Pushing the Envelopes

Chaos in Order is a piece that documents the results of a chance encounter between a guitar, a recently vacated fishbowl, a padded envelope, various kitchen utensils and a laptop.

In what has become a cult tradition, Phil Kline goes "electronic caroling" through the streets of Greenwich Village with a parade of boomboxes. Kline creates a euphoric blend of other-worldly voices and bells. For Firefly Frequencies Phil has proposed an extract from the CD version of the work, "Milky Way".

"Unsilent Night" is a free, mobile outdoor sound sculpture in which the audience members are also the performers, carrying the music played on boomboxes or smart phones. Phil Kline created it in 1992 as a sort of Christmas Caroling party for his friends. Since then it has become an international event with 40 or more cities participating each year.

http://unsilentnight.com/index.html

Radio Amateur Ensemble is a process-based work initiated by an artist Anton Kats in 2019. The project explores Minneapolis’s ham radio enthusiast community, taking the sonic, social, and technological aspects of ham radio communication as a starting point for music scores, notations, improvisation and the sharing of new sound compositions. Considering listening as a generative act, Radio Amateur Ensemble transforms the Goethe Pop Up space in Minneapolis’s skyways into an open studio and a walkable audio-visual score featuring musical performances, recording sessions, set design, and an accompanying podcast.

First version of the Radio Amateur Ensemble, arising anew in different contexts and locations, is a collaboration with musicians Cole Pulice, Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, and Patrick Marschke. Developed in conversation with ham radio operators Dan Fish (call sign KB0XC) and Scott Woelm (call sign WX0V). R.A.E. invites the wider audience to take part in the ongoing dialogue exploring amateur radio as a sonic strategy and a tool manifesting new social constellations, networks and organisms.
Translating research findings sonically and rhythmically during the duration of the project, the compositions developed by the Radio Amateur Ensemble are performed and recorded live during several public events in an open studio working environment.

Releasing the recordings on a limited edition 7-inch vinyl marks a dynamic reference point for the Radio Amateur Ensemble allowing for it to be taken up and carried out in other contexts and beyond the specificity of the Minneapolises Skyway System

ILYICH is a semi-fictional alter ego of an artist Anton Kats and his electronic music project. Drawing on the correlation between neon street signs and night club electronic music the sculpture refers to a sign-language gesture "and" prioritising it as a quintessence of synthesis and a liminal, body-attentive practice. Beginning with the body as a language evoking rhythms, rituals, and sound, the performance is an improvised set of gestures responding to the forces of separation through analog synthesis and electronic music in particular.
Embracing cosmism as a sonic strategy capable of recapturing collective urban imagination, the sculpture creates a ritualistic space reacting to the gradually unfolding changes in light and motion, and can be activated by the visitors. Emphasizing music as a momentary experience lived through interventions and social interactions the performance introduces a series of compositions developed specifically for the event and responding to the question: How can live electronic music transport a complex and dynamic content that can be simply accessed and shared by others?

MARCO BERTONI is the keyboard player from the Italian band Confusional Quartet.

Blaupiksu is a solo piece by Anton Ponomarev, a moscow-based experimental jazz musician. Blaupiksu was written for flugelhorn and recorded in Matthäuskirche in Basel (Switzerland) on January 7th, 2019. Anton says: I had several concerts in Switzerland and had no hope while writing to this church...perhaps I could play there or just record some material for personal purposes, i asked them. The response from the administration surprised me and made me happy at the same time. They didn't even mind me playing a concert for the parishioners there. In the end, it turned out so funny that I played there on Orthodox Christmas - 7th January. In winter, churches in Switzerland usually do not work every day, but only when there are services and on some other special days. They actually told me that on 7th January they have a kind of charity day and it would be great if I did a concert on that day! That's the deal! All the money from the entrance went to charity! It was my dream to play in a place like this. Is it worth saying how cool it is to play there, with such incredible acoustics inside! Absolutely indescribable sensations! The concert consisted of two parts - the first with a flugelhorn and the second with a saxophone.