Automatic Ensemble
Images from Aura Satz's series of drawings 'Automamusic', 2008
The Automatic Ensemble will premiere in Switzerland at 'Museumsnacht 2009'
16 January 2009 - 21pm and 22:30pm, Church of St Leonhard (Leonhardskirche), Basel
18 January 2009 - 11am, Museum of Music Automatons, Seewen
Using a mixture of mechanically amplified and automatic instruments and machines, the ‘Automatic Ensemble’ explores their visual and sonic potential through a multiplicity of compositions and improvisations. The instrumentation combines original historical artefacts with those reconstructed and newly invented. There is a particular emphasis on the visual performance of playing/operating these mechanical musical devices, which reflect on that particular historical moment in which sound is becoming detached from its original source and performative agency is in the process of removing itself. Thus performers appear to produce music in a manner parallel to the Automatic Writing of Spiritualist mediums and the Surrealists, performing sound as if from without rather than from within.
Aura Satz's film Automamusic was shot at the Museum of Music Automatons,
and led to the concept of the 'Automatic Ensemble', in collaboration with Aleks Kolkowski
The film will be screened throughout the evenings
The AUTOMATIC ENSEMBLE are
Wolfgang Heisig - phonola (Berlin)
Aleks Kolkowski - stroh violin, musical saw, gramophone & phonograph (London)
Anton Lukoszevieze - stroh cello (Norwich)
Natalia Pschenitschnikova - flutes, piccolo (Berlin/Moscow)
Martin Riches - serinette (Berlin)
Aura Satz - rolmonica, playasax, tanzbär, music box, musical saw (London)
Video documentation extracts
Programme
Musical Knot (Satz, 2009) for Music Box
Cheep Imitation (Kolkowski, 2004-9) for Serinette, Stroh Violin, Piccolo & Gramophone
Etüde Kwic & Kwoc (Heisig) Phonola Solo
Palindromes (Satz, 2008) for 2 Rolmonicas
Cellogram (James Tenney, 1971) Solo Stroh Cello
Toccata (Conlon Nancarrow 1935) for Stroh Violin and Phonola
Talking Books (Satz, 2009)
La marche du Roy + La même marche plus (trad.) for Solo Serinette
Fadograph (Lukoszevieze, 2009) for Pianola (Phonola), Alto Flute & Stroh Cello
Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life (Victor Herbert, 1910) arranged for Tanzbär & Musical Saw
Channeling (Kolkowski/Pschenitschnikova) for Bass Flute and Gramophone Horn
Playasax Duet (Satz, 2009)
Weather Effects (Kolkowski, 2001) for Stroh Violin & Gramophone
Sache mit Hz und Verstand (Kolkowski, 2003-9) for 2 Gramophones & Ensemble
+
Heislvertonungen (Heisig) Phonola & Voice (Part 7 with Ensemble)
Study #21 Canon X (Nancarrow, 1948)
Plus new works for the ensemble and combinations within devised by Aura Satz & Aleks Kolkowski.
Aleks Kolkowski, Stroh Violin Martin Riches, Serinette (photo Roman März)
Link to 'Recording Angels' Mechanical Landscape with Bird
Museum für Musikautomaten
Sammlung Dr.h c. H. Weiss-Stauffacher
Bollhübel 1
4206 Seewen, Switzerland
Tel. +41 61 915 98 80
Fax +41 61 915 98 90
E-Mail: musikautomaten@bak.admin.ch
http://www.landesmuseen.ch/d/seewen/index.php
http://www.museumsnacht.ch/de/programm/museen/index.php?id=85
Links