SWARMS

With Iva Bittová and the Marc Sinan Company and compositions by Andrea Molino SWARM and Oğuz Büyükberber DISTAL. With a video installation by Mirko Borscht. Followed by an ambient/noise DJ set by JakoJako

The three-part program explores the sonic possibilities of the TRANSFORMATOR – an instrument specially developed for the Spreehalle by composer Marc Sinan with Ambisonic and wave field synthesis specialist Johannes Scherzer from Taucher Sound. In contrast to the classic Ambisonic system, they combine historical loudspeakers with strong acoustic coloration and near-field monitors, which create a deliberately heterogeneous sound image that nevertheless surrounds the audience. The installation extends beyond the hall and runs in the immediate vicinity of the hall, on Europe’s largest industrial monument, the former AEG site in Oberschöneweide.

Iva Bittová, Andrea Molino and Oğuz Büyükberber have all been working with the Marc Sinan Company for many years. The artistic friendship with the composer and conductor Andrea Molino, for example, began in 2010 with the UNESCO award-winning HASRETIM (2011). His piece SWARM for Marc Sinan (guitar) and band will now be premiered at the SPREEHALLE.

With the help of the TRANSFORMATOR, sixteen pre-produced guitar voices sound from the tape from various locations in the room. They do not work together, but independently of each other. The “swarm” only gathers in unison shortly before the soloist performs. This is the signal for the soloist to perform.

SWARM by Andrea Molino is the continuation of an idea by Steve Reich from 1987: ELECTRIC COUNTERPOINT for 16 guitars is a milestone in guitar literature. Andrea Molino understands the same possibility of the 16 “tracks” from a completely different perspective. He is concerned with the sociological image. The simultaneity of a similar form, but not completely synchronized, creates an organic shimmer. Like a flock of birds or herrings, dancing snowflakes or – to stay with the acoustic phenomenon – the singing of thousands of soccer fans in the stadium and the chirping of a flock of birds. He thus joins Reich with the fundamentally opposite form, which promises a different and yet similarly exciting result.

“Even as a child I was attracted to complex, collective sounds: The chirping of birds, the communal chants in a soccer stadium or at demonstrations, raindrops on a tin roof… (…) Another fascinating aspect is how collective sounds spread through space for logistical reasons.” Andrea Molino (free translation of his blog entry at the record company RAI COM.

Oğuz Büyükberber’s piece DISTAL takes up the bird motif and contemplates the song of various extinct bird species.

Ivá Bittova has also performed in “I EXIST – to Rajasthan” and other projects with the Marc Sinan Company. On the border between jazz and new music, Moravian folklore and classical songwriting, she has developed her very own means of expression with her voice and violin. Their most prominent characteristic is a deep spirituality that permeates their music. Their interplay with the sophisticated technology of the TRANSFORMATOR is an extraordinary experimental arrangement in which Bittova herself becomes the transformer/translator/narrator of energy into sound/sound language.

Followed by an ambient/noise DJ set by JakoJako.