Generator.x Tour: Frank Bretschneider live on the tour (more photos on Flickr)

A veteran of electronic music, Frank Bretschneider is currently based in Berlin but was born in 1956 in East Germany, growing up in what was then Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz). He originally trained as a graphic designer and painter, but in 1984 started experimenting with electronic music through tape loops, a Korg synth and treated guitars. In 1986 he founded the now-defunct AG.GEIGE, an experimental group mixing popular music with avantgarde performance strategies, borrowing from Dada and the Surrealists.

In 1995 Bretschneider formed the Rastermusic label with former bandmate Olaf Bender, releasing experimental electronic music. Rastermusic merged in 1999 with Noton Archiv für ton und nichtton (run by artist and musician Carsten Nicolai), creating the now renowned Raster-Noton label. With artists like Bretschneider, Nicolai and Ryoji Ikeda, Raster-Noton is famous for releasing uncompromising musical abstractions. The label also focuses on the interaction between music and visual art, with its artists frequently producing audiovisual performances or art installations.

Bretschneider’s music is often described as minimalist, but when asked he prefers to describe it as simply economic. Whatever the term used, his music is highly structured, marked by pinpoint precision and micromanagement. His raw materials are sine waves and white noise, resulting in a sound which is clearly digital and synthetic, although not without warmth.

As strategies for composition Bretschneider emphasizes accidents and the intentional misuse of software. Claiming to be “lazy”, he experiments with connecting modular synthesis systems until he gets interesting sequences. These are then saved and processed further. The final track is then constructed using these elements as building blocks, with looping and filtering applied to introduce further unexpected results.

Bretschneider’s interest in visual representation of sound comes naturally from his background in visual work. Using spectral analysis and custom software, he takes visual cues from music software (dots, lines, bars etc.) and turns them into representations of musical structures. The visuals mirror Bretschneider’s sound perfectly, with hypnotic repetition and precise micro-events drawing audiences into a synthetic visual space. Again, he claims that his use of a limited visual vocabulary of shapes and colors is a matter of economics rather than a minimalist statement.

To watch one of Bretschneider’s audiovisual performances is to be placed inside the logic of the composition, seeing and hearing it simultaneously. While this highly structured environment somewhat restricts possibilities for improvisation, the result is immensely precise in its connection of sound and image. To overcome the improvisational challenge, Bretschneider is currently working on new software solutions for realtime visuals.

Frank Bretschneider is touring with the Generator.x concert tour for 7 performances all over Norway. The tour is produced by Rikskonsertene and co-curated by Alexander Rishaug and Marius Watz.

Related links:

• frankbretschneider.de
• Photos of Frank Bretschneider on the Generator.x tour
• Raster-Noton
• Bretschneider on the 12K label
• Interview with Surreal Sound
• "Micro-economics", article by Susanna Bolle for Boston’s Weekly Dig

Generator.x: The concert tour (Phonophani, Lia vs. Emi Maeda)

Generator.x: The concert tour – 19-29 April, 2006

Phonophani (NO) / Marius Watz (NO)
Emi Maeda (JP) / Lia (AT)
Frank Bretschneider (DE)

This week sees the beginning of the Generator.x concert tour, with 7 dates all over Norway – we’ll even go north of the Arctic Circle. The tour is produced by Rikskonsertene, and presents a selection of artists working with generative strategies in the intersection between sound and visual performance. Co-curators are Marius Watz and Alexander Rishaug, the latter also known for his music and his RandomSystem festival projects.

Norwegian Phonophani (aka Espen Sommer Eide) will play glitchy improvisations using Max/MSP, accompanied by generative visuals by Marius Watz. Helsinki-based harpist Emi Maeda will play harp combined with electronic sound manipulations, with Lia doing visuals. Finally we are pleased to be joined by Frank Bretschneider from Berlin, one of the founders of the renowned Raster-Noton label and a veteran of minimalist beats and sine wave abstractions. In what could be seen as a continuation of the Gesamtkunstwerk tradition, Bretschneider also produces visuals from his sound works.

Photos from the tour will be put online on Flickr.

Generator.x: Tour dates

• 19 April, Oslo: Presentation at NoTAM Forum
• 20 April, Trondheim: Blæst (w/ Monolithic)
• 21 April, Oslo: Blå
• 22 April, Fredrikstad: St.Croix huset
• 26 April, Bergen: Landmark
• 27 April, Tromsø: KAOS
• 28 April, Drammen: Union Scene
• 29 April, Stavanger: Tou Scene (w/ FE-MAIL)

Our thanks go to Rikskonsertene, Alexander Rishaug and local organizers like TEKS, BEK and Tou Scene for making this tour possible.

For information about the concert that took place during the Generator.x conference in Oslo, please visit the Generator.x Club page.

Jannis Kreft: Generative Audiovisual Systems (rappers Monarch & Thec)

Jannis Kreft (aka "Dein Lieblinsgestalter") has documented his diploma project for Joachim Sauter’s class at Universität der Künste in Berlin. Entitled "Generative Audiovisual Systems", the project is a performatice live show using VVVV to generate interactive sets for rappers Monarch & Thec.

Abstract visuals are normally seen illustrating electronic music, while hip hop typically features ubiquitous booty videos. Kreft breaks the norm, only referencing traditional hip hop aesthetics with an interactive Lowrider model (seen top left). Using IR camera tracking, projections onto the bodies of the performers can be isolated from the rest of the set.

See Kreft’s site for details, including step-by-step progress reports, and be sure to look for the hilarious bluescreen photos. The site also holds documentation of other audiovisual projects Kreft has been creating for media design studio Art+Com.

Respect to the German generative massive. Peace, I’m out.

This is an experiment to see if posting videos on the blog would be feasible (or even desirable). The video format of choice is Flash Video, since it’s light-weight, most users have the necessary plugins and the plugin doesn’t stop the browser for several seconds while initializing. We’re using the WP-FLV WordPress plugin by Roel Meurders to embed the FLVs. WP-FLV in turn uses Jeroen Wijering’s Flash Video Player.

Please give feedback on how this is working for you. It shouldn’t slow down the normal blog use, since it doesn’t load the video until you ask it to. Without further ado, here is the clip.

Video: Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) live at AV.06. (~ 6 MB)

Alva Noto: Concert (video)

Fenwick: What I know about stem cells

Back online after a few days spent at the AV.06 festival in lovely Newcastle, where the architecture is baroque industrial (except for Norman Foster’s very sci-fi Sage Gateshead) and the local females brave the sub-zero conditions in flimsy tops. This is only the second time the AV festival has been organized. The last (2003) version was a VJ- and film-oriented event. This year director Honor Harger and her team has created an ambitious event around the theme “Lifelike”.

Spanning three cities (Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland), it features commissioned performances and installations by artists like Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto, see live video) Michael Nyman, Critical Art Ensemble, Ken Rinaldo and many more. Concerts and VJ culture are still important to the programme, as is film (the Tyneside Cinema is one of the organizing partners). The festival includes not one but two premieres of new work by experimental filmmaker Richard Fenwick, including an excellent deadpan edutainment piece on stem cell research.

All in all, a very strong showing of varied events, successfully mixing film and VJ culture with classical music and media art. The festival is on for another week, if you’re in the neighbourhood be sure to drop by.

Disclosure: I participated in the festival with a new projection piece commissioned for the Sage Gateshead and with System C in the Animated Drawing programme organized by the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. My thanks to Honor, Fiona, Dan, Mark, Adam, Beckie etc. for assistance and hospitality. I’ve uploaded a Flickr set from AV.06.

Onoxo: Clean exp

Onoxo: Pipet filters

Onoxo is the project name of Zagreb-based VJ and motion designer Vedran Kolac. Working in VVVV, he creates forms that tend towards the architectural while retaining an organic quality. His work is proof positive of the potential of VVVV for creating generative live visuals. Be sure to take a look at the movie version of Clean Exp.

Kolac is also a part of the Strukt Visual Network, a collective operating out of Austria which puts out a magazine for graphic design and live visuals. Strukt has also become a gathering point for various projects, such as the Redestrukt Visual Crew and other spinoffs. In a VJ scene that has yet to find a coherent voice, Strukt stands out as a group that communicates both loudly and clearly.

Mathias Fuchs: Postvinyl

Mathias Fuchs: Postvinyl

Postvinyl was created by Mathias Fuchs with Michelle Jay as an experiment in future DJ tools. It is based on a first-person shooter engine, turned into a performative sound tool. The virtual environment features record players and special “sound guns” that the DJ performer can explored and interact with. The result is an interface for creating both sound and visuals, with the virtual enviroment being both a functional and aesthetic space. The images seen by the virtual DJ avatar is projected in the club as the visual part of the performance.

See more documentation of Fuchs’ work here. There are also more images of Postvinyl, including pictures from live performances.

Via an article by Mathias Fuchs for our good friends at Artificial.dk. Artificial.dk regularly publishes original articles and interviews with artists and theorist, sign up to their mailing list if you want to receive updates on generative art and electronic art.

Karl Klomp (VJ MNK) & Tom Verbruggen (Toktek)

I know glitchy sounds and visuals are appreciated round these parts, so I couldn’t miss out on posting about Karl Klomp and partner-in-crime Tom Verbruggen. These hyperactive boys indulge in video bending, max/msp hacking, hardware repurposing and general sweet mayhem.

A student at the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen, Karl Klomp (aka MNK) documents his hardware hacks and visual glitch on www.karlklomp.nl. Make sure to see the videos of his live performances, he combines drawn animation with video bending noise. Tom Verbruggen (aka Toktek) is part of the Sonido Gris band / art collective, and also does performance art, installation etc. I certainly hope they drop by Berlin sometime.

HC Gilje: CityScapes DVD

HC Gilje, who lectured about his instrumental work with live visual performance at the Generator.x conference, has just released a new DVD. The CityScapes DVD is published on the French Lowave label, and features 5 films in Gilje’s signature dreamy style.

Gilje’s release email says the following:

DJ Strangefruit

DJ Deadswan

Good news: We’ve managed to book two excellent DJs for the Generator.x club event.

Those of you who come to the event will start the evening by enjoying the sights and sounds of Erich Berger's Tempest, the gorgeous abstractions of TinyLittleElements (alias Lia and Sebastian Meissner) and the video textures and drones of Blind. Then the mood segues smoothly into party time with DJs Strangefruit and Deadswan, both cult figures in their respective scenes.

DJ Strangefruit is a true veteran of the Norwegian club scene, and is considered by many to be Norway’s consistently best DJ. With Strangefruit’s varied playing style and his extensive experience from playing live with artists like Nils Petter Molvær, he rarely finds a crowd he can’t please.

As one might expect DJ Deadswan comes from a less mainstream background, originally organizing the underground club Strictly Kinky as part of the performance trio and TV presenters Genitalia. He’s frequently found behind the decks of various clubs, spinning the weirder side of electronica, poptrash and anything else that’s fun and sinful. The Iconoclastic club nigt that he organizes with DJ Lynch is a famous hangout for people who like their music a little… different.

Having seen Deadswan and Strangefruit team up before, I can promise you an exciting night of hybrid styles. It doesn’t exactly hurt that our venue for the evening, Hausmania, is well-known for being a take-no-prisoners party spot. The DJs will be accompanied by generative VJ sets by GX (NO) and Jan Kremlacek from Spoon (CZ). Jan has a funky setup with an EKG monitor that allows clubbers to influence the visuals through their heartbeats, let’s hope we cab avoid cases of arrhytmia.