False Harmonics #28: Currawong Project

featuring Matthias Kriesberg, Kevin Larke, Han Chen, Arseniy Gusev, Asiya Korepanova, Nicolas Namoradze, Élisabeth Pion, Huei Lin For the 28th iteration of False Harmonics, Pioneer Works is excited to present the Currawong Project: a new generation of pianists, for whom there is no wall between the revered works of the canon and the most demanding works of our time. Five renowned concert artists—Han Chen, Arseniy Gusev, Asiya Korepanova, Nicolas Namoradze, and Élisabeth Pion—circulate among three technology-enhanced Steinway Spirio | r concert grands to present get used to it man thats the way we live now, a new composition by Matthias Kriesberg, accompanied by electronics by Kevin Larke and video art by Huei Lin, in homage to Alexander Scriabin. In this performance, computers are deployed not only to transform instrumental sound, but to analyze unique aspects of performance in real time, applying collected data to modulate the electronic sound world. These "dynamic transforms" embed within a piece its own performance history, evolving from one interpretation to the next. In the first half of the program, get used to it man thats the way we live now unfolds over the course of 90 fragments heard without interruption, played by the five pianists moving from one piano to another. At various times during the performance, radically experimental works by Scriabin are interpolated without warning within the fabric of the Kriesberg work. After intermission, the five pianists open with Scriabin works from the composer's much earlier output. Then follows another version of get used to it man thats the way we live now—radically different, this time for multiple pianos and pianists all in action at once. revealing vastly different harmonies, dynamics and electronic transforms. Simultaneous with the performances, a single, long-unfolding work by filmmaker Huei Lin will be projected within the audience's sight lines. Recursive video loops and deconstructed images cohere into a single narrative, serving as both a mirror and a response to the music. About the project Currawong Project is a nonprofit organization committed to developing a new musical practice described as dynamic music—music that is at once highly innovative, viscerally exciting, and more proximate to how we in modern societies live. Through the composition and research at the confluence of three resources—performer virtuosity, new modes of presentation, and advanced digital sound technologies––the group proposes a new form of dynamic interaction between performer and technology: sound transformation as the product of virtuosity yet largely beyond the conscious control of the performer. Virtuosity becomes a generative force. Learn more about Currawong Project on their website.