Electronic music not only for the few
How to develop a taste for electro-acoustic or electronic music? How not to be terrified by the sounds produced by a computer? Elżbieta Sikora, Musica Electronica Nova's Artistic Director, has a recipe for this. "You just need to let yourself go and become enchanted with or even tired of music to engage with the electronic sound instead of immediately discarding it," she argues. "Then we should keep our eyes and ears peeled in everyday life to notice sounds that are all around you and that contemporary composers draw upon," explains Elżbieta Sikora, a celebrated Polish composer who resides permanently in France.
Elżbieta Sikora, Musica Electronica Nova's Artistic Director / Phot. Tomasz Walków
Stanley Kubrick appreciates electronic music
The cinema provides a perfect meeting place for those who love films and electronic music. (This year's edition of the festival is called Electro-Vision). "Both arts use similar creative techniques," points out the Artistic Director. "First you need to record something, that is, the sound of a car driving by or a fork as it clinks against a glass or the image of a human face, and then you have to process it," explains the Artistic Director. Elżbieta Sikora explains that electronic music can be heard in a number of films by celebrated directors, including "Essential Killing" by Jerzy Skolimowski or classical works by Stanley Kubrick.
The festival audience will also learn more about intriguing French experimental films from the the 1960s (screening at the Nowe Horyzonty Cinema on 20. May). "You can see how these films play with the form, how they tell a story or how they only suggest a story that you later have to guess at," says Elżbieta Sikora. She also mentions Piotr Kamler, a Polish director to made a enormous career in France fifty years and whose animated films are still being lauded by the critics. Two of Kamler's works will be presented at the festival, including "Chronopolis", a work on time with a soundtrack by composer Luc Ferrari (22. May at the Nowe Horyzonty Cinema).
Charlie Chaplin marches to electronic music
Those with a more traditional taste will be able to enjoy Chaplin's classics such as "The Vagabond" or "A Night in the Show", both made in 1915, without live piano music this time round, however, and instead with special electronic music created live for the show by Wroclaw composer Adam Porębski (screening on 17. May). "We're also in for a surprise, the artist has no requirements to meet, everything depends on his creativity," says Elżbieta Sikora.
Artist in residence from Belgium
Artists are a crucial element of the festival. This year's artist in residence (leading composer) is Thierry De Mey, a multimedia artist from Belgium, whose "Light Music" may turn out to be quite a sensation on 15. May. He created a live installation featuring a musician as the main protagonist (the musician can take a number of roles: a conductor or a drummer, but he or she must move his hands and be able to read the notes). "His moves will be transmitted by special sensors to software which in turn is going to produce sounds as a response to the artist moving on the stage," explains Elżbieta Sikora. The music will be created before your very eyes depending on the way the artist moves his hands, slow of fast, high or low, or whether he tightens his hand into a fist.
A scene from "Light Music" / Phot. A Pequin
Electronic music also for children
Children are also invited to join the festival. Children will be offered separate screenings such as "Les Shadocks" (16. May) with electronic music (which was originally composed to these cute fairy tales), workshops (children will be able to record the sounds of the instruments they have made and will be setting music to the film) and the Sound Cinema. "The latter has no image at all but it appeals to your imagination and will teach you attentive listening skills," points out Elżbieta Sikora.
Children will be offered special animated film shows as part of the "Les Shadocks" series.
"Icebreaker" unearthed
Both young and older audiences will be thrilled by a project called "Icebreaker", a piece by Luc Ferrari reconstructed after nearly thirty years of oblivion (performance on 15. May). The story of the work is quite unusual. A group of artists and researchers were sent to the Arctic as part of the Icebreaker audio-visual project thirty years ago. The group consisted of a musician, a film-maker, a photographer and a sound reporter. Their task was to register everything, both sounds and images, and bring the recorded material back to France. It was on their arrival that Luc Ferrari finally set down to work (he refused to take part in the expedition because of the cold) and put all these disjointed elements into a coherent whole which nonetheless remains unknown for many. "This is like an archaeological excavation. We've stripped down everything down to pieces to reconstruct both the score and the lyrics which are going to be recited to music," recounts Elżbieta Sikora. The attempt has turned out to be a success and the reconstructed work will be presented to the audience in its entirety and with an accompaniment by the festival orchestra (they are going to play live, and the audio-visual parts of the show which are now being prepared in collaboration with the WRO Art Center will be put together live, too).
The programme of this year's edition of the Musica Electronica Nova Festival is now ready (the event will be held from 15–23. May). Click here for a detailed repertoire.
