La Plaque Tournante is a new non commercial artist space (ex praxis medical cabinet) located in Berlin, Neukölln and run by french composer Frédéric Acquaviva and english mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg that opened its doors August 6th 2014.
CRU is the annual magazine that documents what’s happening or what could have happened at La Plaque Tournante
Issue no.1 of CRU covers:
“1.1. DJ VERBOTEN” (Aug 6th- Oct 8th, 2014) and
“1.2. BERNARD HEIDSIECK, COMME CHAQUE MATIN” (Nov 12th, 2014 – Jan 20th, 2015)
CRU is :
– a physical magazine with 1CD (50′ with Acquaviva, Niblock), 1DVD (70′ with Adachi, Heidsieck, Liberovskaya, Lizène, Lixenberg, Lucier, Mincek), 1 Après-Propos, 2 playlists of exhibited material, 2 postcards, 2 affiches and 2 catalogues into the form of posters
– and a website : cru-web.org, with access to 50 G° audio-video material through a code only given to those who have bought the magazine, once they’ve sent by email their photo with CRU in hands atinfo@laplaquetournante.org
PROGRAM FOR SUNDAY MAY 24th:
doors 8PM
8.30PM 1st live set : improvisation Katherine Liberovskaya (live video) / Guy De Bièvre (lap steel guitar) / Anna Homler (vocals) 30′
9PM launching of CRU1 MAGAZINE (ß@£)
sélection of CRU-DVD with videos of live performances by Bernard Heidsieck “Vaduz” (1974,11′), Tomomi Adachi “Girl Spinning Next Door” (2014, 6′), Alvin Lucier “Silver Streetcar for Orchestra” (1988, 9′) + Katherine Liberovskaya “Tilting at Windmills a.k.a. aqualib spin” with sound collage by Phill Niblock (2015, 8′)
9.30PM 2nd live set :
– Frédéric Acquaviva : “Aatie Fragment” (2011, 8′)
(music and video : F.A) with Loré Lixenberg (mezzo-soprano)
– Phill Niblock : V & LSG H (2015, 22′), with Phill Niblock, Guy de Bievre (lap steel guitar) and Loré Lixenberg (mezzo-soprano)
BIOS:
Frédéric Acquaviva, experimental music composer born in 1967 in France, living in Berlin since 2012. He has composed 30 works since 1990 and released 20 monographic CDs for Al Dante, Casus Belli, as well as books or multiples. He gives concerts ou sound installations in galleries (Lara Vincy, Paris; White Box, New York; Black Box, Copenhagen; Galleria Peccolo, Livorno….), museums (Weserburg Museum, Bremen; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Palais de Tokyo, Paris…) or alternative places (Phill Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia, New York; Pauline Oliveros’s Deep Listening Institute, New York; Emily Harvey Foundation, New York; The Old Police Station, Londres; Teatro de la Fenice,Venezia; Palazzo Bertalazone, Torino; Donjon de Maîtresse Cindy, Paris; Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich; Casa Wangalwa, Iwanda, Kenya, XP in Beijing…). His work has been longly commentated by Franck Mallet Introducing : Frédéric Acquaviva in magazine Art Press in october 2012 and is part of the collections of soundworks of Bibliothèque Kandinsky in Centre Pompidou Museum. The composer Denis Dufour invited him in 2012 to give a masterclass at Conservatoire of Paris, as well as a serie of concerts, including the french creation of his opera-world Aatie with mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg and older pieces with texts and voices of poets and writers Pierre Guyotat, F.J Ossang and Jean-Luc Parant. Acquaviva has also orchestrated and realised the lettrist symphonies of Isidore Isou, Gabriel Pomerand Maurice Lemaître and curated the first international retrospective of Gil J Wolman (MACBA, Barcelona…) as well as twenty other exhibitions, done videos on sound poets Henri Chopin or Bernard Heidsieck as well as books on Jacques Spacagna, Isidore Isou or Maurice Lemaître and created his own editions where he published books of Philip Corner, Otto Muehl, Joël Hubaut, Marcel Hanoun, Maria Faustino, Alain Satié, Loré Lixenberg, François Poyet, Paul-Armand Gette or Broutin…
Born in the UK Loré Lixenberg’s career began with Theatre de Complicite, working with Simon Mcburney on ‘Out of a House Walked a Man’ for the National Theatre that used texts by the Soviet writer Daniil Harms. Following this, her work spans from performing on concert platforms and opera scenes to new installations and vocals performances with experimental visual and sound artists (Stelarc, Bruce Mclean, David Toop). She has worked with and performed the works of composers such as Georges Aperghis, Bent Soerensen, Helmut Oehring, Mark-Anthony Turnage, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Beat Furrer, Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell-Davies, Earle Brown, Luc Ferrari and Gerald Barry in contemporary music festivals worldwide. She premiered the role of Ida in ‘Under Himlen’ by Soerensen for the Danish Royal Opera and in 2011 and 2014 the role of Cousin Shelly in ‘Anna Nicole’ of Turnage for The Royal Opera Covent Garden. She also premiered ‘As I Am’ by Dai Fujikura with EIC, also performing a Luciano Berio programme with them, conducted by Susanna Maalki and performing the same work at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo where she also gave a Fujikura/Schubert recital with Andrew West for ‘La Folle Journee’. She premiered ‘Aatie’ by Frederic Acquaviva at La Fenice in Venice where she was in residency at to prepare her own post-shamanic work ‘Bird’ using hyper-extentions of the voice. Lixenberg has premiered soundworks by the creator of Lettrism Isidore Isou and directed a version of ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ using multi-vocal disciplines both in London and Copenhagen. In London she curated the UK premiere of the Lettrist poets Lemaitre, Poyet and Broutin. She is director-residence for the Copenhagen based physical music theatre group SCENATET for whom she also directed Mauricio Kagel’s ‘Staatstheater’ for the SPOR festival and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ by Aperghis in Copenhagen, supported by the DIVA residency programme. She directed the UK premiere of ‘Staatstheater’ by Kagel at the University of Durham and The Sage, Gateshead where she also directed ‘Anticredos’ by Trevor Wishart, ‘Récitations’ by Aperghis and ‘A-Ronne’ by Berio. She collaborates regularly with New Music Projects Wien, with whom she created performances based on the writings of the patients at Gugging and the ancient texts of the plainchant ‘Osterspiel’ and ‘Song of Songs’ for Schloss Wolkersdorf and Stift Klosterneuberg. She regularly performs with the award winning avant-garde performance group ‘Apartment House’ and has been performing John Cage’s music, in particular ‘Aria’, ‘Songbooks’ and the ‘Europeras’ since 1992. In 2004 she performed John Cage ‘Aria’ to critical acclaim for the London Symphony Orchestra Cage Festival and performed the Bayreuth premiere of this work in 2011. 2012 she recorded the premiere of the complete Cage’s ‘Songbooks’ for Sub Rosa on CD, with Gregory Rose and Rob Worby and Acquaviva’s ‘Aatie’ on CD/DVD, that she also performed at Deep Listening Festival, Kingston and Phill Niblock Experimental Intermedia Gallery, New York. She recently performed her own compositions ‘The End Of Civilisation As We Know It’ and ‘Bird’ at Ikon Gallery, ‘Adipose‘ at Spitalfields Festival, London and is working on her new project ‘Insect’. She will be touring Europe with a programm devoted to the link of avant-garde movements and music in the XXth century : ‘Manifesto’ and be directing ‘Infinito Nero‘ by Sciarrino for SCENATET. She will also be singing the role of Judith in Bartok’s ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ in the UK. She also published her first artis book ‘Memory Maps’ and her first monographic CD ‘The afternoon of a phone’ (£@B), continuing project with ‘Kafka Fragments‘ with violinist Aisha Orezbayeva. She will be recording song cycles with Brodsky String Quartet for Chandos in 2015 and singing the title role in ‘The Mother‘ by Laurence Osborn for the Opera Group, as well as creating ‘Looking for courage‘, a new opera by Niels Ronshold and Zhang Lin in China , ‘Loré Ipsum‘ by Acquaviva and new pieces by Pauline Oliveros and Phill Niblock.
Katherine Liberovskaya is a video and media artist based in Montreal, Canada, and New York City. Involved in experimental video since the 80s, she has produced many single-channel videos, video installation works and video performances which have been presented at a wide variety of artistic venues and events around the world. Since 2001 her work predominantly focuses on collaborations with composers and sound artists notably in live video+sound performance where her live visuals seek to create improvisatory “music” for the eyes. Frequent collaborators include Phill Niblock, Al Margolis/If,Bwana, Leslie Ross, Zanana, Kristin Norderval, Hitoshi Kojo, David Watson, David First and o.blaat (Keiko Uenishi). Since 2003 she has explored improvised video with numerous artists including: Monique Buzzarte, Anne Wellmer, Tom Hamilton, Margarida Garcia, Manuel Mota, Anthony Coleman, Barry Weisblat, Mazen Kerbaj, murmer, André Gonçalves, Giuseppe Ielasi, Alessandro Bossetti, Andre Eric Letourneau, Jason Khan, Jim Bell, David Grollman, Doug Van Nort, among many others. Recent projects have involved: Leslie Ross, Shelley Hirsch, Chantal Dumas, Richard Garet, Dorit Chrysler, Emilie Mouchous, Erin Sexton, Corinne Rene and Philippe Lauzier, and Guy De Bievre. Recent solo projects include the audiovisual installations “sonimaginations tissulaires” (2014), “NoizeBreeze” (2014), “Air-Play” (2013), “Amplifontana” (2012) and “Shines” (2008-09). Concurrently she curates and organizes the Screen Compositions evenings at Experimental Intermedia, NYC, since 2005 and, since 2006, the OptoSonic Tea salons at Diapason, NYC, and in various locations in Europe and elsewhere with OptoSonic Tea On the Road. In 2014 she completed a PhD in art practice entitled “Improvisatory Live Visuals: Playing Images Like a Musical Instrument” at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Phill Niblock is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video and computers. He makes thick, loud drones of music, filled with microtones of instrumental timbres which generate many other tones in the performance space. Simultaneously, he presents films / videos which look at the movement of people working, slides, or computer driven black and white abstract images floating through time. He was born in Indiana in 1933. Since the mid-60’s he has been making music and intermedia performances which have been shown at numerous venues around the world. Since 1985, he has been the director of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York where he has been an artist/member since 1968. He is the producer of Music and Intermedia presentations at EI since 1973 (about 1000 performances) and the curator of EI’s XI Records label. In 1993 was formed an Experimental Intermedia organization in Gent, Belgium – EI v.z.w. Gent – to support the artist-in-residence house and installations there. Niblock has no formal musical training. His minimalistic drone approach to composition and music was inspired by the musical and atistic activities of New York in the 1960s (from the art of Mark Rothko, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Robert Morris to the music of John Cage and Morton Feldman’s Durations pieces). Niblock’s music is an exploration of sound textures created by multiple tones in very dense, often atonal tunings (generally microtonal in conception) performed in long durations. The layering of long tones only very slightly distinct in pitch creates a multitude of beats and generates complex overtone patterns and other fascinating psychoacoustic effects. The combination of apparently static surface textures and extremely active harmonic movement generates a highly original music that, while having things in common with early drone-based Minimalism, is utterly distinct in sound and technique. Niblock’s work continues to influence a generation of musicians, especially younger players from a variety of musical genres. Much of his pieces are based on collaborations with specific musicians. Over the years he has thus worked with a large number of the most diverse players including: Susan Stenger, Robert Poss, Jim O’Rourke, Ulrich Krieger, Seth Josel, Tom Buckner, and many others. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage award. His music is available on the XI, Moikai, Mode Records, and Touch labels. A double-DVD of films and music, lasting nearly four hours, is available on the Extreme label.
www.phillniblock.com
www.experimentalintermedia.org
ANNA HOMLER, is a vocal, visual and performance artist based in Los Angeles. She has performed and exhibited her work in venues around the world. With a sensibility that is both ancient and post-modern, Homler’s work explores alternative means of communication and the poetics of ordinary things. She creates perceptual interventions by using language as music and objects as instruments.Since 1982 she has collaborated in America with composer/musicians Steve Moshier, David Moss, Ethan James (d), Steve Roden, and Steve Peters; and in Europe, with the Voices of Kwahn, Steve Beresford, Peter Kowald(d), Frank Schulte, Richard Sanderson, Geert Waegeman, and Sylvia Hallett, among others. HOMLER has performed at well-known venues throughout the United States and Europe, including appearances at P.S. 122, the Kitchen, Dixon Place, and The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in New York; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (L.A.C.E.); Supraclub in Prague; Klarinsky in Bratislava, Slovakia; Ketty Dó in Bologna, Italy; the Stadgarten and the Loft in Köln, Germany; and the Melkweg and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. HOMLER’s music first became known in the 1980s with her Breadwoman cassette (High Performance Audio), a collaboration with Steve Moshier. Her debut album, Dó Ya Sá di Dó (AMF), was released in 1992. In 1994 she was featured on Sugarconnection: Alien Cake (No Man’s Land) and in 1995 on Macaronic Sines (Lowlands), a collaboration with Geert Waegeman and Pavel Fajt. In the mid-1990s, she released two albums with the Voices of Kwahn in the United Kingdom: S ilver Bowl T ransmission (North/ South) and P eninsular Enclosure (Swarf Finger). In 1997 a recording of her live performance with Waegeman and Fajt was released as Corne de Vache (Victo). H ouse of H ands (ND) was released in 2000, and in 2005, K elpland S erenades (pfMENTUM) with Steuart Liebig, and Piewacket (PNT) with Stephanie Payne. Her duo-project with Sylvia Hallett, The Many Moods of Bread and Shed (Orchestra Pit Recording Co.) was released in 2012. On her most recent album, released in 2014, H ere & H ere & H ere (pfMENTUM) she performs as part of the Michael Vlatkovich quintet.
Guy De Bièvre (born in Brussels, Belgium in 1961) is a composer, musician, teacher and theorist. As a teenager he briefly dabbled in punk rock and new wave experiments, but soon moved onto free improvisation. When this also became unsatisfying he resolutely chose to funnel his musical ideas into experimental composition. Having never been academically trained he enjoyed the freedom to integrate and combine ideas coming from different horizons, ancient, “classical”, experimental, jazz, or non Western musics, but also 20th century visual arts. His early works (1980s) suggested a conceptual postmodernism, relying on statistical organization and collage. These works were often fully notated and by the end of the century, in a desire to tap into the potential of certain performers he had had the chance to collaborate with, he started adding more interpretative freedom to his works. This resolute choice for open form is to this day dominating his creative output. It was also the main subject of the PhD he obtained at Brunel University, London. So far his music has been commissioned and/or performed internationally by the likes of Anne la Berge, Peter Zummo, JD Parran, Champ d’Action, November Music, Festival für zeitgenössische Musik & Kunst im Ruhrgebiet, Het muziek Lod, Seth Josel, Guy Klucevsek, Annette Sachs, The Bozza Mansion Project, Théatre Européen de Musique Vivante, BrückenMusik, Zivatar Trio, Zwerm, Orla Barry, WDR Koeln, Z33, Ensemble Intégrales and many others. He published texts on Phill Niblock, Charlemagne Palestine, John Cage, Nicolas Collins and sound art. He has also been active as a Sound Art curator in Gent, Enschede and Brussels (where he ran his own Earwitness series). He is teaching at the radio department of RITS (Erasmus College, Brussels) and has in the past been a visiting teacher at TU Berlin, KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Gent), Brunel University, Academy of Fine Arts of Saarbrücken,D, SEAM (Weimar,D) and a number of other schools.
As a performer (guitar, lap steel, computer and live digital and analog electronics) he collaborated with Phill Niblock, Peter Zummo, Anne Welmer, Michael Weilacher, Tom Hamilton, Anne La Berge, Trio Scordatura, a.o.. His music was published on various (Japanese, American, British and Italian) CD labels and was broadcast internationally).
