Sound artists making their own instruments or using existing instruments in unconventional ways will take part in an event that’ll connect Le Laboratoire d’art (a media and integrated arts lab) in Toronto and the residence of the curator, Charles-Éric Billard, in Osaka via the iCHAT™ videoconferencing application.
Each artist from Osaka will be paired with one or several artists from Toronto. Each different unit will perform their improvised music collaboration in front of an audience at Le Laboratoire d’art. The artists from Toronto will be physically present at the LABO, and the Osaka artists will appear to the public as a video projection, shot and transmitted live from Japan. The artists from Toronto will be sending their image live to Osaka and their video will be projected on the back wall of the curator’s residence.
The web program allows these groups to collaborate live musically despite the great distances that separate them. The public will discover a small sample of the sound art made in Japan and have the opportunity to experience the collaborative process and all of its surprises.
Le LABO is a francophone integrated arts lab specializing in production, training and outreach and represents video, film, visual, performance and sound artists. Its mandate is to encourage experimentation and collaboration between multidisciplinary artists. Le LABO is currently the only francophone production center in Ontario for artists working in new media and technology.
Le LABO wishes to thank the following organisations for their support and generosity: the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and Heritage Canada.
TORONTO ARTISTS
dreamSTATE
Scott M2 — synthesisers
Jamie Todd — synthesisers
Dominique Banoun — laptop computer
Electronic soundshapers Scott M2 and Jamie Todd have been
weaving ambient soundscapes together as dreamSTATE since
1995. They’re known for their soundscape albums, perfor –
mances and installations and as the curators of THE AMBiENT
PiNG live music series. At Sound Factory, dreamSTATE will be
accompanied by laptop improviser Dominique Banoun.
www.dreamSTATE.to
www.THEAMBiENTPiNG.com
www.moveprod.com
PHOLDE
Alan Bloor — Welded Sculpture
Improvised metal soundscapes: “By striking and bowing his
metallic inventions, Pholde creates gargantuan dins that tumble
out of the speakers with galvanic force”. Darren Bergstein,
e/i Magazine
www.theambientping.com/pholde/home.html
ERIC ST-LAURENT – electric guitar
Eric St-Laurent first got involved in music as a guitarist in
various rock bands. He has won interpretation and composition
awards at Jazz Festivals in Montréal and Vienne (France). He
has written and produced numerous music albums and toured
extensively throughout Europe, with Till Brönner and Rebekka
Bakken to name a few. He is in the process of making his next
album with his new afro-cuban jazz quatuor.
ODRADEK
James Bailey — Found Objects, Electronics
Andy Yue — Keyboards
Michelangelo Laffaldano — Guitar, Clarinet, Homemade
Instruments
Odradek is a long-running trio of friends who delight in
improvising on any sound source they can lay their hands on,
from the concert hall to the curb.
OSAKA ARTISTS
KUROTCH
Atsushi Kurokawa — Voist
Kurotch started to create his own electronic instruments in
1999, and since then, he had been performing at various events
in the Osaka/Kyoto area. The instruments he has been working
on in the recent years are called Voist. They consist of many
homemade spherical synthesizers connected together by
cables.
CLONELINESS
Charles-Éric Billard — Slitars
Living in Japan since 2001, Charles-Éric Billard has been
pursuing his creative work in visual and video and sound art, as
well as organizing multi-disciplinary art events. His video
collaboration with contemporary dancer Yangjah was shown
at the Osaka Art Kaleidoscope Exhibition in April 2007. For the
past few months, he has been creating his own string
instruments called Slitars.
www.charlou2006.blogspot.com
slonnon
Naoki Sugihara — Cuttingbow
He uses his homemade instrument, the Cuttingbow, or various
everyday objects, turning them into into musical instruments
to form ambient drone and floating noise, creating a complex
modulated soundscape
www.slonnon.com
subtleflicker@slonnon.com