architecture: weird protuberances, useless curves, blind walls, secret vistas. Steenklank is a musical interpretation of the architecture, coupled to a game of neighborhood voices and street sounds.

More info here.

   




October 19, 2013

Night Call / composition for InstanPOOL

In September 2013 I created the composition Night Call for the band IstanPOOL. Initiated by Mark Alban Lotz and Korhan Erel, IstanPOOL merges the Istanbul and Dutch improvised music scenes, both acoustic and electronic. Night Call is pure suspense, inspired by Painkiller, David Lynch and Ennio Morricone.

Night Call uses the Shackle System: a digital cueing systen that will regularly propose new musical sections to the players to play. The proposals will be displayed on an LCD screen visible to the players only. The length of the sections and their order will be somewhat random: some sections will be a bit longer than others and some will occur more often than others. There will be one 'conductor' who can interfere with the system to cancel propositions and to call up new proposals. Each new proposal is counted down in 15 seconds to allow the musicians time to prepare for the new section. For Night Call I created 5 musical sections.

The composition was not originally in my stipend application. It came to life when Mark asked me to join IstanPOOL and write a piece for the band.

More information and a recording of the premiere in Rasa here.




The First Law of Kipple / tuning check

On Okt 7 I spend some time at Orgelpark to finetune The First Law Of Kipple, for tape and MIDIfied organ. Especially nervewrecking was finding out whether the organ had changed tuning again. Last year August I made recordings of the instrument, incorporated them into the tape, only to find out in November that the tuning of the organ was changed quite drastically. I pitch-shifted the recordings and all was fine again. But you can imagine I was happy to find this time the organ was in tune with the recordings.

Ready for premiere on November 3!

 




Tubes in Chains / final touch

On Sept 30 I found myself in Orgelpark again, for the final 'development' rehearsal of Tubes in Chains with Nora Mulder and Anne La Berge. Changes were made beforehand, we tested all the musical sections I created for the combination of church organs, flute and electronics and laptop-instrument. Nora and Anne gave me valuable ideas to solve things and to create a beautiful combination of sounds and a good sense of structure.

We will be using the MIDI-fied Sauer organ, the little chest organ and the characteristic Molzer organ. We'll have three days before the concert to work with the organ player Dominik Blum who will perform at the premiere.

Many thanks to Anne and Nora for working with me developing the composition. Nora was especially generous as she's not even playing the piece on the premiere!




August 29, 2013

MDFreeze / afterthought

An important question that comes up regularly: why make the piece algorithmic? Why not make it fixed?

Possible answers: because I like the idea that it's not determined while keeping a determined overall feel; because some choices in the composition process feel arbitrary to me anyways so why not have the program make those decisions; because it was going to be and will be presented in a more installation-like environment where people could listen multiple times; because I like to be surprised when listening to it for the 10,000st time.

Just roll a dice and choose the answer ;)

MDFreeze will also be presented in Cafe Oto in London, somewhere at the end of September 2013. In 12-channel format (wow).

And last but not least, pictures from the premiere in Vienna (thanks to Georg Weckwerth).




August 16, 2013

MDFreeze / wrap-up

The premier of MDFreeze was today, at the Museums Quartier in Vienna as part of a Call & Response event in collaboration with Tonspur Wien. Playing kids in the pond and some minor technical issues could not spoil the fun. Very glad with how it sounds. You can listen to a stereo version for yourself here and imagine 8 speakers in a spacious courtyard. O, and if you're feeling adventurous you can even email me for the MDFreeze App and listen over and over to all the different versions.

Out for now. Further plans with MDFreeze include making a more generic version, more like the GeluidsjesFabriek, where one can specify different structures and a different sample to process. But that is for later.




August 10, 2013

MDFreeze / last stage

So the piece is declared done. Send off to the guys from Call & Response, to be played next week on Aug 16 & 17 in a program that runs from 9:00-13:00 on both days.

It's become quite conceptual. I decided to stick rigorously to the concept of the piece: reverberating micro particles of an existing piece of music. I removed all other sounds, they just clouded the sound world of the work, clouded its clarity. After the premiere I will make it available to everyone as downloadable application.

The first ears (except mine) to hear it resembled it to film music with a lot of suspense.

More background info.




August 9, 2013

Money For Your Whale's FULL album Twelve-Twelve-Twelve available NOW

Money For Your Whale has released the third and last installment Twelve-Twelve-Twelve/#3 of their new album Twelve-Twelve-Twelve. This includes a track with trombonist Heather Segger and a LittleSoundsFactory remix. BUY it here for only €5. The full album is now available for €10.

People who purchased Twelve-Twelve-Twelve/#1 and Twelve-Twelve-Twelve/#2 as one package for €9 will receive a complimentary download code for Twelve-Twelve-Twelve/#3.




August 6, 2013

GeluidjesFabriek / first sound units

The GeluidjesFabriek (Dutch for LittleSoundsFactory) is a factory that you feed a collection of sounds, which are then processed automatically into a new combined sound unit. The first generation of units to roll off the assembly line is called Workum. Workum sound units are 2min45sec in length (except for some of the first units that are 2min39sec).

Sound units are posted on Soundcloud. The factory is still under construction, and more sound units are on the way. The GeluidjesFabriek is dedicated to and inspired by Oane Abma.

The system is built in audio programming software SuperCollider. I mainly let the program run its course. The only intervention I allow myself is generating multiple versions from one collection of sounds, then line them up in a multitrack audio editor and do some mixing. I leave the timing intact.




August 5, 2013

Scootermen / a new name and a new song

My collaboration with guitarist and singer Piet van Tienen is in a new phase. For one there is a name for the project: Scootermen. But more substantial, a new song: Expired. Where Scooterman and Leak over Assange were initiated by Piet, the new song was written by myself, my first try at lyrics and melody in a rock vein. With this third song I'm getting more and more comfortable arranging these kind of songs, so I went back to Scooterman and Leak to fix some things I wasn't quite happy with.

Still nothing to hear for an audience, but I'm getting more and more excited. This is a long-term project, but I'll keep you posted.




July 19, 2013

MDFreeze / progress

So MDFreeze will in the end be a real algorithmic composition. I've been struggling with it but finally see some closure at the horizon. It will premiere at a Call & Response event at Tonspur Vienna on August 16-18. It is included in a program that runs on those days between 10-15h. Here are the program notes:

MDFreeze (13') is an algorithmic composition for 8 speakers dealing with the perception of music in time. By taking snapshots of an existing piece of music at irregular intervals and freezing those snapshots, the regular flow of time is altered and a parallel version of the music is created. This process started as a futile attempt to capture a piece of music in a small number of frames, but of course fails utterly. Music is not about taking samples, but about what happens between the samples; about the transition from one sample to the other, differences in air pressure. In principal music is about the experience of sound in time and can never be caught in discrete snapshots. Countability versus the Continuum. And then: is this a ripoff? A remix? Or a new original work? This is for the listener to decide. The original music too was created by changing the regular flow of time, editing live performances together into one whole; revolutionary at that time and place. MDFreeze is inspired by Gas.

The struggle. Yes. Great soundworld, lends itself well for an algorithmic aproach, but will it keep the audience's attention for 13 minutes? It's kind of ambient, inspired by the music of Kompakt's Wolfgang Voigt, especially his Gas alter ego. It is also quite dark, big reverbs. What is interesting: the piece basically plays back an existing music track in its original time (this you don't hear) and opening a gate into a feedback loop every 30-60 seconds or so (this is what you hear). This process is duplicated in 5 strands with various pulses of opening and closing the gate, simultaneously, which is the only compositional process that is working. The original music is not very recognizable (as far as I can tell after having worked with the material for so long), but I seem to notice the form stays more or less intact.

As it is algorithmic, it is not determined but (slightly) different every time. In this stage I'm playing it back over and over, making small adjustments, trying to get a feel for the piece, whether it will in general be interesting to experience.

One last important thing to decide: at this stage I added 3 ornamental sound snippets, not related to the original track. In a way this makes it a bit more friendly, provides a bit of variation to the possibly difficult material. On the other hand I feel I should really stick to the concept, the idea behind the work. Although one of the sounds is actually very much relevant.




July 1, 2013

Money For Your Whale's new album part 2

Money For Your Whale's new album Twelve-Twelve-Twelve Part 2. The second batch of 4 tracks is released TODAY. BUY it here for only €5.

If you didn't get Twelve-Twelve-Twelve Part 1 when it was hot, you can now get it together with Part 2 for ONLY €9.




'Shackle Affair: Organ' renamed to 'Tubes in Chains'

The composition 'Shackle Affair: Organ', which will premiere in November in Orgelpark, has been rebaptized. The name was still a work title, and I couldn't manage to find a better one, until now: Tubes in Chains.




May 11, 2013

Money For Your Whale new album OUT NOW

Money For Your Whale, my new band with Albert van Veenendaal, has released its first album named Twelve-Twelve-Twelve. Consisting of 12 tracks and recorded on December 12 2012, we're releasing the album in 3 installments of 4 tracks. The first installment consists of a preparation object(*) and a download code and is available as of NOW. You can buy it through PayPal for €5 or by bank transfer for only €4 (email me for details). GET YOUR COPY NOW!

(*) a preparation object is one of those neat little objects Albert uses to prepare the piano

We've also built a new website west28.nl/mfyw/ and have teamed up with visual artist Monique Besten for the imagery.

 




April 25, 2013

GeluidjesFabriek

Another project I've been working on the last year or so, intermittently. GeluidsjesFabriek or LittleSoundsFactory. Dedicated to a good friend of mine, who passed away two years ago and always used this term to describe my work. It will be what in academic terms would be called an algorithmic composition: "Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoint, for example, can often be reduced to algorithmic determinacy. The term is usually reserved, however, for the use of formal procedures to make music without human intervention, either through the introduction of chance procedures or the use of computers." (Wikipedia)

In this case I will create a structure in time of sample processing, specifying things like 'play 2 seconds of this sample looped while in 5 seconds change a certain filter from 200 to 10000, repeat this, then start the playback of another sample, letting the samplehead jump around in a certain pattern while increasing the jumping speed in 10 seconds from 1 to 10'. I will add some randomness in timing as well as in processing. The best thing however is that the samples to be used can be specified for each run by just pointing to a folder on the computer's harddisk. Samples will be chosen randomly, so the idea being that there will be radically different versions possibly of the piece, but structurally they will be very similar.

The processing is chosen in such a way that resembles factory processes: repeating sounds, focus on mechanic movements, juxtaposition of very different sounds and rhythms.

During the process of building this thing I'll regularly post 'products' of this 'factory' on a Soundcloud page. Update: still have to work on it to make presentable 'products', there's too much dynamic range and painful peaks.




MOROS / 70's synths and Mellotron

The last couple of weeks I've been working on MOROS, my piece for contrabassclarinet and bassclarinet with electronics. A first version of the structure and note material is done, including some nice 70's synth arpeggios and my version of the Mellotron.

Now working on the electronic material, and in the middle of generating material using the family tree concept: starting out with 15 one-minute samples from my recording session with Laura Carmichael and Oguz Buyukberber, processing them with 3 playback methods from my laptop-instrument. Repeating this process iteratively I'm building a tree of derived samples. It's quite labour-intensive and although I'm actually 'playing' the samples, it's not a very exciting job. The tree can be as high as I want, but I know I'll get tired of it and will have enough material somewhere in the 2nd generation. Then comes listening back and selecting, putting together within the structure. That phase will be short and sweet, as it always is.




April 12, 2013

Money for your Whale

This is my collaboration with Albert van Veenendaal that will lead towards an album release, more concerts and a composition formerly called Preparado.

After a second mixing session we now have 10 songs. Time to share some with the world. 'Money for your Whale' is the track the band got the name from. Recorded live and edited offline, this is just one example of how we sound.




March 29, 2013

Shackle Affair: Organ / further developent

Last Monday I spend another day at the Orgelpark, this time working with Anne (La Berge) and Trevor Grahl on more specific details of the parts of 'Shackle Affair: Organ'. I had some trouble getting started, for various reasons, one of them being too little sleep the night before. As the piece involved a lot of different aspects, both technically and musically, I find I really need to make specific plans for these development sessions, otherwise I get swamped in details and totally lose overview. So another learning moment. Next week I'll have another session and will make sure I'm a bit more organised.

Back to this session: I started out connecting it all: MIDI to/from the Sauer organ, audio from my computer to the speakers, audio from the dynamic mics in the Sauer to the speakers, to the Rat distortion pedal and to my audio interface for live sampling, audio from the little organ ('kistorgel') to the speakers, to the ZVEX distortion pedal and again to my computer for live sampling. My naive idea was to do this through the digital Yamaha mixer that was there. I've seen these monsters before, but never really worked with one. I'm sure they are very convenient once you know how to work with them, but it's not something you just setup as a first-time user. So that and too little sleep and there goes an hour (or two) without any progress. After getting a coffee with Anne I decided to leave it and just connect the organs one by one directly to the audio interface. Figuring out the connections at a later stage.

Another frustration was the Rat distortion pedal. I didn't seem to be able to have a decent volume, until I found out that these things just always feedback when you're sending them an signal. My conclusion: just open up the volume and let them scream, switching them off when you're not making any sound (any guitarplayer could have told me that, but hey, I found out the hard way).

I also decided not to amplify the Molzer organ. The Sauer and little organs are fine with the two mics on each, but I couldn't get a satisfying sound from the Molzer, so decided to use it only once in the piece, and then just acoustic. Limitation saves the day once again.

A MIDI issue with the Sauer organ was solved after discussing it with Trevor, who knows the MIDI console very well. I won't bore you with tech details, but just sending a MIDI reset message just before engaging register assignments works really well. Also, the MIDI reset message works great as panic key, so I can (in theory!) make the Sauer organ shut up from behind my MIDI controllers.

I was glad to also have some time finally with Anne and Trevor to discuss and try out musical ideas for the parts. Very inspiring to have someone interpret your instructions in a quite different way as you anticipated! That's why I love working with musicians and improvisors.

One last note: I have been struggling with the structure of the composition. The basic idea is to have about 10 parts in the piece that are presented to the players through the Shackle System: a visual cueing system where players have the power to cancel new part proposals by the system and also can request a new part at their conveniece. So parts of semi-random length will be proposed in semi-random order (semi meaning: between a predefined min/max value). Players can cancel those proposals, and in the middle of a certain part ask the system for a new proposal. There is no guarantee that in a set of about 30 minutes all parts will be played. This is fine for a Shackle set, because we play quite often, so it is actually nice that some parts don't cross the stage everytime, creating a unique performance at every Shackle concert. But for this piece, that due to its very specific instrumentation nature will probably not be played many times, it would be preferable that every part is played at least once.

The same can be applied to the order of the parts: in a Shackle set it is much better to have parts in a different order everytime, so a Shackle set has the same basic ingredients, but is always different - not only because parts can be interpreted differently everytime, but also because how we play a part depends for a great deal on what came before. But for this piece I do have a certain order in mind, and I would like to have an audience hear that.

So after talking to Anne about it, I decided to make it much less flexible: the order of the parts will be fixed, and the players will not have any influence on the structure. Except for myself: I will have the opportunity to cancel a new part proposal if I feel the current part is not done yet, and I will be able to request a new proposal if I think we're ready to move on. The parts will still last a random lenght (between a fixed min/max value) so the lenght of the piece will not be set in advance. But my ability to advance or extend the piece with cancelling or calling up proposals will make sure it will be within reasonable boundaries (probably between 20-30 min).

Over and out now. On my way to mail a couple of Shackle Sticks to the WORM shop.




March 22, 2013

Scooterman & Leak over Assange / in the studio

Last week I spend a day with Piet van Tienen in the flesh (after working remotely for over a year or so) to fine-tune the two songs we've been working on. The process: Piet would send me a raw version of the songs, played by himself on guitar and voice recorded on a webcam. I would then arrange them, adding drums, bass lines, mellotron-like instruments. Also thinking of my own role as producer/player, where to add my joystick-abstract-crackle and where to process guitar/voice. Now in the studio together it was the time for a reality-check.

The arrangements sounded good when played with the live guitar and voice. Levels need to be balanced for sure, but overall fine. Live sampling the voice and guitar also worked well, but with moderation. I really have to adjust, not playing to much, letting the story tell itself. Same for more abstract joystick-action: hold back, moderate. But especially this last aspect I really have to rethink. Not sure if I should not leave it out completely.

I thought of posting some excerpts, but it's still to fragile. So patience please ;)




March 21, 2013

The Sound of the Machine / documentation version

In the past weeks I've been collecting various parts of the composition The Sound of the Machine. Originally a piece for Disklavier, tape, flute & electronics and laptop-instrument, I wanted to document the piece plus make a multichannel version that could stand on its own as a tape piece.

The documentation version is done: with the generous help of Anne La Berge I first recorded her contribution to the work. This was a challenge for her, as the Disklavier tracks were on tape (and not of great quality, I didn't re-record those yet) and I wasn't playing along in the improvisation sections. So she had little to play against, but still did a great job. In my studio I then recorded my part, 'live sampling' the flute.

As the tape part was of course already there, the last job was to record the Disklavier. I went to Muziekhuis Utrecht, where the instrument currently resides, installed my two Neumann KM184 microphones and two Schaller contact microphones, and made various recordings. This was a challenge, as I don't have a lot of experience recording piano. I tried different angles for the mics, the majority of them having quite some distance to the strings. Later in the mix I found that the few recordings I made with the mics much closer were definitely the best. Luckily I did record all the sections that way (just once, but that turned out to be enough). Another learning experience.

As for the contact microphones: when performing the piece, I would specifically use a Mackie mixer for its great pre-amps to boost the signal of the contact mics, plus use its superior equalizers to balance hum and signal. I totally forgot about that until Jan the technician at Muziekhuis Utrecht handed me a Soundcraft mixer. Now I'm not very particular about my equipment, but I did hear a difference in signal quality. Oh well. It was way better than the previous recordings anyways.

The last stage was mixing. A very enjoyable job, just me, the tracks and a nice pair of speakers. One thing I learned there was to bring the levels down down down! Especially with the piano and the quite harsh flute+sampling I needed that to make the mix more transparent. I also discovered some nice free plugins from Voxengo, of which I used the Tube Amp simulator as a mastering tool. Much better than the build-in maximizer in Nuendo!

When recording the Disklavier I luckily also thought of video-taping the instrument. I still find the piece more rewarding if you actually see the magic of automatically moving keys and the instrument's struggle to play the massive amount of notes I send it. (Of course I also should have video-taped Anne and myself - well, next time).




March 5, 2013

Shackle Affair: Organ / part names

For this composition I will use the Shackle System as a way to structure the piece. This system is basically a visual cueing system, proposing parts for the performers to play, giving them the option to cancel proposals and request new ones. In the way we use it in Shackle, the proposals and lenght of the parts is chosen in a weighted random fashion by the system. This makes it very flexible and surprising, also for us as players. For this piece I will probably make it a bit less surprising, possibly by setting a specific order but still letting the players decide when to go on to the next one. Or limiting the number of 'cancels' for each player, so that they will have to think hard if they really want to cancel the next proposal. To be determined.

I've actually composed 10 (or 11) parts already, and in the process of finetuning them. I will keep the rules for each part a secret for now, but below is a list of the names, plus explanations. All searched for in connection with 'shackle' - limiting one's possibilities. And then soon you get into darker territory...

  • Fetter (a chain or manacle used to restrain a prisoner, typically placed around the ankles)
  • Trammel (poetic/literary: a restriction or impediment to someone's freedom of action)
  • Bilboes (an iron bar with sliding shackles formerly used for confining a prisoner's ankles)
  • Crackdown (severe measures to restrict or discourage undesirable or illegal people or behavior)
  • Tether (the horse had been tethered to a post)
  • Yoke (Dutch: juk / a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to)
  • Halter (a rope or strap with a noose or headstall placed around the head of a horse or other animal, used forleading or tethering it / archaic: a rope with a noose for hanging a person)
  • Bridle (a horse's bridle)
  • Manacle (handcuffs)




March 4, 2013

Shackle Affair: Organ / another working day at Orgelpark

Last Monday I spend a full day at Orgelpark. As they are closed on Mondays, I was on my own. I mainly worked on amplification of the organs for live sampling and processing. My conclusion after this day:

  • For the Sauer organ I will use the two dynamic microphones that are already installed in the organ, to live sample and process the sound. I will also put a Rat distortion pedal on the organ. This sounds great on the organ. After this work is done I should try a drone piece for the organ, in Sunn O))) style.
  • For the Elbert Kistorgel I will use two Neumann microphones stuck into the opened top of the organ. The bleed from the speakers into the mics will be acceptable. I will definitely live sample and process the sound from the organ, and also extend it with a ZVEX distortion pedal.
  • I'm not really sure yet how to amplify the Molzer organ. I did test putting a wireless Beyer Dynamic mic in there, but placement is very important as I'd like to get a balanced level from all pipes. So next time I'll put two of those microphones in there on stands, and see if that works.

I also tested MIDI control to and from the Sauer console a bit. Triggering notes and changing registers with the joystick. Very cool, but very dangerous: a high risk of stuck MIDI notes. Although I trust my SuperCollider programming, I'll have to test this thoroughly, and then some more. What we don't want is hanging notes during a concert. MIDI coming from the Sauer console will trigger flute samples in my SuperCollider setup. Also quite risky, but I have more control there so I can always break in if things go haywire.

A short documentation video:




February 21, 2013

MDfreeze

MDfreeze is my version of an ambient piece. Inspired by Gas (Wolfgang Voigt) and the Kompakt label's yearly Pop Ambient collection. To be premiered at a Call & Response event in London somewhere this year. Still in its initial research phase, I'm mainly testing out various ways to process existing tracks. During the process, my respect for ambient guys increases by the day. Very hard to make something throbbing, moving, dynamic, quiet, without any real beat, climax or development, but still interesting to listen to.

This piece is another step in my research on using other artists' material and making something new out of it. Using the inherent sound quality of the original, making that my own and sculpting a new original work using that material. Finding the right balance between literal quote and synthesizing your own material.





February 20, 2013

Shackle Affair: Organ

'Shackle Affair: Organ' is a composition for various organs, flute with electronics and laptop-instrument, performed by Dominik Blum and Shackle (Anne La Berge & Robert van Heumen). ’Shackle Affair: Organ’ is the next step in Shackle’s research project into restriction and structure in electro-acoustic improvisation. For this installment 10 new musical sections will be composed, each of which prescribes a way of playing the instruments or a limitation in sound material. During the concert these new sections will be presented to the players through the Shackle System. The players will have the option to cancel proposed sections or request new ones. ’Shackle Affair: Organ’ is developed with financial support from the Performing Arts Fund NL.

In the last couple of weeks I've been biking to Orgelpark a couple of times to prepare this work. For The First Law of Kipple I've done quite some work on the Sauer organ, but the other organs at Orgelpark were quite a mystery to me. Trevor Grahl showed me around some of them. My favorites: the small 'kistorgel' (chest organ?), with only 4 registers, but an amazing sound. Perfect for amplification, sampling, processing. The other fav is the Molzer organ, a little used old organ with a very characteristic sound. Both of these organs reside on the concert floor, so can easily be used together with the Sauer Organ console.

It was/is a challenge to find extra-musical sounds within these organs. Although the Sauer organ is the most technically advanced organ, the other two (kistorgel and Molzer) have more possibilities for extended techniques it seems.

Next week I'll be looking at amplification of these organs, testing live sampling and live processing. Then at the end of March I'll be working there with Nora Mulder and Anne La Berge to try out a first version of the piece. Looking very much forward to that!




Scooterman & Leak over Assange

Two songs. Written by guitarist/singer Piet van Tienen in raw form then sent to me. Taking the producer role but in such a way that we can perform the songs together. Quite challenging, as this material is on the opposite side of my 'usual' work in abstract electronic improvised music. Beats? Melody lines? Verse-chorus structure? Very challenging, but after the first one I totally got the hang of it. I also decided initially not to bother with performability, that will come later. In fact, in a week or two, when we get together in a studio.




February 19, 2013

The Sound of the Machine, the tape version

The Sound of the Machine is a composition for Disklavier, tape, flute & electronics and laptop-instrument. Especially the presence of the Disklavier in this list makes it difficult to have the piece performed. Plus I like the sound material and I'm not really finished working with it. So that's why I'm working on a tape version of the piece. To be premiered at Jeff Carey's 'The BTO presents: RTFM' in Baltimore, somewhere this spring.

Multichannel is something that I have a love-hate relationship with. In general I'm totally happy with stereo. Enough richness in sound, depth, space. But as electronic musician I am attracted to using multiple speakers. After all, sound projection from a speaker is nothing compared to sound projection by an acoustic instrument, so we try to make up for it with quantity. Fail. So for this piece I'd like to start thinking of using multiple speakers in an interesting way, or maybe find another way of using a stereo pair.

The status as of now: the tape part is there, I've recorded Anne's flute & electronics, plus my own processing of the flute. In two weeks I'll be recording the Disklavier at Muziekhuis Utrecht, and then the final stage: mixing.




February 18, 2013

Preparado (working title)

Preparado is a composition for prepared piano and laptop-instrument for Albert van Veenendaal and myself. It will be a semi-composed piece for two improvisors, specifying certain musical aspects while keeping open other.

In 2012 we already started playing as a duo with a concert in Museum De Pont in Tilburg NL. A video of this concert can be found here.

A couple of weeks ago we went into Albert's studio and recorded a bunch of improvised pieces. The goal we set ourselves: short pieces, based upon certain rules or ideas. Last week we mixed the first four, and it sounds great! This material will definitely form the inspiration for my composition, but it will also be a separate track for our duo. We're discussing release methods, media, subscriptions, compact cassette. More soon.




February 17, 2013

The First Law of Kipple: 'finished'

My composition for tape and MIDI-controlled organ is declared done. It'll be a while before premiere, and that's also an issue right there: part of the tape is done by 'live' (in the studio) processing of recorded organ. The recordings on which this is based were made in August 2012 at Orgelpark using the MIDI-fied Sauer organ, and when working again at Orgelpark last December, I was horrified to hear that the organ's tuning was off by almost a eight tone! So playing the tape (with organ recordings) together with the 'new' tuning of the organ sounded very wrong. I'm quite fond of microtonal differences, but 22 cents is just too much. Luckily I could solve this by pitch-shifting my recordings in software, which sounded quite good. But the problem might repeat itself, so I'll have to make sure to check a week or so before the concert and just hope that the weather will be similar to last December ;)

Lesson number 2: when using samples of instruments in a semi-tonal environment, make sure the date of recording and the date of premiere are not too far apart.

(A lesson I've already neglected when recording organ samples for the other organ piece)

 




January 23, 2013

MOROS

MOROS is a composition for bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet, to be performed by the duo aggregate (Laura Carmichael and Oguz Buyukberber). Moros is the spirit of doom in Greek Mythology. The inspiration for the piece: Prometheus who caused mortals to cease forseeing their doom (Moros) by causing blind hopes to dwell within their breasts. It'll be the soundtrack for an imaginary SciFi film in 10 minutes.

The current status of the piece: a general idea of structure and sound, some notes, some electronic treatments of clarinet and voice. Today I have been working with Laura and Oguz on these ideas, talking about how to structure the piece, the possibilities of the instruments, and recording some sounds to use in the tape part of the work. Very exciting!

Another inspiration: the Alien Quadrology, John Carpenter's soundtracks for his own 70's films, Ennio Morricone's music for 70's films.

http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPrometheus.html
http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Moros.html
http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Elpis.html




January 21, 2013

Coma

Coma is a composition for the band Spoon3, consisting of Jodi Gilbert (voice), Albert van Veenendaal (piano), Meinrad Kneer (acoustic bass) and myself on laptop-instrument. The idea was formed already in 2011, but never materialized. A strong bassline, a stumbling piano rhythm, an electronic treatment of this rhythm and a trance-like delivery of selected texts from the book The Coma by Alex Garland. The first version, presented to an audience at the Amsterdam Bimhuis, was a big learning experience for me. Everything was fully written out, full of irregular meters and odd jumps. Not taking into account that I was dealing with experienced improvisors who could be trusted with the task of creating a stumbling rhythm by themselves. Instead I let them read the whole thing, which made the piece very hard to perform after only 2 rehearsals, and which made it sound very much like a struggle. Luckily we realized this during the second rehearsal, and decided to have the piano create the rhythm as improvisation. This worked much better, but still the piece would have benifitted from a couple more rehearsals. Or even better: a couple of concerts in a row. Unfortunately it is not easy to find opportunities to perform with this group.

Lesson number one: when composing always write with the performers in mind. Or course you can push players out of their comfort zone a bit, but don't try to fit an elephant in your skipass pocket.




January 5, 2013

'The First Law of Kipple' and 'Shackle Affair: Organ' premiere at Orgelpark

At the end of this year, two of my works will premiere at Orgelpark. Very exciting! More about these works in other posts, but below the announcement.

A virtuoso chain reaction in noise and sound Van Heumen, Dramm & Ferrari with Marco Blaauw, Dominik Blum and Shackle

Location: Orgelpark, Gerard Brandtstraat 26 Amsterdam Date/time: November 3, afternoon

Ferrari / Visages V part 1 & 2 (1959) 6:33
Dramm / new work for solo trumpet (2013) 3:00
Dramm / (chaincurve) (2006-7) 22:00

Van Heumen / The First Law of Kipple (2012, premiere) 21:05
Van Heumen / Shackle Affair: Organ (2013, premiere) 20:00

The First Law of Kipple (Robert van Heumen 2012, premier) (FLoK) is a composition for 4-channel tape and MIDI-controlled organ. ’FLoK’ is inspired by Gorecki’s Miserere and a library of processed recordings in various churches. It is about creating order in chaos and crunching melody into noise. ’FLoK’ is commissioned by Het Orgelpark in Amsterdam.

There’s the First Law of Kipple... ’Kipple drives out nonkipple.’...Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday’s homeopape. When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you to go bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up there is twice as much of it. It always gets more and more. No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot. (Philip K. Dick)

Shackle Affair: Organ (Robert van Heumen 2013, premiere) is a composition for various organs, flute with electronics and laptop-instrument, performed by Dominik Blum and Shackle (Anne La Berge & Robert van Heumen). ’Shackle Affair: Organ’ is the next step in Shackle’s research project into restriction and structure in electro-acoustic improvisation. For this installment 10 new musical sections will be composed, each of which prescribes a way of playing the instruments or a limitation in sound material. During the concert these new sections will be presented to the players through the Shackle System. The players will have the option to cancel proposed sections or request new ones. ’Shackle Affair: Organ’ is developed with financial support from the Performing Arts Fund NL.

http://www.orgelpark.nl/
https://west28.nl/shackle-archive/affair/




December 19, 2012

The First Law of Kipple

Just back from Orgelpark, where I've been working on a new piece. 'The First Law of Kipple' is a composition for 4-channel tape and MIDI-controlled organ. FLoK is about creating order from chaos and the disintegration of melody into noise. The composition is build around an extreme adaptation of Gorecki's Miserere and field recordings in churches processed using the family tree concept. Combining acoustic melodic material and electronic abstract material is an important aspect of FLoK. I'm interested in methods to succesfully merge these two very distinct sound worlds. Inspired by my fascination with churches, Gorecki's Miserere and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. FLoK is commissioned by the Orgelpark in Amsterdam.

The premiere will be at Orgelpark on November 3, 2013.

There's the First Law of Kipple... 'Kipple drives out nonkipple.'...Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you to go bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up there is twice as much of it. It always gets more and more. No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot. (Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep)

 




August 10, 2012

Composition Stipend

My application for a composition stipend at the Performing Arts Fund was accepted! For the years 2013 and 2014 I will receive a total sum of €36.000, ment as a financial basis for established composers that have proven themselves, but are not able to make a living from composing.

I plan to make pieces for Oguz Buyukberber & Laura Carmichael, trio 7090 (Nora Mulder, Koen Kaptijn, Bas Wiegers) & Gerri Jaeger, Jorge Isaac, Jasper Stadhouders, Shackle & Dominik Blum, Albert van Veenendaal, Spoon3 (Jodi Gilbert, Meinraad Kneer, Albert van Veenendaal), Piet van Tienen, plus two electronic compositions. Some of the works will include myself as laptop player. As some of these pieces will include written note material, something that is quite new to my practice, it will be an exciting period! Looking forward to work with all these great musicians.

One sad last remark: unfortunately this round was the last chance to apply for a composition stipend. Starting next year the option no longer exists.

This is the first post to document my compositional work in 2013/2014. All posts in this category can be read here.




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