'Notes, nodes and nowhere’ examines the dismantling the familiar channels of communication and opening up new ones in the creative act of music making. In the piece ‘Balancing the grid’ four musicians—at four different locations—meet each other in a visual grid that at the same time displays musical activity and builds a score that suggests possible futures. The outcome does not attempt to reconstruct an original experience, but opens views on what it means to be involved in a creative process together.
Sean Bell - countertenor
Ranjith Hegde - violin
Peter van Bergen - soprano saxophone
Johan van Kreij - electronics
The performance takes place on the LOOS YouTube Channel on Friday, Novemeber 20th at 20:45.
Access the channel here.
Sean Bell (Norway)
Sean Bell is a young countertenor from Oslo. He works mainly with re-interpretations of the classical song repertoire, from the 16th century till today. Bell also works with contemporary music and has premiered several pieces for countertenor in the last years. Bell works with a variety of ensembles. He has a bachelor's degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music and is currently studying for a master’s degree at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague. Bell is an active improviser, and has done several productions on the border line between classical music and performance art.
Ranjith Hedge (India)
Ranjith Hegde is a practitioner of contemporary improvised art. In this ensemble, he uses an extended range electric violin with a host of electronics such as realtime-convolution, sampler & granulator, and resonant drone machines. His musical influences are drawn from contrasting disciplines of Hindustani classical music, Indian tribal trance music, Free-jazz, as well as ideas from contemporary dance & theatre. As part of Basement21 (Chennai, India based interdisciplinary artist collective), he has been involved in building and developing the contemporary art movement in India by helping organize various modern art festivals, performances, lessons, and workshop series for the past 9 years.
Peter van Bergen (Netherlands)
Composer, improviser, interpreter, artistic researcher. His expertise is improvising and composing interdisciplinary works(acoustic, electronic, interactive using computers, with live images, in collaboration with dance and theater) in which composition and improvisation enter into a dialogue and reinforce each other. As a saxophonist and clarinetist he is an internationally sought-after improviser in free improvisation music. As an interpreter of newly composed works by other composers, many new compositions have been written for him and his ensemble LOOS, especially by composers from the The Hague School. As an artistic researcher (PhD researcher at the Free University of Brussels) he focuses on transforming unstable processes in models of improvisation / composition to environments in which people and computers work together.
Johan van Kreij (Netherlands)
The practice of Johan van Kreij combines the fields of improvisation/composition, instrument design and research. An important aspect is the continuous reevaluation of the processes that shape the music he wants to create. This is expressed in the design of personalized performance tools that are created by combining software and hardware. Writing sound processing computer programs, connecting controllers, soldering sensors, shaping modes of interaction are all part of this work. In addition he teaches others about these subjects at the Institute of Sonology and in various workshops.