SO.UND.ING Acousmonium: Thomas Gorbach & The Vienna Acousmonium

15–16 March 2022
Kino Šiška, Cathedral
Authors
Thomas Gorbach,Martina Claussen,Patrick K.-H.,Luka Prinčič,Mauricio Valdés San Emeterio andBrane Zorman

The Acousmatic Project, founded by Thomas Gorbach, is an arts organization dedicated to promoting acousmatic music—a form of sound art that places listening, in all its facets, at its core. Acousmatic compositions create sound worlds whose sources remain unseen, producing a unique, virtual listening experience.

At the heart of the project is the multichannel loudspeaker orchestra The Vienna Acousmonium, which makes it possible to spatially present acousmatic compositions in concert performances and installations. It is a sophisticated setup of loudspeakers, hardware, and control units designed to create ephemeral dynamic-motion sound sculptures in space.

The project brings together authorship, spatial diffusion, and performative listening, placing the audience inside a sculpted sound field.

The Acousmatic Project, founded by Thomas Gorbach, is an arts organization dedicated to promoting acousmatic music—a form of sound art that places listening, in all its facets, at its core. Acousmatic compositions create sound worlds whose sources remain unseen, producing a unique, virtual listening experience.

At the heart of the project is the multichannel loudspeaker orchestra The Vienna Acousmonium, which makes it possible to spatially present acousmatic compositions in concert performances and installations. It is a sophisticated setup of loudspeakers, hardware, and control units designed to create ephemeral dynamic-motion sound sculptures in space.

The project brings together authorship, spatial diffusion, and performative listening, placing the audience inside a sculpted sound field.

Thomas Gorbach

An interdisciplinary musician, performer and composer of acousmatic music. As the founder and organiser of The Acousmatic Project, he co-developed The Vienna Acousmonium, a multi-channel loudspeaker orchestra, along with a method for interpreting acousmatic works and producing ephemeral, dynamically moving sound sculptures.

Martina Claussen

A sound artist and performer working in the field of electroacoustic music and spatial sound interpretation.

Patrick K.-H. [Anton Iakhontov]

A composer and artist researching acousmatic music, spatial sound and multi-channel sound systems. Member of The Acousmatic Project.

Luka Prinčič

Musician, sound designer, and media artist. He has been writing music, creating sound art, performing, and manipulating new media in various ways since the mid-1990s. He specialises in computer music, elaborated funk beats, immersive soundscapes, incidental music for live arts and video, and digital media experiments. He performed at festivals such as Ars Electronica (Linz), EMAF (Osnabrück), Netmage (Bologna) and Trouble (Brussels), worked at Ljubljana Digital Media Lab (Ljudmila) and local hackerspace CyberPipe (Ljubljana), exhibited at Kapelica Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art and MSUM Ljubljana, and travelled with his work across Europe and further, including New York and New Zealand.

Mauricio Valdés San Emeterio

He has developed a diverse career encompassing acoustic, electroacoustic, and experimental music and several artistic fields. He is a curator and head of R&D at HEKA Lab at PINA in Koper, Slovenia, where he designs immersive studio technologies and content production.

Brane Zorman

Composer, sound and intermedia artist, sound manipulator, producer and curator. Besides composing for the theatre, intermedia and dance, he is focused on developing different strategies, techniques, dynamic and interactive models in his work on sound and space, recording and reinterpreting soundscapes and creating electronic and acoustic sound sculptures using sophisticated tools.

  • Caroline Profanter: Créatures Composites (2020, 10′36″, fixed media, stereo). Interpretation: Thomas Gorbach.
  • Mauricio Valdés San Emeterio: Desierto Sonoro (from Valeria Luiselli’s book Lost Children Archive, premiere 2022, 20’). Interpretation: Mauricio Valdés San Emeterio (live electronics).
  • Martina Claussen: Lisa (2017, 9’15“, fixed media, stereo). Interpretation: Martina Claussen.
  • Alla Zagaykevych: MISTO (2017, 6’39“, fixed media & voice by Viktoriia Vitrenko (soprano), live in Kyiv/2018). Interpretation: Thomas Gorbach.
  • Thomas Gorbach: Flashrust (2019, 9’38“, fixed media, stereo). Interpretation: Thomas Gorbach.
  • Luka Prinčič: Rhizosphere (2020, 20’). Interpretation: Luka Prinčič (live electronics).
  • Horacio Vaggione: Nodal (1997, 12’57“, fixed media, stereo). Interpretation: Thomas Gorbach.
  • Anastasia Belitska: Rusalochka (2019, 6’48“, fixed media, stereo). Interpretation: Martina Claussen.
  • Thomas Gorbach: Impact From Mars (2020/21, 11’37“, fixed media, stereo version). Interpretation: Thomas Gorbach.
  • Brane Zorman: The Tree Spirits – Touch I (2021, 25’). Interpretation: Brane Zorman (live electronics).
  • Patrick K.-H. [Anton Iakhontov]: fwer (2020–22, octophonic, excerpt 14’37“, premiere performance). Interpretation: Patrick K.-H. [Anton Iakhontov]
  • Katharina Klement: Brandung II (1995/96, 16“, fixed media stereo). Interpretation: Thomas Gorbach.
  • Trio Austria–Electro Thingness: (2021, 15’, live transformed). Martina Claussen (live-electronics/objects/voice); Patrick K.-H. [Anton Iakhontov] (live-electronics/video); Thomas Gorbach (spatialisation).

Artists: Thomas Gorbach, Martina Claussen, Patrick K.-H. [Anton Iakhontov], Luka Prinčič, Mauricio Valdés San Emeterio, Brane Zorman
Photography: Sunčan Stone
Event production: Cona, 2022 (unit PODrastje)
Coproduction: Kino Šiška

Partners: The Acousmatic Project
Supporters: Austrian Cultural Forum, Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport (Austria), City of Vienna – Department of Culture

The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana, Department for Culture.