Decaying overtones and subtle timbres are at the heart of Schatten, the new performance by GRIFF. Building on their collaborative compositional approach and their shared experience of playing together over the past seven years since the high-calibre trio was founded, Schatten will now integrate field recordings as well as sound synthesis and signal processing into their previously predominantly acoustic playing.
Acoustic timbres are set in moment with great detail and precision for then to be picked up by signal processing algorithms that remove the acoustic attack and extend the decay for significant durations. These spectral and granular freeze algorithms are custom-designed and applied to vibraphone, piano, voice, and double bass. Additionally, neural audio synthesis machine learning algorithms are being implemented, using datasets recorded by each member of GRIFF.
GRIFF was founded in 2017 by vibraphonist Emilio Gordoa, pianist Ingrid Schmoliner and double bassist and electronic musician Adam Pultz Melbye. Since its formation, the trio has played numerous gigs throughout Europe and performed at festivals such as NEW ADITS (Klagenfurt, AT) and Sound Disobedience (Ljubljana, SI). GRIFF’s eponymous debut album was released in 2021 on Inexhaustible Editions to critical acclaim.
Emilio Gordoa is a Mexican composer, sound artist, percussionist and vibraphonist based in Berlin since 2012. He’s involved in numerous projects including his work as a soloist and in collaboration with theater, dance, performance and other interdisciplinary frameworks. His special focus is in experimental music, sound art, noise, free jazz, improvisation and contemporary music. Gordoa is redefining the vibraphone as a source, treating it with preparations and extended techniques and is a busy composer as well, writing graphic scores for a variety of ensembles, large and small, for theater, documentary films and audio-visuals.
Ingrid Schmoliner lives and works as a freelance musician – composer – curator and teacher in Vienna. Already before and during her classical studies at the Klagenfurt conservatory, majoring in piano, her music was characterized by an interest in improvised, experimental and contemporary music. Through her precise sound research and sophisticated, nuanced work on the piano and voice, she has made a name for herself as a musician and composer as an innovate creator. Schmoliner works on internationally renowned stages as a performer, improviser and composer.
Adam Pultz is a double bass player, composer, and improviser working in the field of acoustic and electronic sound. Pultz’s work spans live performance, sound installation, sound for dance, theatre, film, multimedia, sculpture, algorithmic design, and instrument building. He has performed and exhibited work in Europe, Australia, the US, and Japan, while appearing on close to 50 albums. Pultz often performs with semi-autonomous feedback systems, such as the FAAB (feedback-actuated augmented bass)—a feedback double bass created in collaboration with Halldòr Ùlfarsson. He holds a practice-led PhD in music technology from SARC, Queen’s University Belfast.
7.00 pm soundwalk mit Thomas Gerwin
Funded by the inm – initiative neue musik berlin e.V. and by the European Union and the Goethe-Institut
This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
