Browsing by Author "Andean, James"
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Item Open Access Assemblance(s)(empreintes DIGITALes, 2019-04-26) Andean, JamesCD of acousmatic tape music compositions, 2010-2018. https://electrocd.com/en/album/5846/James_Andean/Assemblance 1) Déchirure (2013), 7:32 2) Hyvät matkustajat (2012, 14), 9:03 3) Valdrada (2018), 15:26 4) Psygeío (2013-14), 9:56 5) Spores (2014), 7:00 6) Maledetta (2011), 6:08 7) Medusan Torso (2010-11), 9:09 8) Between the Leaves (2012), 5:14Item Open Access At the First Clear Word(Huellkurven, 2015) Andean, JamesItem Open Access Item Open Access Between the Leaves(MUU, 2014) Andean, JamesBetween the Leaves began when an output error turned John Cage reciting a series of small stories into a dense tapestry of noise; a fitting tribute, perhaps, for a piece created in the centenary of Cage's birth. The work presents a foreground of clicking gestures – every one following the same trajectory, yet every one unique, with subtle differences in timbre, velocity, and so on – layered and sequenced to provide a balance between monotonous repetition and detailed counterpoint. Behind this foreground layer is a soundscape struggling to be heard, sometimes masked by the mechanical foreground, sometimes spilling forward with a burst, cry, or distant wail. Formally speaking, the piece slows to a halt at about the two-thirds mark, and then turns back on itself: the click trajectory changes direction, and we move back through the piece in reverse, gaining speed as we go, to finish where we began.Item Open Access Déchirure(Association PRESQUE RIEN, 2017) Andean, JamesItem Open Access Editorial: The sonic and the electronic in improvisation(Cambridge University Press, 2021-04-30) Andean, JamesEditorial for a guest edited issue of the journal Organised Sound on the theme of 'The sonic and the electronic in improvisation'.Item Embargo Electroacoustic Mythmaking: National Grand Narratives in Electroacoustic Music(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Andean, JamesHistories of electroacoustic music tend to converge around a limited set of grand narratives, which construct an outline of electroacoustic history organized around themes including the 'Great Studios', a small handful of 'Great Composers' (Stockhausen, Schaeffer, Berio, Cage...), and contrast and conflict between 'Great Nations' – primarily, between France and Germany. While all of the above had roles to play in the development of the genre, these narratives can at best be described as misleading, and at worst be accused of rather sinister undercurrents. As with all such historical narratives, the attempt to consolidate an enormous outpouring of human creativity into a more easily comprehended collection of grand themes and 'major players' serves to circumscribe and belittle the work of a great many historical contributors whose work or background don't happen to fuel the narrative at hand. More importantly, however, the dominant narratives regularly reinforce a number of dubious and occasionally unsavoury stereotypes. A key case in point here is the tendency to reduce electroacoustic history to a single, towering conflict between recorded and electronic sound, which is then tied to France and Germany respectively, via the key figures on either side of this imagined 'divide': Pierre Schaeffer at the RTF/GRM in Paris on the one hand, and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the WDR in Cologne on the other. All too often a connection gets made to long-standing national stereotypes – the poetic soul of the French; the cold, clinical Germans – which burdens a relatively young art form with a regrettable and unnecessary cultural cliche. Not only are such simplifications extremely reductive, and at times demonstrably false, they also support a form of broad national caricature that demands a thorough and critical rethinking. Where composers of this period of post-war Modernism were desperate to ensure that the nationalist romantic mistakes of the past would not be repeated, the retrospective gaze of electroacoustic history has re- imposed this same narrative once again, by emphasizing post-war animosity as the key factor in the birth of a new musical genre. The absurdity of imposing such a broadly nationalist and political agenda onto what should be a purely musical and intellectual narrative is not without consequences. Electroacoustic music from around the world for the next several decades is forced into this same limited worldview, as works by composers as diverse as Jonathan Harvey and Michael McNabb are defined retroactively as 'bridging the divide' between musique concrète and elektronische Musik, by which the Americans and the British are imagined as 'making peace' between the French and the Germans, as late as the 1980s. This chapter will: - examine the construction of such narratives in the electroacoustic historical literature, - demonstrate aspects of this narrative which are false or misleading, with reference to both electroacoustic history and the electroacoustic repertoire, and - recommend alternative perspectives or frameworks that can serve to structure our understanding of electroacoustic history without relying so heavily on national grand narratives.Item Open Access Electroacoustic Performance Practice in Interdisciplinary Improvisation(Korean Electro-Acoustic Music Society, 2014) Andean, JamesThe increasing mobility and accessibility of electroacoustic tools in recent decades has brought electroacoustic performance practice into ever-closer contact and collaboration with a broad range of other performance paradigms and art forms. This paper will examine some of the issues this implies for electroacoustic performance practice, focusing specifically on the context of free interdisciplinary im- provisation, which arguably represents a particularly clear case of a fluid performance situation and the dissolution or renegotiation of boundaries between practices and art forms. Central issues include tools, mobility, flexibility, and communication.Item Open Access Five Compositions(Tidskriften Plir, 2014-06) Andean, JamesItem Open Access The Friedman Translations(2014-05-09) Andean, JamesThe Friedman Translations is a work in two contrasting forms: Translation A is a work for tape, while Translation B is a live work for piano and percussion. The tape version, Translation A, is composed entirely from a few short passages recorded inside a piano. The Friedman Translations was commissioned by SPOR Festival, Aarhus, Denmark, where it was premiered on May 9th 2014.Item Open Access Group Performance Paradigms in Free Improvisation(Cambridge University Press, 2023-04-17) Andean, JamesThis article proposes four paradigms of group performance in free improvisation: 1) sound composition; 2) social communication; 3) ‘parallel play’; and 4) ‘one beast with many heads’. While these paradigms are identifiably different, they are often engaged flexibly and/or in combination; and, importantly, it is very possible for the same performance to be experienced or interpreted by different performers or listeners according to different paradigm perspectives. After providing some background and defining key terms, the four paradigms are introduced and discussed; connections with, and departures from, the existing literature are considered, followed by analysis of illustrative examples of each of the four paradigms drawn from the broader field of sonic and electroacoustic improvisation. To conclude, further larger-scale research potential for furthering this investigation is identified.Item Open Access Hyvät matkustajat(Naviar Records, 2014-11-11) Andean, JamesHyvät matkustajat ("The Good Travellers") began life as a 'sonic postcard from Finland'. This turned out to be only the first stop on its journey, however. The original material was later further developed as material for sonic exploration and spectral transformations, with the external spaces of the original version taking a sharp turn inwards, to chart internal spectral landscapes, together with the soundmarks and soundscapes of its first incarnation. And, like the travellers of the title, it is likely that the work will continue on, before eventually reaching its final destination.Item Metadata only In search of the Nordic electroacoustic(Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2019-10-31) Andean, James; Bentley, AndrewThis chapter will examine electroacoustic music in the Nordic countries, with a focus on this question: is it reasonable to speak of a ‘Nordic identity’ in electro- acoustic music? An overview confirms that there is a long and rich tradition of this genre of music across the Nordic countries, each of which can boast a number of significant composers and works, as well as several notable institutions foster- ing it. Is it possible to locate trends or characteristics that bond these works and composers into a Nordic community? Can we locate an electroacoustic ‘Nordic sound’, or would this be simply an imposed narrative? It is hoped that the artists’ own perspectives on what it means to be a Nordic composer of electroacoustic music will provide some of the answers to these questions. Our five featured composers, each from a different Nordic country, have all made notable interna- tional careers as composers of acousmatic music (although three are also known for mixed instrumental-electroacoustic music), and they have been interviewed especially for this chapter.1 They represent what might be called the ‘mature’, middle generation of composers, who started work between 1977 and 1994, and were able to build upon the work done in establishing the electroacoustic genre during the pioneering (‘first wave’) and formative periods. As listening sugges- tions, we have chosen two case studies per composer for special comment, as being representative of their output over a long period.Item Open Access Mahtavaa(MUU, 2014) Andean, JamesMahtavaa (Finnish for "Wonderful") was originally composed as one section of an outdoor sound installation commissioned by the Sibelius Weeks festival in Jarvenpaa, Finland, which was entirely composed using newspaper and radio archive materials covering the festival's previous commissioned installation, including both the electroacoustic treatment of recordings of the original radio broadcasts, and quotes from newspaper clippings which were read and recorded by a number of participants. Mahtavaa is built from a single phrase of Finnish text: "Mahtavaa – nyt se pulputtaa tuossa" ("Wonderful, now it's burbling there"), a quote from Savikangas in a local newspaper referring to the sound coming from a loudspeaker at the installation site. This short text is repeated and increasingly layered, creating rhythms and timbral artefacts in a manner reminiscent of Steve Reich's early tape pieces. This, however, is merely to establish the basic texture of the piece. The work is further developed through an additional process, whereby the results are filtered through the individual formants of the reader's voice. As a result, the strongest formant areas are increasingly reinforced, while the rest of the spectrum begins to drop away. The strongest formant is emphasised first, with other formants slowly added one by one. In this way, the text is made literal: the words "nyt se pulputtaa tuossa" – "now it's burbling there" – have been made to pulse, in a set of pitches determined by the characteristics of the speaker's own voice. Eventually, when all sense of words and speech has fallen away, leaving only pulsing drones, these processes reverse themselves, finally to return to the original phrase.Item Open Access Medea(2018) Andean, JamesRecording of the premiere performance of electroacoustic chamber opera 'Medea'. Composer: James Andean. Voice: Debi Wong.Item Embargo Multimodality in Audiovisual Art(L'Harmattan, 2016-01) Andean, James; Nieminen, MerjaThis article discusses aspects of multimodality raised in connection with audiovisual art, with reference to works by visual artist Merja Nieminen and sound artist James Andean, with a primary focus on the installation ‘Re:**** Sitruuna ja meduusa’. The work and its methods are described, with a particular emphasis on relationships between sound and visuals, including key parameters, interaction, and a number of early attempts to balance sonic and visual elements. The extension of the themes and methods of ‘Re:**** Sitruuna ja meduusa’ in a later collaboration, ‘Cleome/Gliese 902’, is discussed, as well as the relative importance and implication of the real-time aspect of these installations.Item Open Access Narrative Modes in Acousmatic Music(Cambridge University Press, 2016-11-11) Andean, JamesBeginning with a brief overview of acousmatic narrative, this article proposes that in listening to acousmatic music we select and move between distinct narrative modes, according to the requirements and implications of a given work or shifting between modes as the work progresses. Similarities and differences with existing theory are considered. Ten narrative modes are proposed as relevant for acousmatic music and discussed. Finally, the appearance of narrative archetypes across multiple modes is considered, as well as similarities across other musics and other fields.Item Open Access Outgribe(New Adventures in Sound Art, 2015-03) Andean, James"Outgribe" is a sound miniature that incorporates recordings of the mechanical and electrical apparatus of various radio and telecommunications exchanges, abstracted and 'aestheticized', and layered with 'distance communication' resources from both the natural and musical worlds.Item Open Access Pimeydestä valoon (from darkness into light)(Ink & Coda, 2015-07-15) Andean, James; Kuoppala, VisaItem Open Access Psygeìo(New Adventures in Sound Art, 2015-04) Andean, James