Photo source: eartotheearth.org
MANTIS SPRING 09 FESTIVAL and the NWNW Conference (TheNorth West—North Wales Music Exchange Conference) at Manchester University, UK are delighted to have Professor Barry Truax as Guest composer this year, alongside Thomas Bjelkeborn (Resident Composer at NOVARS Research Centre).
Prof. Truax will perform his multichannel work The Shaman Ascending and will attend the conference.
Bio: Barry Truax is a Professor in both the School of Communication and the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University where he teaches courses in acoustic communication and electroacoustic music. He has worked with the World Soundscape Project, editing its Handbook for Acoustic Ecology, and has published a book Acoustic Communication dealing with all aspects of sound and technology. As a composer, Truax is best known for his work with the PODX computer music system which he has used for tape solo works and those which combine tape with live performers or computer graphics. A selection of these pieces may be heard on the recording Sequence of Earlier Heaven, and the Compact Discs Digital Soundscapes, Pacific Rim, Song of Songs, Inside, Islands, and Twin Souls, all on the Cambridge Street Records label, as well as the double CD of the opera Powers of Two and the latest CD, Spirit Journies. In 1991 his work, Riverrun, was awarded the Magisterium at the International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, France, a category open only to electroacoustic composers of 20 or more years experience. He is also the recipient of one of the 1999 Awards for Teaching Excellence at Simon Fraser University. Barry is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a founding member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. For more information, here's the Globe & Mail's In Person profile. And here's a video profile shown on Knowledge Network's program, "The Leading Edge", first broadcast March 22/06. For Bio source, click here
Programme note: The Shaman Ascending evokes the imagery of a traditional shaman figure chanting in the quest for spiritual ecstasy. However, in this case, the listener is placed inside of a circle of loudspeakers with the vocal utterances swirling around at high rates of speed and timbral development. The work proceeds in increasing stages of complexity as the shaman ascends towards a higher spiritual state.
The work and its title are inspired by a pair of Canadian Inuit sculptures by John Terriak with collectively the same name, as well as Inuit throat singing. All of the vocal material heard in the piece is derived from a recording of the Vancouver bass singer Derrick Christian.
The Shaman Ascending was realized in 2004-05 at the composer’s studio and mixed in the Sonic Research Studio of Simon Fraser University (SFU) (Vancouver, BC) and was premiered on February 12, 2005 during the festival trans_canada at the ZKM_Medientheater in Karlsruhe (Germany). The piece was commissioned by the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM). The 8-channel version of this work was created with Richmond Sound Design's AudioBox computer-controlled diffusion system. The stereophonic version of The Shaman Ascending was first released by Cambridge Street Records in 2007 on the CD Spirit Journies (CSR 0701). Premiere: February 12, 2005, trans_canada, ZKM_Medientheater (Karlsruhe, Germany).
For Programme notes Source, click here
