Private View: Wednesday 27 August 2008, 18:30PM to 20:30PM

Exhibition: 27 August 2008 - 26 September 2008

Curated by Bart van der Heide

With the Noise Room, Cubitt is proud to join the line of artificial listening sites created by Jan St Werner (Mouse on Mars) since 2005.

From 29 August to 28 September, Cubitt’s exhibition space is transformed into a ‘sound studio sculpture’: supporting a unique survey of works by contemporary music producers and composers. The Noise Room provides a total of eight hours of specially commissioned sound experiments by Black Dice, Stereolab, Sun Ok Papi K.O., Mouse on Mars, Lee Ranaldo, David Grubbs, Jason Forrest, Jeff Carey, Daniel Schorno, Robert van Heumen, Kevin Blechdom, Michel Waisvisz, Casey Rice, Adam Butler, Hrvatski, C-Schulz & F.X. Randomiz.

The Noise Room turns its attention to the ‘creative listener’ as recipient as well as producer. Not only does it stage a variety of contemporary (professional) sonic interpretations, it also provides a space for sonic imagination. The Noise Room features compositions that are specially produced for a multi-channelled (5.1) surround speaker system: calibrated to the room’s spatial acoustics and therefore creating a sonic landscape in which the visitors can dedicate themselves to a maximum listening experience. Acoustic phenomena meet the private sensorial experience, making the Noise Room illustrate as well as generate the private act of listening.

After having been previously performed at two major sound podia in The Netherlands (STEIM and Melkweg, respectively), Cubitt hosts the Noise Room‘s international debut. To mark this event, a CD has been produced (Sonig) with stereo edits from the Noise Room pieces which will be available at Cubitt. Please contact Cubitt for further information.

Programme

DAILY PROGRAM: Wednesday – Sunday 12-6 pm

12:00pm	ADAM BUTLER / JELLYROLLMORTONFELDMANTWO (EXTRACT)
	Adam Butler’s homage to Morton Feldman, “Jellyrollmortonfeldmantwo” is the result of five transformed piano rolls of various lengths being played back simultaneously. Each of the rolls, originally recorded by Jelly Roll Morton in the 1920s, has been transcribed into midi information, pitched down, slowed down, time-stretched and tweaked to roughly 120 times the original length. Written by Adam Butler. Autopilot Music Publishing. www.v-e-r-t.com
12:46pm	KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN / TWO PIECES
	In one of the so-called “Two Pieces” Hrvatski/Keith Fullerton Whitman raids his hard drive using a Max MSP patch to randomly cut and splatter sound files throughout the acoustics of the room. In the other, Hrvatski applies his special set of SVP-lineage time stretch algorithms to each of the six channels at 100 times the length. Written by Keith Fullerton Whitman. www.keithfullertonwhitman.com
12:53pm	CASEY RICE / UNTITLED MEDITATION
	Whether he’s producing the thickest and most spastic drum and bass tracks ever or moonlighting as Tortoise’s sound man, Casey Rice’s knack for engineering acute frequencies is obvious in every track he finishes. This piece, executed during a weeklong fast in Melbourne, Australia explores the notion that, “the seemingly inevitable unfolding world is an illusion”. Written by Casey Rice (Copyright Control). www.caseyrice.com
01:23pm	JEFF CAREY / VECTOR
	This algorithmic composition explores different applications of FFT analysis of field recordings made by Jeff Carey in Singapore and Malaysia. Even though the title implies distant travel, Carey asserts that these so-called foreign cultures are not without similarities to his own, closer to home. The piece attempts to reconcile the effect of discovering these ‘exotic’ sounds by evolving them with synthesis and compositional procedures, eventually rendering them mundane and recognizable to the electronic music afficianado. Written by Jeffrey Carey. www.jeffcarey.foundation-one.org
01:40pm	BLACK DICE / GORE
	Black Dice are interested in the hyper-magnification of sounds and textures that might be considered mere details in most contemporary pop music. In considering a specific loop, sonic squiggle or rhythmic pattern as the primary structural and aesthetic building block for the song rather than ornamentation, Black Dice explore the gritty surfaces and uneasy interiors behind the sheen of current urban music. Written by Eric Copeland, Bjorn Copeland and Aaron Warren. Published by Echobro (ASCAP). www.blackdice.net
01:57pm	MOUSE ON MARS / TILTED SCENERY
	Mouse on Mars present a frantic audio play starring their trademark array of toasted sonic characters: the chop-up vocals, the digital squawking, the fidgety robot drum programs, the indiscrete burps and toolbox be-bop. Not unlike the soundtrack to a Jacques Tati movie, the whole dazzling, stuttering cacophony of electro-acoustic drama is conducted and twisted with playful ear-for details precision. Written by Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. www.mouseonmars.com
02:16pm	JASON FORREST / BLOOD, BLOOD EVERYWHERE
	For his first 5.1 mix, Jason Forrest handled each speaker as a separate sound unit because of it’s obvious location in the space. Forrest explains: “It’s not everyday you get to make a surround sound environment and this is why “Blood, Blood Everywhere” features very different moods, from harsh noise to very pretty musical arrangements, torn as they are moving through the spatial arrangement.” Written by Jason Forrest. www.cockrockdisco.com
02:37pm	LEE RANALDO / MAELSTROM FROM DRIFT (STEREO EXCERPT)
	This piece takes a couple small elements of electric guitar from that much larger project and uses them to create a rather static state of guitar bedevilment. There are many subtle shifts going on in the sound field but the overall effect is supposed to be rather monolithic. Brain eraser type stuff…a thought-room. Written by Lee Ranaldo, Lazy Eight Music (BMI). www.sonicyouth.com/dotsonics/lee/
02:58pm	DANIEL SCHORNO / MANTRA OF A BLACK WORLD (STORM IN A TEA CUP)
	Daniel Schorno mixes Discovery Channel pathos (a special on American military stealth bomber technology, for instance) with clinical intonations and household noise plumes. This composition uses the same digital technology that helps to acoustically orient military fighter pilots in their cockpits. Its basic musical material was originally performed to a Russian audience at Moscow’s Dom in 2002, and it is dedicated to the souls on either side of the cross hair. Written by Daniel Schorno. www.zitegeist.net
03:10pm	KEVIN BLECHDOM / ROBOMAMMA
	“Robomomma” was initially created for four speakers and then adapted for two speakers. Written by Kevin Blechdom, additional vocals and writing by Kim Hiørthoy and Ad Hawk. Parts are from “Dying Robot” written for Esopus magazine in 2005. www.kevyb.com
03:19pm	STEREOLAB / KYBERNETICKÁ BABICA PT1
	Stereolab’s Tim Gane explains: “We joined app. 40 random Coda’s (i.e. 60 second ‘fade out’s’ of sing-a-long songs) into a 8 loop’s. […] In the studio, each loop was recreated as close as possible by the band members.” www.stereolab.co.uk
03:42pm	SUN OK PAPI K.O. / TRIGGERED PIKMIN SOUND
	Sun OK Papi K.O. created a noise improvisation with all the leftover gear people forgot or dumped at his place. Sun Papi made it mostly with his voice and a ‘70s guitar filter left by Niko Uské after a gig. Then, concentrating on a space with multidimensional speakers, he added a spontaneous collage—a fake 3D sound image. Written by Laurent Baudoux. www.rbdx.com
04:04pm	DAVID GRUBBS / THE BATTLEFIELD FORECAST
	This piece takes its title from Kenneth Goldsmith’s “The Weather” (Make Now, 2005), a book-length poem that is a transcription of a year’s worth of weather forecasts from an AM radio station in New York. David Grubbs: VCS3 synthesizer, Nikos Veliotis: cello. Written by David Grubbs. Published by Gastr Virgo Music (BMI), administered in Europe by Rough Trade, Ltd. www.bluechopsticks.org
04:47pm	ROBERT VAN HEUMEN / 12 BULLETS
	“12 Bullets” is from a longer 5.1 piece by Robert van Heumen and is the culmination of his varied work, using live generated textures with LiSa and SuperCollider, environmental recordings, digital crackles and voice samples. Part of the material is processed live footage of SKIF, his electronic duo with Jeff Carey. Written by Robert van Heumen. www.hardhatarea.com
05:09pm	C-SCHULZ & F.X. RANDOMIZ / DAS OHR AM GLEIS
	The sounds of modern ICE-railcars, Russian diesel engines and historic trains have been transformed into hybrid sound sculptures in the studio. These have been augmented with (and contrasted by) sounds from “ordinary” instruments. The view from the train window with its discontinuous, rapidly changing impressions has been translated into sound fragments which are flaring past. www.sonig.com