News

Présences Électronique

The Institut National de l'Audiovisuel Groupe de Recherches Musicales (INA/GRM) held the 13th edition of Présences Électronique, an international festival of electro-acoustic music, on 14–16 April 2017 in Paris, France. The festival opened with a concert of compositions by David Behrman, who performed versions of his works Runthrough (1967) and View Finder (1972) that had been updated to work with modern digital technology; the former was played by activating light-sensitive electronic circuits with hand-held flashlights. In another concert, Jana Winderen's Déclassifié incorporated recordings of aquatic wildlife in an examination of the undersea sound environment through the lens of acoustic ecology. The festival featured a number of historical works across its eight concerts, including François Bayle's La fin du bruit (1979–1980), James Tenney's Fabric for Ché (1967), Ivo Malec's Turpituda (1978, from Triola ou Symphonie pour moi-même), and Roland Kayn's Cybernetics III (1969). A new interpretation of Earle Brown's graphic score December 1952, commissioned by the Earle Brown Music Foundation on the occasion of the composer's 90th birthday, was performed by Stephan Mathieu.

Web: www.inagrm.com/accueil/concerts/présences-électronique

Guthman Musical Instrument Competition

The 2017 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition took place 8–9 March 2017 at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Since 2009, the annual event has aimed to showcase new ideas in musical instrument design and engineering. This year's competition featured guest judges Mike Adams, chief executive officer of Moog Music, Elaine Chew of Queen Mary University, and the inventor and producer Daedelus. The first prize was awarded to Subhraag Singh for his Infinitone instrument (see Figure 1), which was designed to allow its performer to quickly and easily play music intervals across the harmonic spectrum. Second prize was awarded to Takumi Ogata for his Rib Cage, a tuned metal percussion instrument with sensors and actuators to effect robotic accompaniment with its human performer; and third prize was given to Caleb Byerly for the Salimba, which includes 36 strings stretched over a steel bowl and played with small mallets. Audience choice awards were given to Akito Van Troyer's MM-RT, in which magnetic actuators are used to produce percussive or melodic sounds from everyday objects; to Chet Udell's Optron, which is played by tilting or strumming; and to Ly Yang and Zak Seipel's Lyharp, a string instrument based on the guzheng and outfitted with electric pickups and MIDI triggers.

Web: guthman.gatech.edu

Journées d'Informatique Musicale

Figure 1.

Subhraag Singh performs with his Infinitone instrument.

Photo: www.gtcmt.gatech.edu/www.music.gatech.edu.

The Journées d'Informatique Musicale (JIM) conference was held 17–20 May 2017 in Paris, France, organized by the French Association of Computer Music (AFIM) and hosted at multiple locations around Paris. The conference annually gathers scientists, developers, and practitioners who use information technology as a tool for transmission, creation, performance, and teaching in the musical domain. JIM 2017 comprised both research presentations and musical programming. The event began with a concert dedicated to the late Jean-Claude Risset, including his Songes (1979), The Other Isherwood (2015), Nature contre nature (2012), Resonant Sound Space (2002), and Passages (1982). Another concert featured the French Orchestre National Électroacoustique, comprising Laurence Bouckaert, Pierre Couprie, Hugues Genevois, Vincent Goudard, Jean Haury, and Serge de Laubier on electronic and augmented acoustic instruments; and a third concert included acousmatic and electroacoustic works from a number of international composers. JIM 2017's research program included talks on new approaches to computer-aided composition, mapping of polyphonic musical processes, electroacoustic musicology, and electronic music pedagogy. The event also included keynote talks by Myriam Desainte-Catherine of L'Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux and Anne Sèdes of Université Paris 8, as well as workshops on distributed musical experiences mediated by Web technologies, computer-based tools for ethnomusicology, and other topics.

Web: jim2017.sciencesconf.org

Linux Audio Conference

The 2017 Linux Audio Conference (LAC) took place 18–21 May 2017 at Jean Monnet University in Saint-Etienne, France. The...