Gaudeamus Muziekweek encompasses a wide range of musical styles and media, and January 26 will feature Dutch electronic musician Wouter Snoei, an authority on 192-channel “wave-field” synthesis techniques. New York-based electronic artist Matthew Ostrowski will also perform, as well as the duo R WE WHO R WE, a collaboration between New York composer-performers Philip White & Ted Hearne.
R Who We R We is an ongoing collaboration by composer-performers Ted Hearne (voice) and Philip White (electronics). We deconstruct assertions of identity in pop music. We dissect songs by Michael Jackson, Ke$ha, Eminem and others, subjecting them to arbitrary processes applied to both lyrical and sonic elements. Measures are reordered, lyrics are alphabetized, the backup choir is given the solo mic; garbled lyrics become absurd poems couched in profundity, melodies from the processed text become vocal lines, those vocal lines become control voltages in a chaotic electronic feedback system; four-on-the-floor endures, autotune abounds.
Wouter Snoei studied at the Institute of Sonology (Royal Conservatoire of The Hague). He worked in various fields of music practice, all involving electronic music. Wouter was sound director in several performances of electro-acoustic pieces by Luigi Nono, John Cage and Gérard Grisey. He works regularly with Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, ASKO Kamerkoor and VocalLab. Wouter also performed with Jasper Blom and other jazz artists at the North Sea Jazz festival, and as a dance producer in many Dutch club venues.
In the past few years Wouters focus has shifted more and more towards composition and performance of solo live electronics and electro-acoustic music, adding live control as part of electronic composition. His recent piece Particles for reed instruments and live electronics was performed by Calefax Reedquintet in 2007. Furthermore Wouter is involved as composer and developer of Wave Field Synthesis, a spatial sound system involving 192 loudspeakers placed around an audience, and as a teacher at the Utrecht School of Arts and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. BVHaast released a CD entitled Tactile with a cross-section of his work in April 2009.
New York City native, Matthew Ostrowski is a pioneer in live electronic arts, having worked as a composer, performer and installation artist for over 20 years, exploring work with alternative controllers, multimedia, and theater. An unreconstructed formalist, he has had a continuing interest in density of microevents, rapid change, and using technology to stretch the bounds of perception and experience. He has worked with a broad range of artists, from a boatload of international improvisors, to choreographer Elizabeth Streb, to the Flying Karamazov Brothers juggling troupe. He has been a recipient of a NYFA Fellowship in Digital Arts, and has developed audio and video software for dozens of artists in interactive video, extended musical instruments, sound installations, show control systems, and interactive juggling pins.
His work has been seen or performed on six continents, including the Wien Modern Festival, the Kraków Audio Art Festival, Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, PS 1 and The Kitchen in New York , the Rencontres Internationales video festival in Madrid, Yokohama's dis_locate Festival, and Unyazi, the first festival of electronic music on the African continent. He appears on over a dozen recordings.
From 1993 to 2000, he lived in the Netherlands, studying at the Institute of Sonology in the Hague from 1993-1995. There he developed new live techniques with digital electronics, as well as using computers for interactive sensor arrays, machine control, and interactive audio installations. He remained there several years thereafter, working as a freelance composer and performer, as well as developing a relationship with STEIM, writing the manual for the world's first live sampling software, LiSa, and developing the electroinstrumental approach that continues to characterize his live work to this day.
