The evening will feature solo live electronic sets by Lucia H Chung and Bill Thompson, and the trio 3BP (Adam Pultz Melbye, Paul Stapleton and John Bowers)
Lucia H Chung is a Taiwanese experimental artist based in London. Performs and releases music under the alias ‘en creux’ where the sound creation springs from their fascinations in noise generated via feedback on digital and analogue equipment, and their role as a ‘mediator-performer’ in the multifaceted relationship between the sonic events incurring within the self-regulated system. ‘Fuzz comes alive, moving at odd angles like the sinuous threads are being chased by a series of subatomic bleeps and flashes. Tension rises as the tempo picks up, fueling the disjointed rhythmic quality within each sterile, self-contained unit.’ – Fox Digitalis
Born in and of the pandemic as a networked trio of improvisers, 3BP are now playing their first gigs together. 3BP (for Three-Body Problem):
Adam Pultz Melbye: FAAB (Feedback Actuated Augmented Double Bass)
Paul Stapleton: VOLA (Volatile Assemblage of resonators, strings, synthesizers, turntable, etc)
John Bowers: room feedback, synthesizers, Pure Data patches
Adam Pultz Melbye is a double bass player, composer, and improviser working in the field of acoustic and electronic sound. Adam’s work spans live performance, sound installations, sound for dance, theatre, film, multimedia, sculpture, algorithmic design, and instrument building, and has been performed and exhibited in Europe, Australia, the US, and Japan. They often perform with semi-autonomous feedback systems, such as the FAAB (Feedback-Actuated Augmented Bass)—a feedback double bass created in collaboration with Halldòr Ùlfarsson. Adam is currently finishing a PhD in music at SARC, Queen’s University Belfast, is the author of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers, and the guest-editor of a special issue feedback practices for the ECHO journal at Orpheus Institute in Gent, Belgium. https://www.adampultz.com/
Paul Stapleton is an improviser and sound artist originally from Southern California. He is currently Professor of Music at SARC, Queen’s University Belfast, where he researchers the design, adaptation and exploration of musical instruments, often in improvisational contexts. Paul performs with his handmade inventions and other musical collaborators in locations ranging from Echtzeitmusik venues in Berlin to the annual NIME conference. He is particularly interested in how improvising bodies (broadly conceived) are constituted and entangled in wider musical ecologies. Paul co-directed the AHRC-funded network Humanising Algorithmic Listening, and has co-led previous funded interdisciplinary research projects on topics ranging from the relationship between music improvisation and law, to the study of ecological dynamics between musicians and virtual-acoustic instruments. He is also currently the director of Sonorities Festival Belfast, a biennial festival of sound and music. http://www.paulstapleton.net/
John Bowers works with modular synthesisers, home-brew electronics, feedback systems, self-made software, field recordings, esoteric sensor systems, experimental film, and spoken text. He often combines performance with walking and the investigation of selected sites to research an imagined discipline he calls ‘mythogeosonics’. He has performed at festivals including the Venice Biennale, Experimental Intermedia New York, Transmediale/CTM Vorspiel Berlin, Piksel Bergen, Electropixel Nantes, BEAM London, Aldeburgh Festival and Spill Ipswich, and toured with the Rambert Dance Company performing David Tudor’s music to Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest. He contributed to the design of The Prayer Companion – a piece exhibited twice at the Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, and acquired for their permanent collection. He has just launched a personal record label, https://unlanded.bandcamp.com/
Bill Thompson is a sound artist and composer. He performs regularly as a soloist as well as in a number of groups including The Seen, zerøspace, and Airfield (with Ian Spink), and duos with Phil Durrant, Phil Maguire, Richard Sanderson and Yoni Silver. Past collaborations include performances with Keith Rowe, Faust, EXAUDI and others.
Although originally trained as a guitarist, Thompson has worked with live electronics for the better part of 15 years. In recent years he has returned to guitar using one built by Moog combining it with electronics with miscellaneous table top devices, found objects, flashing lights, and the occasional vibrator.
He has earned numerous awards and commissions including the PRS for New Music ATOM award, the GAVAA visual arts award, a PRS for New Music Three Festival commission, the 2010 Aberdeen Visual Arts Award, and was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Award.
www.billthompson.org
