focus: default #8 – 01.10.2023 with Valerio Tricoli, Angelina Nonaj, [ _ _ _ ] (Shuoxin Tan, Jia Liu, Li Song), and Li Song
The first part of our upcoming two-day program is happening on Sunday the 1st of October with performances by Valerio Tricoli, Angelina Nonaj, [ _ _ _ ] (Shuoxin Tan, Jia Liu, Li Song ) and Li Song.
On Sunday the 1st of October*, we are returning to the Grey Space in the Middle to present performances by electro-acoustic music composer and reel-to-reel performer Valerio Tricoli, the network music ensemble [ _ _ _ ] (Shuoxin Tan, Jia Liu, Li Song ), a reading performance by transdisciplinary artist Angelina Nonaj, and a solo performance by Li Song.
In this focus newsletter, we would like to share with you a selection of works made by the artists set to perform.
*this event is part of a two-day program that default den haag is hosting on the first two days of October. more information can be found here.
Valerio Tricoli
Valerio Tricoli is a composer and performer of electro-acoustic music. Since the mid '00 his main instrument for live presentations is the Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder, used as a completely analogue / ergonomic device for live sampling and real-time transformation / editing / mixing of pre-recorded (field or studio recordings) and made-on-the-spot sound sources, the latter usually being vocalizations (including speech and singing), small acoustic and electronic instruments, objects, the amplified sound of the room itself in which the concert takes place and - in the case of group sets - whatever is produced by the fellow musicians. On a formal level his sets focus on the impromptu creation of a narrative which takes into account the multiple relations intervening between reality, virtuality and memory during the acoustic event.
His electro-acoustic studio compositions are aligned to the tradition of Musique Concrète and explore themes of the internal - represented both by the psychological and the physical - and of the occult, which together with the large use of spoken text makes them often deeply existential works, self-investigations of the psychological, emotional and irrational horror within.
Over the years Valerio has been active in some long-term collaboration with other musicians, composers, theatre directors - notably within the Residenz Theater in Munich -, choreographers and multimedia artists. He is a founding member of the Italian avant-rock group 3/4HadBeenEliminated and has been working extensively with Thomas Ankersmit, Werner Dafeldecker, Hanno Leichmann, Ecka Mordecai, Anthony Pateras. His work has been published by labels such as Pan, Shelter Press, Entr'acte and Die Schachtel.
a selection of recommended works includes:
Say Goodbye To The Wind
(Shelter Press, 2022)
Total Recall (from the Tutto A Posto Niente In Ordine compilation)
(Nashazphone, 2023)
Mordecoli - Château Mordécoly (together with Ecka Mordecai)
(A L T E R, 2023)
Other releases include Der Krater (with Werner Dafeldecker, 2023), Forma II (with Thomas Ankersmit, 2011), Miseri Lares (2014), Clonic Earth (2016), Cantor Park (with Stefano Pilia, 2023), La Casa Delle Chimere (with Hanno Leichtmann, 2018) and the recently released A Circle of Grey (2023).
[ _ _ _ ] (Shuoxin Tan, Jia Liu, Li Song)
“Three placeholders sitting in a room between empty spaces.” This is how the ensemble [ _ _ _ ] describes itself. It was founded in 2020 by the artists Li Song, Shuoxin Tan and Jia Liu, to compose music for the network. Li Song is a musician and computer programmer based in London. He composes music for computers and acoustic instruments. Shuoxin Tan was born in Beijing and works as a composer and sound artist in Cologne. She researches algorithmic acoustics, sound ontology and Lacanian topology. Jia Liu is a composer and computer music performer. She lives in Karlsruhe and is currently working on algorithmic music and composition for autonomous systems.
The three members share the same interest in algorithmic acoustics and composition, SuperCollider and live coding. Can algorithms be collaborative? What happens when the Borromean knot is applied to network structures for collaborative algorithmic composition?
Both in their solo-work and ensemble performances, they often play “unamplified’, using only laptop speakers or other small loudspeakers set-ups. With a different listening mode and sensitivity then most often associated with this realm of music, they bring a personal take on (collaborative) algorithmic computer music.
[ _ _ _ ]
(Superpang, 2022)
On Monday the 2nd of October, the ensemble will give an accompanying talk on ‘collaboration and communication through network music’ at default#9. This event takes place at the Central Library and is organised in collaboration with 3345 The Hague. More information can be found here.
Li Song
Li Song is a musician and computer programmer based in London. In his recent performances and recordings he often uses a laptop with built-in speakers, suspended speakers, snare drums, metronome and paper tapes. His first solo album, ‘Two Snare Drums’, was released on double 3 inch mini CD by the UK label Infant Tree in 2022. His collaborations have appeared on labels such as Zoomin' Night, SUPERPANG, Ftarri and presses précaires.
a selection of recommended works includes:
Two Snare Drums
(Infant Tree, 2022)
No Performance (Li Song & Zhu Wenbo) - Text
(Zoomin' Night, 2021)
Maeda Yasuyuki & Li Song - 28th Dec, Arakawa
(Ftarri, 2023)
Other releases include ‘two rooms’ (mengting zhuo & li song, 2023), ‘Music for Snare Drums and Portable Speakers’ (Conal Blake / Regan Bowering / Li Song, 2023) and ‘Two Laptops’ (Maeda Yasuyuki & Li Song, 2022).
Angelina Nonaj
A. Nonaj (1992, they/many/non-binary) is a transdisciplinary artist currently based between Italy and the Netherlands. Their practice moves non-linearly across media, encompassing photography, reading-performances, installations, lyrical writing and forms of publica(c)tions. Exploring the dynamic correspondency between embodied experience and affective relations, their work questions the boundaries in which perception and meaning, sense and sense-making meet and exchange, speculating on how movements in-between can offer and generate new dialogues on knowing otherwise. Their work has been presented at boox.space (NL), NO MAN’S ART gallery (NL), ...ism project space (NL), The Grey Space in The Middle (NL) (among others). At default#8, Angelina will present a special reading performance.
from Angelina:
bi, o
I am interested in the ways my embodied experience informs the who that I am and the how in which I know. If identity and knowledge are both fluid carriers of affective information, then translating and transmitting this material back into a shared context (my environment) becomes a gesture of ethical value. Affect is atmospheric. It rains when I am sad.
In my practice I am attracted by the undomesticated modalities in which knowledges form and perform. I research these wild forms through the use of hybrid methodologies and non-linear narratives in which seemingly distant media can find mutual ways to converse and correlate. Identifying myselves as a more-than-one (‘I am a community’) I am attracted by trans-contextual approaches to thinking and creating, where plural subjectivities like the ones I embody can feel free to emerge and correspond with/in their environment.
We recommend to listen to ‘paradoxically perhaps’, a collection of their personal Soundcloud uploads here.
other collaborative audioworks include: