My vocoder-based sound installation DELILAH TOO will open at the CTM Festival, in the Kunstraum Bethanien on 23 JAN 2015, and run until 22 FEB.

I am looking for a number of volunteers to speak, read or sing texts in any language you choose, as well as attempt to communicate with installation visitors (hopefully in a language they do understand) during the entire month of the festival. In the spirit of Alvin Lucier’s “North American Time Capsule”, you could consider these texts as transmissions to other beings in space about what life on Earth is like for you…

I hope that a number of people can take one or two one-hour long slots, and I will try to make a small gathering with snacks/drinks sometime during the festival for people who help out.

You can find a short overview of the project here: http://tinyurl.com/delilah-too-ctm-info

Please contact me by email at MACUMBISTA at the domain GMAIL dot COM with the subject line “volunteer” and I will send more information and a link to the sign-up sheet.

Many thanks!!!! D.

Last spring, the Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, in Oldenburg DE, kindly decided to support my vocoder-based public speech encryption project DELILAH TOO with a working stipend, and if all goes well I look forward to showing it during the next CTM Festival in Berlin at the end of January. You can read the Edith-Russ-Haus jury statement here:

http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/en/stipends/stipends/current.html

From now until 05 DEC, I will be working with the staff and new directors of the Edith-Russ-Haus, Edit Molnár and Marcel Schwierin to give further shape to the piece. And doing a bit of soldering on the way as well…

I have a few public presentations during my time here, as follows:

Präsentation der Stipendiaten 2014 (ERH): 27.NOV, 19:00
Komponist Colloquium (University of Oldenburg): 28.NOV, 20:00
Derek Holzer – Tonewheels performance (ERH): 02.DEC, 19:00

You can read more about the DELILAH TOO project here:

http://macumbista.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/derek-holzer-delilha_too_public.pdf

Today I was informed that my application for a grant from the Foundation of Lower Saxony at the Edith-Russ-Haus 2014 was selected by the jury! I will be working on a vocoder-based sound art installation during the second half of 2014. Thanks to the jury for their kind support!

Derek Holzer, Delilah Too

With his project DELILAH TOO, the Berlin-based American sound artist Derek Holzer conducts media archeological research toward the development of a language cryptography instrument on the basis of a vocoder. This device from the history of electronic music constitutes the foundation for a multipart sound installation. It enables visitors to transmit encrypted conversations from one private space to another, where the listener can then decrypt them. The voices modulated in this way produce an abstract electronic spatial sound that can be perceived by all of the visitors in the surrounding public space.

With his experimental sound art project, Derek Holzer not only transforms an instrument from the early history of electronic music for current use in producing analogue compositions, he also creates an artistic transmission of the current debate concerning the protection of the personal and the boundaries of the public sphere. The jury was persuaded in particular by Holzer’s in-depth research on the history of electronic sound generation and his scheme for its artistic implementation in a do-it-yourself process as well as by his socio-political approach, which not lastly find expression in his eponymous reference to Alan Turing’s secure speech device Delilah.

The Rainforest project at the LAK Festival for Nordic Sound Art in Copenhagen was a complete success on many levels. The organizational team was fantastic, even without considering that this was their first ever event. While they planned for a modest 100 visitors for each day of the event, the total number turned out to be about 1500 in total. The Rainforest concert opened the festival, and continued as a live installation each day. Many thanks to Rainforest co-organizer (and true soul buddy) Mads Bech Paluszewski-Hau as well as participants Anders Børup, James Brewster, Ejvind Juul Chang and Kristian Hverring for their energy and dedication, as well as to curators Jonas Olesen and Sandra Boss as well as the whole LAK team for a great weekend.

Photos by Hanne Budtz, My Lambertsen and Antonin Matejovsky. Full LAK photoset here

SNYKradio indslag om LAK festival og Regnskov 2012 by janstricker

Practice your Danish! SNYKradio interview with myself and Mads Bech Paluzewski-Hau at the LAK festival 2012 by Jan Stricker. Don’t worry, plenty of parts in English too…

Rainforest 2012 // Regnskov 2012 – LAK festival for nordisk lydkunst by My Lambertsen on YouTube.

Now Playing

swans–the seer[2012 young god]
various artists–oh, run into me, but don’t hurt me!: female blues singers rarities 1923-1930[2008 sub rosa]

Mads Bech Paulszewski-Hau and I will be running the “Rainforest” series of workshops at two events in Denmark next month: the LAK Festival in Copenhagen (6-9 September 2012) and the BY i BY Festival in Aarhus (14-16 September 2012). There are still spaces in both workshops, particularly the Aarhus one (which will be outdoors!), so please get in touch if you are interested at MACUMBISTA at the domain GMAIL dot COM.

Regsnkov 2012 is a contemporary re-interpretation of David Tudor’s series of compositions from the 1970′s entitled Rainforest. It uses various types of sonic transducers to play live sounds through a selection of resonant, found-metal objects in the performance space. A matrix mixer allows the sound from any of the performers to be sent to any of the objects, creating an immersive, tactile and spatial sonic experience.

The project is developed in a workshop format with up to 8 participants over a period of several days. The participants will work from the bio-acoustic model of an actual rainforest, where it is necessary for each species’ survival that they can both hear and be heard within their own niche of the busy forest soundscape.

You can download a PDF of information about the project here: http://macumbista.net/files/rainforest_overview.pdf

Other up and comings:

28 Sep – [w/Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez] Basic Electricity, Berlin DE (more on this soon!)
9-13 Oct – TONEWHEELS, Le festival accès(s), Pau FR
17 Oct – TONEWHEELS, RIAM Festival, Marseilles FR
22-26 Oct – Neanderthal Electronics, Danish Art Academy, Aarhus DK (TBC!)
29 Oct-02 Nov – Neanderthal Electronics, Nordic Sound Art, Copenhagen DK
05-09 Nov – Neanderthal Electronics, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki FI
16 Nov – TONEWHEELS, VisionSonic, Paris FR (TBC!)

Now Playing

crippled black phoenix–(mankind) the crafty ape[2012]
wovenhand–live at roepaen[2012]

Wolf-Tone Box

Wolf-Tone Box, Derek Holzer 2012. Microphone, speaker, voice-changing circuit, antique wooden box. Created for the “Invisible Time” show at MUU Gallery, Helsinki, 8-21 June 2012. For sale, inquire here.

Helsinki Report

The MUU opening went very nice, a good crew running the space with a nice selection of artists. My favorite moment was when a little girl, aged four and very shy at first, quickly learned how to play one of the SoundBoxes better than me! I brought 7 sound boxes in total, which remain available for visitors to experiment with for the next two weeks, as well as screened the nonlinearity and cryptography videos. Installation views below.

The travel was a bit rough, however. I’d been a bit sick the days before the flight, and when the plane landed in Helsinki, my left ear felt like it was going to explode. I asked a doctor, who said I might rupture my eardrum if I flew, and weighed the options of a trip by boat, bus and train back to Berlin. Things seemed best to use the airplane ticket the gallery already paid for, rather than spend money and time I don’t have on a 30+ hour overland journey. But the four hours I spent swallowing hard to keep my eardrum from bursting were pretty nerve-wracking…

Moral of the story: don’t fly with a flu. Trust me.

Regnskog 2011//Full Pull is a contemporary re-interpretation of David Tudor’s series of compositions from the 1970′s entitled “Rainforest”. It uses various types of sonic transducers to play live sounds through a selection of resonant objects suspended in the performance space

The Regnskog installation+performance was created by Mads Bech Paluszewski, Derek Holzer, Kati Linek, Anders Børup and Allan Møller Skov for the Full Pull Festival 2011 Malmö. The initial workshop took place 23-29 September 2011, with live actions on 30 September – 02 October.

We would like to thank Mathias Holmberg of Full Pull, VTM RIV AB, the amazing crew at Stapelbädden and Louise Buenafe Mistén for their support during this project. Photos by Derek Holzer and Kati Linek, audio recording by Derek Holzer.

Regnskog/FullPull 2011 Walkthrough by macumbista

A walk through the Regnskog installation. Guest vocals by Jelena Glazova. Headphones highly recommended.

Regenwald 2011 was coordinated by DEREK HOLZER [US/DE] and MADS BECH PALUSZEWSKI[DK] for Club Transmediale 28 Jan – 05 Feb 2011. The players were DIANA COMBO [PT], ALAN GLEESON [IR], LARS LUNDEHAVE HANSEN [DK], DEREK HOLZER [US/DE], MACDARA Ó MAOLBHUAIDH [IR], JOÃO MIGUEL PAIS [PT], PETER VOTAVA [AT], CHRISTIAN ZOLLNER [AT]. Photos by Mads.

Now Playing

bohren and der club of gore–beileid ep[2011 ipecac]
chief commander ebenezer obey & his international bros.-miliki sound[1973 decca]
expo 70–death voyage[2010 dead pilot]
john macedo–chaotic analog synthesis #1[2011 the black plume][thx john!]
moussa doumbia–keleya: malian funk of the 1970s[2006 oriki]
various artists–brass pins & match heads: international 78s[2011 mississippi]
various artists–ivory coast soul: afro funk & soul in abidjan 1972-82[2010 hot casa]
various artists–those shocking shaking days: indonesian funk 1970-78[2010 now-again]

Regenwald2011 at Club Transmediale from macumbista on Vimeo.

By Derek Holzer & Mads Bech Paluszewski

Regenwald 2011 was a contemporary re-interpretation of David Tudor’s series of compositions from the 1970’s entitled “Rainforest”. It used different types of sonic transducers to play sounds through a series of resonant metal objects suspended in the space. Additionally, two 8×8 matrix mixers allowed the sound from any of the objects or performers to be sent to any other node in the network, making the whole piece an experiment in generative chaos.

Regenwald 2011 was developed prior to the festival in a workshop format over a period of five days. The opening night presentation featured a live session with the system,
while the installation running during the week employed recordings made with the system. The audience was free to move around the performance space, engage in conversations and explore the sonic objects, thus adding new life to the rainforest.

Regenwald 2011 was coordinated by Derek Holzer and Mads Bech Paluszewski, and was a joint production of CTM.11 and Tuned City / DOCK e.V.

The Players:
DIANA COMBO [PT]
ALAN GLEESON [IR]
LARS LUNDEHAVE HANSEN [DK]
DEREK HOLZER [US/DE]
MACDARA Ó MAOLBHUAIDH [IR]
JOÃO MIGUEL PAIS [PT]
PETER VOTAVA [AT]
CHRISTIAN ZOLLNER [AT]

With Thanks To:

Robert Dahlke, Jan Rolf, Carsten Stabenow, Oliver Stabenow, West Germany

Regenwald 2011: a workshop/installation/performance in the spirit of David Tudor

with Derek Holzer (USA/DE) & Mads Bech Paluszewski (DK)

*Overview*

Regenwald 2011 is a contemporary re-interpretation of David Tudor’s series of compositions from the 1970′s entitled “Rainforest”. It uses various types of sonic transducers to play live sounds through various resonant objects in the performance space, as well as through architectural features of the space itself. Additionally, an 8×8 matrix mixer allows the sound from any of the objects to be sent to any of the performers, making the whole piece an experiment in generative chaos.

Regenwald 2011 will be developed in a workshop format with up to 8 participants over a period of several days. The resulting work should shift between relatively static installation-like moments and performative sections where the artists seek new relationships with the objects and each other. The audience is free to move around the performance space, engage in conversations and explore the resonant objects, thus adding new life to the rainforest.

A opening night presentation will introduce the concept of Regenwald 2011 and the context of “Schematic as Score” as seen in the works of both David Tudor and John Cage.

*Documentation*

A rough schematic of a previous transducer system (Regenskog 2010) can be seen here:
http://macumbista.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/regnskog_notext.png

Documentation of Regenskog 2010 can be found here:
http://macumbista.net/?p=1840

*Dates*

28 January – 01 February, 12:00-19:00 daily: Regenwald 2011 workshop in West Germany, Kottbusser Tor, Berlin

01 February 21:00 opening Regenwald 2011 presentation/performance, West Germany, Kottbusser Tor, Berlin

02 February – 05 February 18-22:00 daily: Regenwald 2011 installation, West Germany, Kottbusser Tor, Berlin

*Participate*

The Regenwald 2011 workshop is open for 8 participants who will be selected and notified on or before 16 January 2011. There is no fee to participate. Applying participants should be:

–Comfortable working in a collaborative environment
–Knowledgeable in the basics of acoustics
–Proficient in one or more chosen analog or digital sound instruments and/or systems for working with sound
–Capable of bringing any equipment they require beyond the basics of the transducer system (instruments, mixers, computers, etc etc)

Please send an email to regenwald2011@clubtransmediale.de by 12 January with the following information:

–Name, location and short bio (max 100 words)
–Short statement of interest (max 300 words)
–Short description of your chosen instrument or system (max 300 words)
–Links to audio/video documentation of one solo work and one collaborative work you have made

*Workshop Leaders*

Derek Holzer (1972) is an American sound artist living in Berlin, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and extreme music. He has played live experimental sound, as well as taught workshops in noise art technology, across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.
http://www.macumbista.net

Danish sound artist and cultural producer Mads Bech Paluszewski (1977) works with circuit bending, sound installations, tactile acoustics and performances from his Copenhagen base. Solo and as a member of several groups of experimental audio/visual music and performance groups, he has performed at many Nordic music and sound art festivals. He has also held several workshops in circuit bending and user driven sound installations in Denmark.

*Partners*

Regenwald is a join production of DISK/Club Transmediale and Tuned City/DOCK e.V.
http://www.clubtransmediale.de
http://www.tunedcity.net