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Uli Winters/ Klaus Fehling/ Marcel Keller
“Knocking Signs. Beacon. Smoke Signals.”
Knocking Signs. Beacon. Smoke Signals. is an automatic puppet-theatre in which an ensemble of mechanical actors performs a 20 minute play by German author Klaus Fehling. The play's characters attempt to find a way out of their speechlessness with signs, words and signals. But what can once-spoken words, one-sent signals give rise to? One can never be sure.
The play was originally written for real actors and has been directed for this 'theatre in a box' by Marcel Keller. The players' continuous struggle to release their meanings from their bodies is reflected by the restrictions imposed on them by the fact that they are merely puppets. Only later they will find out that you can try to dance even if you know you can't. The magic of automatic theatre gives a strange ambiguous impression of liveliness to the feeble-looking protagonists of the show. The haunting music by Brigitte Angerhausen/Anne Kaftan and changing lights add to the atmosphere of the electronic stage constructed by artist Uli Winters. Curtains up for “Knocking Signs. Beacon. Smoke Signals.” - a kind of theatre you might have never seen before.
The puppets speak german. An english translation of the play will be accessible via subtitles in the background of the box.
About the artists:
Klaus Fehling works as dramaturge and author. He wrote several plays and scripts for performances and multi-media-installations. The theater-installation "light" which is based on his play "Lampyriden" has been invited to numerous international festivals. He also writes essays and articles for books and newspapers. In 2002 and 2003 he received a fellowship for performing arts at Akademie Schloss Solitude, where his play "Klopfzeichen. Leuchtfeuer. Rauchsignale." was shown in December 2003, directed by Marcel Keller. In 2004 he received a fellowship at the Stuttgart Literaturhaus by the Economy Club Stuttgart.
Marcel Keller has staged Klaus Fehling’s piece “Knocking Signs. Beacon. Smoke Signals.” (german title: “Klopfzeichen. Leuchtfeuer. Rauchsignale.”) first in 2003 with actors from the state theatre Stuttgart. Marcel Keller’s various activities as a director and designer range from opera, ballett and drama to exhibition design and performance and include theatres like the Comédie Francaise (Paris), Leipzig and Stuttgart opera houses and theatres in Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna (Austria), Atlanta, Boston (USA) and Toronto (Canada).
Uli Winters passed his studies of Fine Arts at „Hochschule für Bildende Künste“ in Hamburg with distinction in 1999. He has been taking part in various single- and group-exhibitions in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, Sweden, Ireland and USA. Besides the conception and production of his mechanic and electronic art pieces ("Schamanomatics") he is involved in a lot of other activities like writing columns and articles for magazines, developing cartoon-series, writing song lyrics, writing and performing for theatres and managing a company for interactive advertising. Together with multi-awarded Michael Lentz, one of Germanys most important poets, Winters has developed a unique literature-cabaret-performance. In those performances Lentz is accompanied by a number of puppets, spoken and animated by Winters from the room next door, who interfere with, comment on, and compete with the author.
Further information (mostly german):
http://www.klopfzeichen-leuchtfeuer-rauchsignale.de/
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Torbjørn Skårild
Short film: "All in all"
...when all is said and done, conclusions are not so important after all...
A measure of the post-modern space, or playing with the video medium? It's better to be angry than serious!
Skårild received his education from the Art Academy of Trondheim, and has previously received attention for his video "alt som ingenting" from 1994. His roots are firmly in the tradition of art video. Skårild has no literary history to tell. He works within a formal and abstract filmatic language with a perfectionistic precision, which simultaneously has a visual, sensuous and rhythmic drive where the visual potential of the medium is fully utilised.
Short film: "All as nothing at all"
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Pure
-originating from Vienna/Austria
-works and lives in Berlin/Germany
Working mostly in the field of abstract listening music and sound for performances since the second half of the nineties with a background in djing and producing various styles of electronic music since 1991 led to approx. 20 vinyl and 10 cd releases on such diverse labels as Mego (at), Staaltplaat (nl), Praxis (ch), and his own label dOc recordings.
a selection of activities of the recent years:
() audiovisual performances as PURE.BERGER with oslo based media artist Erich Berger and PUREDEKAM with american video artist Johnny Dekam.
() Heart Chamber Orchestra - PURE.BERGER in cooperation with the Trondheim Sinfonetta working on a symphony with a real-time generated score based on the musicians hearbeats
() project h.a.u.e.r. - development of a realtime twelve tone composition environment based on the rules of Josef Matthias Hauer together with composer Robert M. Weiss
() concerts at festivals like argos, lubtransmediale, mutek, rgb v1, sendandreceive, and at venues in austria, belgium, finland, france, germany, lithuania, netherlands, norway, portugal, sweden, canada, usa.
() teaching programming language max/msp/jitter at university of applied arts vienna and in workshops at art university oslo, atelier nord, and trondheim electronic arts center.
() writing miscallaneous software solutions for art installations
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Sten Ove Toft
With a huge amount of concerts around in Norway and the rest of Europe, and somewhat 40 releases listed on his discography, Sten Ove Toft is one of the most active experimental musicians in Norway as of today. Toft plays heavy noise, based on deep drones and a brutal cascades of crunchy loops.
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Jeff Carey/87 Central
Fragments of tangible experience set the listener on a trajectory through a soundscape of impressionistic imagery punctuated by clearly indexed natural detail. Using environmental recordings and electronics, 87 Central present more than the directness of documentary field recordings and recreate experiences of active listening: the warning beacon on a jetty in the North Sea during a winter night as container ships arrive in port; the intensity and activity of crackling rhythms and the continuous energy of fire; and the night life of an urban power plant in the heat of summer.
... 87 Central explores a beatless plane of immanence -aural space folded back to little more than a limpid impulse of shiver and crackle: a low-watt hi-tensible balance between fuzziness and clarity. Drones multiply out of the encrypted hum, dross glints with gold. Like Obscure or Mille Plateaux, ERS are definitely on top of something which demands listening time to itself. Like the Mille Plateaux crew, these artists use patient studio manipulation to sculpt sound far from dead matter, like quizzical angels calling from the air. To engage with each of these tranches/trances of deft experiments is to attune your day to a silence of truly heightened listening: to win back live time out of 'dead' sounds. Germinal." review by Ian Penman, The Wire
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HOH
HOH creates physical and tight, but creative electronica. The rumours tell that HOH now is a harder and better live act than ever before. With tunes from the newly released EP "Water/Teeth" (Zang:006) and other new material, you can expect a nicynicy show from this blessed bugger.
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Single Unit
Album-reviews for Family of Forces
“Holy shit! Somewhere along the way the free-jazz hardcore sound has become the domain of the sound-editor and the result is simply genius-mentalism. It’s a motherfucker of a ride and one I intend to take many more times - like a psychotic cartoon ghost train travelling at 200 mph across 30 miles of track. Fans of Naked City and Boredoms etc. will be somewhat prepared for the sheer audio heaven that awaits them - the rest of you may have to spend some time coming to terms with what is undoubtedly the future of music. This IS the best album ever made.”
- Overload Media.
“An intriguing blend of heavy rock that recalls the avant-prog RIO bands, metallic hardcore, and spacey electronica hand- delivered by aliens. In an instant the music will transform from swirling organs to frenzied grinding metal. Both whimsical and intense, Single Unit took me on a wild ride that left me reeling. Family Of Forces is only 32 minutes long but this is a roller coaster ride that makes its point quickly and concisely.”
- Aural Innovations.
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Sun State
Oslo/Trondheim
Noise duo Sun State is Jon Eriksen (laptop) and Lars Myrvoll (Guitar). The extatic output of this collaboration carries nuances of free jazz, noise music and avant rock. Eriksen provides crisp laptop melodies and a massive brick wall of noise which is decorated with Myrvolls' sparkling guitar timbres. Upcoming release on Enlightenment Records due this summer.
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Øyvind Brandtsegg
Øyvind Brandtsegg explores and researches the relationship between compositon and improvisation, and the use of composing tequnices in improvisation. He develops his own software as "comositionally enabled instruments". Øyvinds "ImproSculpt" live sampler established a new standard with regards to level and complexity for cSound instruments. This evening he plays solo on his Marimba Lumina and cSound. ML is a melodical percussion-interface build by Don Buchla. There exists only 30 - 40 instruments like this.
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Ryfylke
Ryfylke consisting of Sten ove Toft and Stian Skagen stands out as some of the most interesting and sophisticated sound artists in Norway. After their national and international honored debut album "Boknafjord" (2004), the duo has performed heavily around Norway and in Mach 2005 they finished their European tour with positive feedbacks all over the continent.
Ryfylkes interesting soundscapes is made up from the duos different approach in dealing with sound. On one side Toft is working with field-recordings of objects and other "found sound" that he carefully processes in his digital environment. This sounds are then put together in a ocean of drones and noise, building it up to a storm of brutal swings and layer of sonic walls. Skagen works with digital feedback, raw data files and numeric codes. This material is
broken down to cascades of pulses an sparkling layers of atonal glitches.
From their digital and analog environment , a complex soundscape of drones, glitches and detailed space opens a dream like atmosphere. Seducing the audience, taking them on a shaking tour through subtile textures that explodes in digital crackles and electric out bursts. A Ryfylke concert is a physical experience where the listener is challenged to experience a room in constant movement.
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Thomas Kvam/ Frode Oldereid
Machine 6.1
With Machine 6.1 the art-duo Thomas Kvam and Frode Oldereid continues their exploration of bio-mechanical art gone extreme. Their techno-art installation shows a computercontrolled mechanical larva with human features. Onto the biomorph figure they project an audio-visual aura with the aesthetics of a Leni Riefenstahl film. The images are constructed to have the looks of a 30ies movie; scratchy played back in black & white. So the atmosphere becomes historical. As if the catastrophe just happend. Or soon will.
The 2D projection onto a 3D figure makes the image jump towards you. The movie comes alive, the figure becomes live flesh and imparts the visitors with an omnious existential feeling.
Its expression can be read as a portrait of future biology. The figure is a manifestation of the horrors of genetical research gone wrong. So the Machine 6.1 is the incarnation of your worst nightmare, and the most dystopian vision of future art. For, what will happen when technology makes the art work really come alive? What when next generation freak-creatures starts watching us? What is human identity after all?
Machine 6.1 is a strong manifestation of the Welt-Angst as it is experienced in the Millenium of the new Life-sciences.
(text by: Stahl Stenslie)
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MNH / SKAGEN
MNH the rave mastro, and Skagen the reverberate king
Blasting drone cutups and distorted mayhemrythems. Compiled in a atmosphere of tonal smashups and space explorations
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