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OMONIA
music | theatre | video | live electronics
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OMONIA
is a multi-sided one man art performance about desire, obsession
and the game of chance.
OMONIA brings together music, theatre, video and live electronics;
the accent relays on the music. The project results in a multimedia
unity through which the electroacoustic composition is the driving
force of the performing form and the limits of musical expression
in the theatrical space become visibly open.
The performance is the presentation of three new music theatre works,
specially composed for this project by the Dutch composers Roderik
de Man and Arnoud Noordegraaf. OMONIA is performed by the recorder
player/multimedia artist Jorge Isaac.
OMONIA (the Greek word for "each-others compliment", "complete")
is a multilingual unification of sound and visual media through
which the spectator is drawn to observe in various layers. The three
pieces are presented in the order:
1) "Voix égales" (Roderik de Man, 2005),
2) "STRUNG" (Arnoud Noordegraaf, 2005), and
3) "Mensa Secunda" – a condensed version for one
musician and video- (Roderik de Man, 2005).
The total duration of the program is circa 70 minutes, with no break.
The various layers of OMONIA (music, theatre, scenography and video)
are all structurally related, from each medium comes the unique
entrance into the performance in order to create together the final
product. Three works, three different stories in one surrealistic
context. The performance is based on three principles:
Desire: presented in "Voix égales" through the
strong extension to which can be uttered.
The game of chance: played out in "STRUNG" through the
unexpected change of an alter-ego,
Obsession: worked out in "Mensa Secunda" through the insane
search of a cook for the ultimate recipe.
A virtuoso recorder performance, and a rich musical context comprised
of percussive electronic sounds, thick rhythmical structures and
a grotesque musical aesthetic make up the musical layer. The music
is performed by a live musician (various recorders and electronics)
and his corporeality, through the unique use of sensors and software
which interpret movement into MIDI data , and it is in turn used
for sound manipulation. Movements and actions made by the musician,
in relation to the video, form the kernel of the visual layer. Video
images are used in various ways: as dynamic induction of the form
through moving images (Voix égales), as the materialisation
of an evil Alter-ego (STRUNG), and as the medium of hallucinatory
dreams (Mensa Secunda). Images in space and raw electronic sounds
come from the full spectrum of sound possible in combination with
the recorder. Through the unique combination of images and sound
a combinatorial language is formed which allows for an understanding
inside of interpretation and serves to create an unnerving whole-
a crisp radiating multimedia performance.
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Voix
égales started as a practice-based research
project, resulting in a multimedia performance. In Voix
égales, the application of interfaces, sensors and
software allow the use of physical movement of the musician
to create sonorous layers in opposition to the previously
fixed music layer placed in quadraphonic spacialization around
the audience. The direction through which the sound is projected
plays an important role.
The work is comprised of four movements atacca from which
only the last movement contains instrumental music for tenor
and contrabass recorder (Paetzold). All of the material for
this composition is based on fragments of Samuel Beckett’s
work "Not I" from 1972, and Jorge Isaac’s
extended techniques on tenor and contrabass recorder. The
text and word fragments are realised through all different
possible ways from spoken to whispered, also through the instruments
themselves. Through recording into a buffer all of the previous
sounds were re-worked and manipulated through electronic processing.
In addition, particles of different words were transformed
into new words through the electronic re-working.
It is known of Samuel Beckett that he had a great affinity
with words: their sound, their structure and rhythm; this
particular approach becomes important for the composer to
observe and treat in the composition. The music of Voix égales
is not intended to be based on a text with repetitive character,
but instead on the musical and theatrical expression which
the performer can acquire through manipulated word's sounds,
as well as the possibilities that words and live electronics
provide to react and improvise. The live musician plays a
character who carries a burden of afasi, a strong physical
sickness which affects his ability to speak. He sits tied
to a stool, after which we see he sits in a cage. His movements
are tracked by computer software, floor sensors, and a wireless
camera system through which his disturbing need of the physicality
to words are realised. These words (actually fragments of
text) will be transformed/deformed during the rest of the
piece through the quadraphonic sound system in relation to
the video projections.
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Each
episode of Voix égales makes an attempt at communication.
Throughout the entire piece there is a continued dynamic of opposition
and unification of the several media without affecting the independence
of each of the elements while allowing none of them to be lost from
the spectator. Video will be made constructed in real-time during
several of the episodes through use of recorded material consisting
of zooms of body parts of the musician during earlier episodes contrasted
with abstract forms. The use of the two instruments, (tenor and
contrabass) during the first three movements will be re-worked into
the fourth movement electronically in such that they take the leading
role in the last episode. In the fourth movement comes the first
understandable fragment of text, the fragment that could be considered
as the apotheosis of the entire piece. The title, Voix égales,
serves as well to examine the words as contrapuntal element related
to the whole.
Total
length Voix égales: 22 min.
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In
STRUNG the composer has pushed the virtuosic musician to the
limit of his ability. In mix with an enormous opposition from
the electronics, opposition with a mysterious alter-ego: A
girl less innocent than she appears. The question is who now
hold the reigns in the hand.
Jorge Isaac plays the virtuosic flutist Jorge Isaac, who,
in search of total mastery of his sound, steadily looses control
of his electronics. His techniques have become so complex
that it turns in a being with a will of its own.
Living in darkness (filmed with an infrared camera) we see
how this being, a girl (dancer Mirjam ter Linden) comes to
be manipulated through Jorge’s sound. But she can also
manipulate him: the electronics can make unexpected changes.
The girl commences a bizarre voodoo ritual, through which
she will saw a recorder. Jorge tries to stop her by crawling
into her skin- just before she saws the recorder. It works
but he’s too late, she begins to saw before he can take
over her body and in this way is doomed to saw his own recorder.
Characters become doubled, mirrored in perfect symmetry, and
become unified into their
inseparable alter-ego.
The images are composed to create a cavernous space, with
quick flashes of light. Here again the experience of the observer
becomes more intense. Jorge will use four different recorders,
the most of which will sound through live electronics. Using
various analogue and digital hardware, and the computer software
MAX/MSP and LiSa, programmed in such a way as to remain independent
in the composition. Therefore Jorge doesn’t know precisely
where he is headed and is lead by way of electronics. In addition,
Jorge modifies the electronics, tape and the video during
the performance.
STRUNG
is a unique performance for a
multi-tasking virtuoso.
Total
length STRUNG: 17min. |
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part
III: MENSA SECUNDA (condensed
version) |
Lights
go off. The silence is broken through the soft and irregular sound
of small drops. The almost sterile décor stands in contrast
with the smell of church incense, which is associated with death.
The video starts projecting an intro-text, soft and slowly:
(beginning of the text)
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(end
of the text)
A deep-layered sound
with the constant drops of water, the smell of myrrh and incense
rounds off a space ready for a ritual. A profound blue-misty atmosphere
on the Video introduces two slaves entering the space, both dressing
white. They make a ritual around a table in the middle of the space.
The music background is surrounded with digitally modified sounds
of mouths chewing and knifes sharpening. It comes to a climax through
the high piercing sounds of sopraninos.
The
right side of the stage is gradually lit. The light unveils a little
kitchen. Behind the table is Apicius, the Chef, calmly washing his
hands. He murmurs to himself.
Murmurs, furtive lights, and stalking figures introduce the spectator
into a world of delirious dreams. Gradually the obsession is cooked.
On the screen Apicius finds himself in a big and gorgeous kitchen
(his illusion). Details of washing his hands and arms are projected,
through a combination of concrete and abstract images.
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Apicius
lights the fire in his kitchen to start cooking. He moves
around the table taking cooking tools. He looks for the ingredients
he needs, tasting them in the process. Sounds of cauldrons
boiling and things dropping around the kitchen can be heard.
More percussive sounds fill in the atmosphere.
Different images
without synchronisation are projected on the video. In Apicius’
hallucinations, the slaves are helping him to wash his hands
and to cook the ingredients.
The projection tensions the atmosphere of the kitchen with
the aid of the powerful bass sound of the music.
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Apicius’
murmurs become clearer until we realise he is reciting a recipe:
"Teres piper, ligustcum, coriandri semen, mentam, rutam,
refundis liquamen et oleum modice, oleum supra seit. Leporem curas,
ornas, quadratum imponis. Omento tetes et charta et surclas. Lento
igni subassas…"
Intensive use of digital effects on the video images are projected
(hereunder three examples).
The
two slaves appear in the foreground of the video and get ready to
perform the ‘pre-meal’ spectacle. They constantly change
their characters, transforming from a juggler to a flutist, from
an amanuensis to a confectioner. They also perform a demonstration
of cooks creating a recipe and other pre-meal amusements.
In the background Apicius moves in relation to the slaves as he
notices them, and then returns to his recipe. The music increases
the energy and transforms into a sharp percussive layer. Apicius
performs a virtuosic percussion solo at the table with knifes and
pots: the "chopping spectacle". The voice of the chef,
along with the sounds produced by chopping and chewing are combined
with sounds of pots falling, knives and water boiling.
Consecutive
sound, visual media and movement take the observer on a voyage to
Apicius’ island of dreams. Where is the special taste? The
ingredients talk to Apicius, he tastes them, and they taste him.
A shadowy figure slowly appears in the video. It is the Magirus,
the hired chef who is carefully watching Apicius and the surrounding
ingredients.
Apicius movements and voice become ever more desperate- he believes
that the ingredients live (the ingredients speak back though modified
electronic sounds.) While Apicius is preparing the meal, he is distracted
and cuts his finger. In the sour and salty taste of his own blood
he discovers perfection… When he tastes his blood he realises
that the dinner guests (the Magirus) has arrived. Apicius, entranced,
looks to the Magirus to share in the feast.
From this point develops
a basset solo. Apicius plays and moves close to the screen projection.
His body melts with the images being projected.
The colour of the scene becomes darker, and the two slaves move
to the front where the two chefs are shifting roles and positions.
The Magirus starts following Apicius as a shadow. Apicius keeps
on decreasing the playing speed. Magirus stalks Apicius and becomes
the main chef.
Back
in his kitchen, Apicius takes his tenor and plays a solo on tenor
& electronics. He is increasingly loosing control of his playing
technique and becomes manipulated through the video images.
The Magirus experiences a strange transformation. He begins to murmur
as he searches for the perfect recipe. The video makes use of animation
techniques and presents a choreographed duo of the two chefs, where
Apicius’ obsession is acquired by the Magirus.
The still scarcely
moving Apicius is brought into the kitchen.
The Magirus, now transformed into Apicius, washes his hands. The
slaves look on mysteriously. They see Magirus’ search, his
hallucinations and dreams as he speaks to the ingredients. Music
slowly fades out and lights dim.
Total
length Mensa Secunda: 35min.
Watch
VIDEO
Mensa
Secunsa |
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Watch
VIDEO
STRUNG |
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