MUSIC FOR 16 FUTURIST NOISE INTONERS
All-Star Cast of Experimental Composers to Perform on Reconstructions of Legendary Futurist Instruments Not Heard Since 1913!
Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners
Luigi Russolo and Ugo Piatti with the intonarumori
"They are the DNA of experimental music!" said Elliot Sharp when he had a chance to play one of the first 'noise intoners' commissioned by Performa for Performa 09, in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the launch of Futurism. Music For 16 Futurist Noise Intoners will be an extraordinary historic evening in itself; all sixteen instruments that Luigi Russolo built and performed with fellow Futurists only once at the home of F.T. Marinetti in 1913, will be together on stage for an evening-length concert of original scores and compositions by the most significant and adventurous of contemporary experimental composers. As the first instruments capable of creating and manipulating sound through entirely mechanical processes, the intonarumori can be considered as the original analog synthesizer, and the ancestors to the most up-to-date electronic instruments used today.
Luciano Chessa, composer and Russolo scholar, directed the reconstruction of the instruments and conducts the evening, which includes live performances of three legendary pieces from the past — a fragment from Russolo's spooky Risveglio di una città (1913), La pioggia nel pineto antidannunziana, a newly-discovered 1916 Futurist piece for intonarumori, and Words in Freedom by Futurist playwright and poet Paolo Buzzi -- and wonderfully poetic compositions from the present, including Einstuerzende Neubauten frontman and Nick Cave collaborator Blixa Bargeld, avant-garde saxophonist John Butcher, Deep Listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros, Faith No More and Mr. Bungle vocalist Mike Patton, sound and text-based performer Anat Pick, avant-garde musician Elliott Sharp, vocalist and composer Joan Le Barbara, composer and vocalist Jennifer Walshe collaborating with composer and film/video artist Tony Conrad, and Icelandic supergroup Ghostigital with Finboggi Petursson and Casper Electronics.
Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners is commissioned by Performa with SFMoMA and the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). Curated with Luciano Chessa with Esa Nickle (Performa) (via
e-flux.com)
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