Music Technician Andy Davison, qualified as ProTools Certified Operator in Music

Congratulations!: Andy Davison, our Music Technician at the Martin Harris Centre has qualified as a ‘ProTools Certified Operator in Music’. He is 1 of just 26 registered operators in Manchester. This is a certification program from Digidesign/Avid for the ProTools DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software, which is the industry standard software for audio production.
Although NOVARS Reserch centre is well equiped with professional Pro Tools systems in the Electroacoustic studios, we also strongly support Open Source software. Our first flotating Ubuntu Studio Linux workstation, launched in 2008, included software such as Pure Data, Processing (visuals), DIPS (Digital Image Processing with Sound), Supercollider, and PWGL among others. New exciting expansions in this direction are planned for 2009-10 with the incorporation of Blender and a faster architecture machine and linux-compatible sound card.


NOVARS Broadcast: Andy has also just completed the setup of the first audio-visual streamer broadcaster internal server for the NOVARS Research Centre, which will allow us, among other things, live broadcasting of many music research activities during the academic year 2008-09 and it will serve as a pilot experience. for more creative use of the tool. Studio matinees, local workshops and presentations from selected composers, phsycial scientists and engineers at NOVARS will no longer be exclusively for local people. NOVARS plans are to broadcast them across the internet and e-archive them, for everyone interested in our music and research activities.

David Berezan featured composer at the Electronic Music Night of the DCMF

David Berezan has been invited as the main composer for the Electronic Music Night of the DCMF (Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival), one of the most active and renowned festivals in South Korea , in June 2010. This follows on from the recent performance of three of his works
at the Electroacoustic Music Festival in Wroclaw, Poland in May 2009, the publication of his graphic scores in the just released Notations21(Mark Batty Publishers, NewYork), and publication of a body of his compositional work on his first DVD audiodisc La Face Cachée (empreintesDIGITALes, Montreal).

NOVARS presentation in Berlin at Elektroakustische Musik hören

Original creative mp3 clip for EMhören by Michael Hoeldke

18.Juni um 18 Uhr im TU-Studio:
From EM Hoeren: 'Ricardo Climent will be showcasing some collaborative work between the NOVARS Research Centre in Manchester, UK and other UK institutions. For example, a creative project with the Astro-Physics department using live data from the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in England; a sound installation at Quarry Bank Mill (sounds of manchester industrial revolution); an exclusive audiovisual work (unseen for 40 years) of the BBC Radiophonic workshop from the Delia Derbyshire Archive; a controversial artistic project involving video-hacking surveillance systems, a selection of acousmatic works or Electronica created by NOVARS composers and some of his past research, borderline with academic standards...!
His discussion aims to be a personal reflection beyond compositional choices: Low or high culture?; Academia or entertaining industry? Centres of excellence, vs. centres of bureaucracy?; Commercial software or open source?; Institutional environments of self-organised collectives?; Copyrighted or infringed? Cutting-edge technology or clever reinventions? Iconic architecture or mutant and nomad organisations?'
--
Ricardo Climent, Komponist, geboren in Valencia, ist Dozent am NOVARS Research Centre for Electroacoustic Composition, Performance and Sound-Art in Manchester. Er setzt sich neben seinen kompositorischen Arbeiten mit grundsätzlichen Fragen kultureller Arbeit auseinander, wie unter anderem "Hoch- oder Subkultur?", "kommerzielle Software oder Open Source?", "Öffentliche Organisationen oder Eigeninitiative?". Er kommt zu erstaunlichen und vollziehbaren Ansichten, gerade für Tonstudios an Hochschulen.
Ricardo Climent wird am 18.Juni um 18 Uhr im TU-Studio zu Gast sein und auch seine Musik vorstellen.

For more about the Elektroakustische Musik hören programme run by Folkmar Hein>> Follow this link

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Manuella Blackburn's paper @ EMS, Buenos Aires: 'Composing from spectromorphological vocabulary: proposed application, pedagogy and metadata'.

Pictured above Manuella Blackburn performing at Digital Media, Valencia

SAHC, School of Arts Histories and Cultures at University of Manchester secured a PhD travel award to Manuella Blackburn towards her trip to Buenos Aires, to present a new paper at the Electronic Music Studies Conference 09 , (EMS) in Buenos Aires (22nd - 25th June 2009)
Paper Abstract:
Novars Research Centre, The University of Manchester
Denis Smalley’s concept of Spectromorphology (1997) provides the listener of electroacoustic music with thorough and accessible sets of vocabulary to describe sound events, structures and spaces. Traditional means of describing Western art music are usually inadequate in this regard, since we are dealing with music that is not note-based and often lacking a representation equivalent.
The use of this descriptive tool need not stop here. Fortunately, and often unconsciously for the composer, it does not, since all composers create music that is spectromorphological with or without an awareness of its presence at work.
In a reversal of conventional practice, spectromorphology can be approached from an alternate angle that views the vocabulary as the informer upon sound material choice and creation. In this reversal, vocabulary no longer functions descriptively; instead the vocabulary precedes the composition, directing the path the composer takes within a piece. This new application is an attempt at systemization and an effort to (partly) remedy the seemingly endless choice of possibilities we are faced with when beginning a new work.
The author envisions a number of advancements for the future use of this tool. Composing from vocabulary has scope to be developed into a pedagogical tool. Using vocabulary sets and combinations as starting points for sound material creation is one example of how this methodology can be employed in an educational situation. A further look into the future sees spectromorphological vocabulary as a suitable way to tag sounds as metadata. This vocabulary seeks to build upon this concept, first implemented by Ricard and Herrera (2004) using Schaefferian typo-morphology for sound labeling and retrieval. Little research has looked beyond this retrieval stage. The use of more exoteric spectromorphological labels within a sound recall system may provide a number of approaches for the electroacoustic music composer to create new material and new sounds assembling strategies.
This paper presents these concepts and thoughts within the context of fixed media works. An outline of composition methodologies developed from spectromorphology is presented using examples from these works, highlighting how this language promotes stimulation of visual and sounding equivalents in the compositional process.
This new application undoubtedly raises a number of questions. If we can use spectromorphology to describe the internal functioning of sounds and entire work structures that we find to be rewarding, is it possible to re-use this language in the creation of future works? Is it possible to isolate the language we regard as ‘successful’? In searching for a methodology that uses ‘successful’ language to generate sound material we expectedly run into issues of language subjectivity, and whether or not composer intuition is relinquished while working with such a scheme. Guiding the reader through these themes in works utilizing spectromorphological vocabulary will provide answers to these questions, while presenting a practical example of how one might implement these concepts.
For details about the EMS conference, please visit this link

Oliver Carman's piece 'Converging' at the Gold Medal Weekend (RNCM)

University of Manchester and NOVARS PhD Composer, Oliver Carman participated at the Gold Medal Weekend, organised by the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK.
Oliver's new work Converging, for Baritone Saxophone and Fixed Media was performed on 12th June at the RNCM. The piece was composed for and performed by a saxophonist Ben Cottrell, a former University of Manchester music student, as part of the Gold Medal Weekend.

Programme:
9.30pm Ben Cottrell saxophone

Klas Torstensson Solo (UK première)
Oliver Carman New work (world première)
Jacob Ter Veldhuis Grab It!
Michael Doherty New work (world première)
Karlheinz Stockhausen Spiral

For more, visit this link>

Josh Kopecek-Angela Babuin's dance-music performance 'Falling Asleep' in Paris

Falling Asleep is a dance-music performance inspired by Ninnananna 'le sommeil n'est pas un lieu sûr'. By dancer Angela Babuin and NOVARS PhD Composer Josh Kopecek. The performance was organised by Entrez Dans La Danse, supported by 104 and the Mairie de Paris.
Performance venue: in 104, a new centre for contemporary performance in the 19ème arrondissement of Paris on Sunday 7th June.