13.00, Wednesday 6th March 2024 – Dome Rehearsal Room, The Bramall, University of Birmingham
The Crows – Dhorn Taksinwarajan
Pukpukan – Danny Imson
Glacier Song – Graeme Dyck
Efímero
Programme Notes
The Crows – Dhorn Taksinwarajan
This piece is an exploration of three colliding realities. The recorded sound of bird songs of Bangkok, synthesized representations, and acoustical recreations through piano. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, The piece uses the sound of crows in Bangkok to tell an abstract story and perhaps some subtle audible illusions jumping between the three parallel realities presented throughout.
Pukpukan – Danny Imson
for multichannel playback and bamboo bird whistles.
Pukpukan in the tagalog Philippine language translates to a collective act of hitting which came from the root word pukpok (to hit). This work features samples of vocal and Philippine percussion instruments (sarunay toy gongs and bungkaka bamboo buzzers) that creates a soundscape metaphorically expressing personal and communal dissensions. The recurring patterns of sound materials mimics the countless events of being trapped in a cycle of stagnation while the assemblage of bird whistles symbolises calls for hope and justice.
Various Philippine percussions: Danny Imson
Vocalist: The Rox Perez
Glacier Song – Graeme Dyck
Glacier Song evokes the varied sonic forms of ice and snow, while drawing attention to the shift from ice to water as the Earth’s glaciers liquify. Solid blocks of sound melt into Ravel’s Miroirs No. 3; ice breaks from the coast to become ‘Une barque sur l’océan.’
Efímero
Efímero is a livepatching project developed by Colombian composers Jorge Gregorio Garcia Moncada and Santiago Lozano with modular synthesizers and multichannel live spatialization with the BLAST system. The nature of the instruments in play poses two main challenges: the impermanence of the work due to the constant mutation of the sound materials and the organicity as the main objective in an electro-electronic environment.
Biographies
Dhorn Taksinwarajan
Dhorn is a Thai pianist and improviser. Beginning his musical journey on the piano at a young age, he has since then continuously grown fond of music making, sound recording and soundscaping, and improvisation. His works are often a combined effort of various disciplines such as visual art, moving images, music, and poetry in live performances.
He recently co-curated and performed “Bangkok-Bangkrob” (Bangkok Through Crusty Frames), a multi-media music performance hosted by Bangkok Art and Cultural Center (BACC) 10th Performative Art Project as a half of a duo under the name Pink Sky Orcas. Interested in exploring and communicating the current events in the society.
Currently studying master of music program at Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music (PGVIM), while being a regular participant in PGVIM’s International Symposium since 2015. Dhorn has been endorsed, encouraged, and supported generously in most occasions with opportunities for exposure.
Danny Imson
Danny Imson (b. 1983) is a Singapore-based Filipino composer who is currently teaching composition and music technology at the School of the Arts Singapore. Danny has presented his works in various music festivals and competitions such as the Impuls Academy in Graz, Cheltenham Music Festival in UK, Austria, Donaueschinger Musiktage in Germany, and the Synthetis International Summer Music Course in Poland. Among the masterclasses he attended include mentorship with Bernhard Lang, Chaya Czernowin, Chen Yi and Beat Furrer. He was awarded the highest prize by the Goethe-Institut Singapore at the Young Composers in Southeast Asia Competition and Festival.
Danny earned his honours degree in composition under the studio of Dr. Peter Ivan Edwards at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore and his science degree in commerce major in Management from Saint Louis University. He is currently pursuing his MA/PhD research in composition under the guidance of Dr. Scott Wilson at the University of Birmingham.
Danny is an active member of the Sari-sari Philippine Kulintang ensemble in Singapore and the choral conductor of a Singapore-based Filipino choir, the Psalmideo Chorale
Graeme Dyck
Graeme Dyck is a Canadian musician and writer. He is currently an MA student at the University of Birmingham studying electroacoustic composition
Jorge Gregorio García Moncada
Jorge Gregorio García Moncada is an electroacoustic composer, full time faculty member of the Music Department at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, focused on a diversity of teaching and research activities in the fields of music composition and theory. He is founder and director of the BLAST system – Bogotá, Los Andes Sound Theatre –, a multichannel sound diffusion system for performance of electroacoustic and mixed media musical works. He is director of the SPECTRA international electroacoustic music festival, based in Bogotá and hosted by BLAST. Alongside Colombian composer and performer Santiago Lozano is member of the duet Efímero, an experimental music ensemble focused in exploring the relation between analogue and digital synthesis, signal processing and sound spatialization.
Santiago Lozano
Santiago Lozano is a full-time faculty member and dean of the music department at Los Andes University. As a composer, Santiago’s focus lies in exploring the interplay between various art forms and utilizing technology as a means of creative expression. His research and works revolve around multimedia and transmedia.
Santiago’s research explore the artistic and musical expressions of social and political conflicts in his country. He deals with sensitive subjects such as forced displacement, war crimes, and inequality in a creative multidisciplinary process.