Sound Out 2012
Biographies of artists.
Christine Sehnaoui: saxophonist (France)
Born in 1978 and living in France, Christine is from Lebanese/French origins. It is with the discovering of improvised music in 1997 that Christine Sehnaoui decided to start her own autodidact study of sound experimentation on the alto saxophone. She creates a personal language on how to make “electronic” music on an acoustic instrument. Far away from narrative or dramatic music, her music tries to deal with the relation between listening and the concept of perception, time and space. With deep sensitivity, she develops extended techniques and complex patterns, exploring the microtonal aspects of the saxophone or the high-pitched tone. She produces nifty tonguing tricks, unpitched breaths, spittle-flecked growls, biting, slicing notes or breathy echoey sounds from the bell of her horn. Her main musical partners include Sharif Sehnaoui, Michel Waisvisz, Stéphane Rives, Mazen Kerbaj, Michael Zerang, Mathias Forge, Olivier Toulemonde, Pascal Battus, Basile Ferriot and many others.
For the past few years, she has been working with dancers (Buto and contemporary dance) and she also undertakes an ungoing research on musical pedagogy (concerts for children, intervention in schools). Since 2001, she contributes to the development of improvisation in her country of origins, Lebanon, where she has co-organized the annual festival of improvised music in Lebanon in the past, called Irtijal. However from 2008 she is based in Paris and is in demand from festivals throughout Europe.
Cor Fuhler: prepared piano/guitar and electronics, (Netherlands/Australia)
Cor was born 1964 Barger-Oosterveld, Drenthe, Netherlands and is an Amsterdam/and Australian-based musician who plays in the style of electro-acoustic improvisation. His primary instrument is the piano (frequently prepared piano). He explores the possibilities of the piano, manipulating it’s sound with use of various string stimulators like ebows, rotating threads and spinning disks. Fuhler also manipulates sounds from turntables and other electronic devices, and filters them through an analogue synthesizer.
Eric Normand: bass electric (Canada)
Eric is a composer, improviser, bassist, instrument designer, and record and concert producer, all in one. He defines himself as an epidisciplinary musician, a free electron driven by its yearning for meetings. In his book, composition cannot exist without exchange, since composition consists in setting up a territory that will facilitate improvisation. The interlocutors who have taken part to his numerous composition and production projects are sound engineers, radio producers, musicians, and sound artists. Living in a remote location (Rimouski), he ponders the concept of distance. He builds portable instruments and involves musicians in projects designed with very basic or high-tech communication tools. When he wanders around, he likes to improvise. His latest such meetings have featured Pierre-Yves Martel, Danielle Palardy Roger, Magali Babin and Anne-Françoise Jacques. His music has been programmed by or performed in several festivals in Canada (Festival de Musiques de Création — Jonquière, Reflux Moncton, Productions SuperMusique Montréal, Mois Multi Québec, etc.) and Europe (Festival Rue du Nord — Switzerland, Festival des Musiques Insolentes — France, Les Rencontres à l’Échelle France, etc). They have also been broadcasted by Radio-Canada, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, Radio-Grenouille, and several college radio stations.
Evan Dorrian: drummer/percussionist (Canberra)
Evan is an Australian improvising musician and sound artist. Using the drum kit and percussion as sound sources, he pulls apart the traditional notions of his acoustic instruments and reconstructs them as pure sound matter and busted anti-rhythm. His main projects are Spartak; an electro-acoustic duo that sees 60’s fire music and post-punk drift in dub ambience while Pollen Trio is an exploratory outfit that is founded on melodic song-form and textural improvisation. Alongside this work, Evan has also collaborated with Australian jazz figures such as Adam Simmons, Cameron Deyell and Abel Cross; tireless improvisers like Dave Brown and Mike Cooper as well as electronic sound sculptors including Seaworthy, Andrew Pekler and Adrian Klumpes.
Jim Denley: wind instruments (Sydney)
An emphasis on spontaneity, site-specific work and collaboration has been central to his work. He sees no clear distinctions between his roles as instrumentalist, improviser and composer. Collaborations, his radio feature for the ABC won the Prix Italia in 1989. In 1990 he was a member of Derek Bailey’s Company for a week of concerts in London. In May 06 he recorded a program for the ABC in the Budawang Mountains, South West of Sydney, now been made into a CD, Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley. This received an Honorary Mention in the Digital Music category of the Prix Ars Electronica 2008. He co-founded with the electro-acoustic text/music group Machine for Making Sense. He was awarded a fellowship grant in 2007 from the Australia Council.
Michael Norris: electronics and feedback (Canberra)
Michael has been creating experimental music since 1988 and has been performing both collaborative and solo music, noise and sound art since 2000, mostly in Brisbane with collaborators including Joe Musgrove and Andrew Kettle. He currently presents "Subsequence" – a weekly program of specialist experimental/electronic music broadcast live on 2XX FM, Canberra, and nationally on the Community Radio Network. In 2004, while in the UK for postdoctoral work in computational psychoacoustics, he performed regularly with improv trio Analogorak in Totnes, Devon. At Electrofringe 2002 and 2007 he presented workshops on home made instruments and feedback. Since moving to Canberra in 2007 Michael has performed solo and in live collaborative improvisations with Richard Johnson, and Stephen Barrass. Performed at SoundOut 2011 see review “Spartak/Mike Majkowski/Michael Norris performance on Sunday afternoon where “pitch, tonality and form achieved a beautiful harmony” (BMA Mag below)
Philippe Lauzier: Clarinets and saxophone (Canada)
Philippe Lauzier is among Montréal’s most active improvising musicians. He plays bass clarinet, alto/soprano saxophone, and composes. His music is definitely modern and stands out for tones and polyphonics that sing a different tune. For the past few years, Lauzier has been performing regularly on Canadian and European stages. He has to his credit or co-credit the records Subsurface, Sainct Laurens, Disparition de l’usine éphémère, on the Ambiance Magnetique recording label. These releases have been lauded by reviewers worldwide. His current projects see him playing with Pierre-Yves Martel, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Martin Tétreault, Michel F Côté, Diane Labrosse, and Pierre Tanguay, and also foreign musicians such as Kim Myhr (Norway), Jim Denley (Australia), Xavier Charles, Benoit Delbecq (France), Philip Zoubek and Nils Ostendorf (Germany). Lauzier also works with contemporary choreographers Isabelle van Grimde, Kelly Keenan, and Kira Kirsch (USA). Philippe Lauzier focuses on long-term collaborations to develop stronger bonds and delve deeper into creation.
Richard Johnson: Wind instruments, improviser/sound artist, (Canberra)
Richard performs with the texture of sound on soprano/baritone saxophone and bass clarinet and in the last couple of years has been experimenting with instruments made from the conical gourds from PNG. These particular gourds allow the stripping back of the wind instruments to their most visceral and most sensuous form and allow for the exploration of the fundamentals of sound production with extended techniques. He has performed at the What is Music Festival, Nownow Festival; the Make it Now performances; also performances with the Brice Glace Ensemble and the 102 Club OrKestra in Grenoble France 2004; Whip it #29 in Sydney; as well as hosting local/interstate/international improv nights in Canberra and as being the Producer/Director and performer at SoundOut 2010 and SoundOut 2011 in January 2010/11. As a sound artist he was commissioned by the Casula Power House in Sydney to collaborate with renowned Artist Savanhdary Vongpoothorn to produce a 30-minute Soundscape for the Australia Exhibition at The Casula Power House in Sydney 2008; and recently collaborated with glass/conceptual artist Denise Higgins on a soundscape for her show in Melbourne in May 2010. He has performed with the likes of Mats Gustafsson, Robbie Avenaim, Jerome Nottinger, Xavier Querell, Jim Denley, Kim Myhr, Clare Cooper, Richard Ratajczak, Cameron Deyell, Tony Osborne, Clayton Thomas, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Yan Jun, Laura Altman, Michael Norris, Shoeb Ahmed and Evan Dorian. Richard is currently developing a duo with trumpeter Reuben Lewis called “Verschrankung duo” and another duo with electronic artist Michael Norris.
Reuben Lewis: trumpet (Canberra)
Reuben is a composer, trumpet player & improviser currently based in Canberra, Australia. Reuben received the Friends of the School of Music Grant in 2009 to fund the recording of his debut CD of original compositions. A graduate of the ANU Jazz School & currently completing his honours in composition Reuben has performed, recorded & composed for artists such as Cameron Undy, Jamie Oehlers, James Greening & many more. He has also performed at numerous interstate music festivals & venues such as Bar 303 (Melbourne), The Spot (Melbourne), Bar Open (Melbourne), Venue 505 (Sydney), Canberra International Music Festival, Wangaratta Jazz Festival, and Womadelaide World Music Festival. He is keen to take the trumpet further by expanding the range and textural qualities beyond the traditional known technical facility to be in alignment with the progressive avant garde offerings of musicians such as Axel Dorner, Eivind Lonning, Peter Evans, Fritz Hautzinger etc to name a few. As well as continual development of his Quintet, Lewis is currently in a developmental stage of the duo “Verschrankung duo” with free improvisor Richard Johnson. Lewis’ quintet debut album “Samadhi” has been featured on community & national radio stations around Australia (including ABC’s Jazztrack and Artsound FM) and internationally.
Rishin Singh: trombonist (Sydney)
Rishin is a trombonist/improviser based in Sydney. His current projects include The Splinter Orchestra, Black Cracker (with Jon Watts), and Embedded (with Jim Denley, Monika Brooks, and Sam Pettigrew). His current practice is focused on the intersections of sensualism and minimalism, and is working towards a trombone technique and language rooted in 21st century Sydney. Rishin is a Co-Director of the NOWnow, and Co-Convenor of the Splinter Orchestra.
Robbie Avenaim: drummer/percussion/electronic(Melbourne)
Robbie Avenaim (born 1969 in Sydney) is an Australian musician, sound artist, and instrument builder. He is a drummer/percussionist, but extends his work through the use of found objects, junk percussion, contact mics and electronics. He formed noise rock band Phlegm with Oren Ambarchi in 1993, and toured the United States and Japan, including an invitation from John Zorn to play in New York. In 1994 Avenaim and Ambarchi founded the What Is Music festival, which showcases experimental music from around the world. Since the demise of Phlegm, Avenaim has released material in collaboration with artists such as Oren Ambarchi, Keith Rowe, Sachiko M, and Otomo Yoshihide, on labels such as Tzadik Records. Robbie combined traditional and extended techniques with physical modification of the Drums. Modifications have included extending use of the instrument’s, various motorised percussive mechanisms, and amplification and in so doing, provide greater scope for both composing and performing. As a musician / composer / instrument builder, The design of new instruments is an integral part of the compositional process. Avenaim is also a co-founder and current organiser of The What Is Music? festival since 1994.
Ryan Kernoa: guitar, electronics: duo with Christine Sehnaoui (France)
Since 2002, he developed a practice of improvised music in solo or in meetings under the name of Ryan K. In 2003 he joined the label Relax Ay Voo and takes part in the project no jazz Welter Quartet with drummer Jerome Renault. He has shared the stage with 4 Walls, Benoît Delbecq, Steve Argüelles, Frédéric Blondy and Ninh Lê Quanh, Daunik Lazro and Phil Minton, Otomo Yoshihide, Andy Moor and Kaffe Matthews, Andy Emler and Thomas De Pourquery, and played with Akosh S , Lucia Recio, Big Four, Joseba Irazoki, Phil Minton, and Daunik Lazro Médéric Collignon, Nicolas Lafourest, Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour, Pantxix Bidart, Stéphane Garin. In 2008 he began a collaboration with vocalist and drummer Frederick Jouanlong and David Guionneau: they create the trio Moraine. He works and collaborated with theatre Director Emma Morin with the Numerous Circle company and with director and choreographer Thierry Escarmant a creative team producing live entertainment involving live music, text, body, video and voice, and for which he includes most of the music he plays live. Also he has developed a work for solo classical guitar. Alone on stage without using any electrical effect, with a medium for classical guitar, Ryan K. convene during his playing a series of images, landscapes, creates tensions and reassurances, many dramaturgies taking place in what appears to be shadows and lights of the acoustic vibrations.
Sabine Vogel: flutes, live electronics (Germany)
Born in Munich, studied jazz-flute at the Anton Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria. In 2000 Sabine Vogel moved to Berlin, since 2005 she has been living in Potsdam. Sabine Vogel focuses on sound and improvisation, using extended techniques both acoustic as well as electronic, creating a very personal contemporary language for the flute. Discovering and producing the unheard, the intimate, in relation to sound production within the flute, is her main focus of exploration. She takes the sounds from the inside of her flute - the microcosm of her flute world – and transports these sounds, with the help of amplification, into a sound-able-hear-able world. Bringing what is inside into the outside. She then combines this world of sound with self-made field recordings- the natural macrocosm of existing sound, forming a composed mixture between the macro and microcosmic. She then uses this as the material for a composition. Recently, with the support of STEIM in Amsterdam, she developed foot- and sensor controllers for her electronic set-up which aided in this process and enriched the experience. She has played and worked a.o. with Anthony Braxton, Arto Lindsay, Tony Buck, Jim Denley, Chris Abrahams, Axel Dörner, Andrea Neumann, Schwimmer, Ensemble Zwischentöne and the Walter Thompson Soundpainting Orchestra.
Sam Pettigrew double bass (Sydney)
Sam Pettigrew (born 1989) is an emerging double bassist from Sydney whose commitment to the act of improvisation and the exploration of his instrument has pushed him to the forefront of Sydney’s contemporary improvised music scene and landed him a role as Co-director and curator of the NOW now series and festival since 2009. Current musical projects include; Embedded (with Jim Denley, Monica Brooks & Rishin Singh), Misty’s Gym (Duo with Mike Majkowski), Lines Of Flight (Jazz quartet w/Joe Cummins, Casey Golden & Alex Slater) Spanner (w/ Jim Denley & Finn Ryan) and The Splinter Orchestra (which Sam currently runs). Among others Sam has played with Jim Denley, Tony Gorman, Bobby Singh, Mike Majkowski, Kim Myhr(NOR), Chris Abrahams, Yan Jun (CHI), Ensemble Offspring, The Splinter Orchestra, Noel Meek (NZ), James Wylie (NZ), Shoji Hano (JAP), Grod Morel (ARG), Alister Spence, Clayton Thomas, Clare Cooper, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Rosalind Hall, Dale Gorfinkel, Neill Duncan, Alex Masso, Peter Farrar, Matt Ottignon, Ben Byrne, James Waples, Gail Priest, Tony Osborne.
Tony Osborne: vocalist (Sydney)
Tony Osborne is a Sydney-based vocalist, theatre artist, dancer and improviser. He has collaborated over the past 25 years with visual, sound, theatre and dance artists in a variety of performance works. In 2003 he formed the duo MADHEAD with guitarist Cameron Deyell (currently Tony’s solo project). As an improvising vocalist he has shared practice and performance with Ross Bolleter, Rob Muir, Clare Cooper, Clayton Thomas, Adam Sussman, Matt Earle, Peter Newman, Cameron Deyell, Ashley Dyer, Laura Altman, Monica Brooks, Sam Pettigrew, Rishin Singh, Amanda Stewart and Mike Cooper. He has performed around Australia at the Nownow music series and festival, Sydney, Make It Up Club, Melbourne, Disembraining Machine, Brisbane and Whip It, a bi-monthly improvised performance night in Sydney. He is also currently a member of Sydney improvising group Splinter Orchestra.
Toshimaru Nakamaru No-input mixing board player (Japan)
Toshimaru Nakamura is one of the most distinguished and original voices in the world of electro-acoustic improvisation, with a vast body of work built up over the past decade. Nakamura has been producing electronic music on self-named "no-input mixing board". The name describes the method of his music. "No" external sound source is connected to "inputs" of the "mixing board." He began his career playing rock and roll, but gradually explored other types of music, abandoning guitar and started working on circuit bending in 1998. He uses a mixing console as a live, interactive musical instrument manipulating the resultant audio feedback for the no-input mixing board. Nakamura's music has been described as "sounds ranging from piercing high tones and shimmering whistles to galumphing, crackle-spattered bass patterns." Mostly an improviser and occasionally an instrumentalist for compositions Nakamura has recorded solo albums and collaborated with such improvising artists as Yoshidide Otomo, Keith Rowe, John Butcher, Axel Dorner, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Fennez and Nicholaus Bussmann among others. He has also collaborated with Taku Sugimoto, Tetuzi Akiyama, dancer Kim Ito, drummer Jason Kahn, and Sachiko M, "a kindred spirit". In 2009 he worked on David Sylivian’s installation, ”When You Return You Won’t Recognize Us” where he worked with famed Norwegian Jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen.
