Rien à voir (3): schedule: Wednesday, February 18, 1998

For this concert, along with my own compositions, I have included works that I consider unique in some way or another. The title of the concert has as much to do with contrasts of lightness and darkness of tone (in a visual or imaginary sense—the mind’s eye) as it has to do with contrasts of musical character. So here we find some pieces that contain a certain amount of “light” heartedness or a whimsical nature that, for me, is rather rare in the world of electroacoustic concert music. Arthur Kampela’s Textorias for computer generated guitar is overflowing with a brash exuberance and feverish “nonsense” that I find irresistable, and it goes well with three of my own offerings, Pufferfish, Klang, Kar, und Melodie, and From Scratch. Ligeti’s classic Artikulation , while emanating from the serious studios of Cologne, exhibits a playfulness and radical spirit that still remains fresh today. I believe Pianolia , by Michael Kapoulas, bears a distinct similarity to the Ligeti piece, (though I must admit I am unable to articulate exactly what that similarity is). So for this reason (quite unrelated to his “donation” of several hundred Greek drachmas), I have chosen to include it here.

The second half of the concert presents works rendered from a darker palette—more extended in form and dramatic in character. Alessandro Cipriani’s Angelus is a meditative chant, a skillful blending of ancient vocal technique with subtle studio processing. Anchorings/Arrows is a superb work that exhibits flawless sonic clarity and great dynamic power which are hallmarks of the music of Erik Mikael Karlsson and Jens Hedman. La Nuit Sauvage is very dark in mood, almost violent at times, beginning and ending in the low spectrum of frequencies. Ode to the South-facing Form is reminiscent of the earlier Cipriani piece, though darker, wider in dynamic and frequency ranges, spacious, and perhaps more mysterious. May these sonic voyages please you!

— Mark Wingate, February 1998.