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.

Documented. Web page with excerpts created. Done.

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!

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)

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

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/

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)