Reviewing

Live Sound Processing

This evening will be to explore and discuss various live sound processing strategies through performance, lecture and presentation, and gives participants a foundation for developing their own work. The lecture/presentation will be taught by Dafna Naphtali, who uses live sound processing in her work since 1995, and will start with a performance by a trio that also includes Robert Dick (flutes) and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion). A Harvestworks 35th Anniversary Event!

A HARVESTWORKS 35th ANNIVERSARY EVENT

Live Sound Processing Strategies

Dafna Naphtali with Robert Dick & Satoshi Takeishi
Saturday, May 12 2012, 7pm
FREE

Location:
Harvestworks – www.harvestworks.org
596 Broadway, #602 | New York, NY 10012 | Phone: 212-431-1130
Subway: F/M/D/B Broadway/Lafayette, R Prince, 6 Bleeker

“Live Sound Processing” is used to alter and affect the sounds of other instruments in performance, which in turn becomes its own unique voice in the musical process. Addressing the electroacoustic environment of the performance space allows for a site-specific version of the piece through a complex sampling and spatialization process. While the difference between live sound processing and other electronic music practices has perplexed the audiences in the past, these days the role of the live sound processor is much more understood. With faster laptops and more widespread use and availability of classic live sound processing as plugins, these techniques have gradually become more acceptable, and in some music genres practically expected. Both performers and audiences have become more savvy about the techniques and sounds.

This evening will be to explore and discuss various live sound processing strategies through performance, lecture and presentation, and gives participants a foundation for developing their own work. The lecture/presentation will be taught by Dafna Naphtali, who uses live sound processing in her work since 1995, and will start with a performance by a trio that also includes Robert Dick (flutes) and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion).

Dafna Naphtali has been performing since 1995 with “live sound processing” as one of her instruments, along with her singing and extended vocal techniques. She is not just processing her own sound, but that of all the other participants in her ensembles, and in many of the ensembles that she has formed or participated in. Via her own custom Max/MSP programming and some advanced control of an Eventide H-3000 sound processor, she creates a unique sound and electro-acoustic voice to her ensembles, making use of filtering, delay, and feedback under her tight control to create polyrhythmic musical interjections and textures. Much of the techniques she developed were born out of musical necessity. Her need to act as a full musical partner in an ensemble meant she had to create ways to interact with many musical parameters even as she was playing feedback and manipulated clips of other people’s sound — so she used polyrhythmic metronomes, Morse Code and incoming audio signals as control sources as well as more traditional controllers, and as her music has transformed and grown, so has her programming. Interactive elements create more “control intimacy” for the performer (over the audio processes) and hopefully translated into more excitement for an audience and importantly, a listener unaware of how exactly the sounds are being created. http://www.dafna.info/

(photographer: Scott Friedlander)

With equally deep roots in classical music old and new and in free improvisation and new jazz, Robert Dick has established himself as an artist who has not only mastered, but redefined the flute. Known worldwide for creating revolutionary visions of the flute’s musical role, listening to Robert Dick play solo has been likened to the experience of hearing a full orchestra. As one of the flute world’s most respected masterclass teachers, Robert Dick has been in residence in literally hundreds of universities, colleges and conservatories throughout the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. His performances typically include flute (with his invention, the Glissando Headjoint®)piccolo, alto flute, and bass flutes in C and F. On special occasions, he’ll bring out the giant, stand-up contrabass flute. http://www.robertdick.net/

Satoshi Takeishi, drummer, percussionist, and arranger has studied at Berklee College of Music. He developed an interest in the music of South America and went to live in Colombia, eventually performing with the Bogota symphony orchestra to do a series of concerts honoring the music of the most popular composer in Colombia, Lucho Bermudes. His interest expanded to the rhythms and melodies of the middle east where he studied and performed with Armenian-American oud master Joe Zeytoonian. Since moving to New York in 1991 he has performed and recorded with many musicians such as Ray Barretto, Carlos “Patato” Valdes, Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson, Eddie Gomez, Randy Brecker, Dave Liebman, Anthony Braxton, Mark Murphy, Herbie Mann, Paul Winter Consort, Rabih Abu Khalil, Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band, Erik Friedlander and Pablo Ziegler to name a few. He continues to explore multi-cultural, electronics and improvisational music. http://home.earthlink.net/~takeishi/id1.html

[flickr_set id=”72157630566590080″]

Dafna Naphtali

Dafna Naphtali is a sound-artist, electronic-musician
composer/performer and singer. She creates works for multi-channel audio, musical
robots, and interactive soundwalks, drawing on her eclectic musical background
(jazz, rock, gospel, contemporary classical, experimental improvisation) in work
with musicians and video artists in the US and abroad. Projects and recordings
include “Landmine” an interactive work for pianist Kathleen Supové on Disklavier
piano with live processing on “Ear to Ivory” (Starkland 2019), as well as “What is
it Like to be a Bat?” digital punk trio w/Kitty Brazelton (Tzadik), “Pulsing Dot”
duo with Gordon Beeferman and “We Q” with Austrian saxophonist Edith Lettner (both
on Clang label), “Microcosmopolitan” with Chatter Blip duo (with Chuck Bettis, on
Contour Editions). Her upcoming release “Fusebox” with saxophonist Ras Moshe Burnett
will be released on Gold Bolus May 2021. Dafna’s audio-augmented reality soundwalks
(free iOS/Android apps for U-GRUVE AR and running continuously), include Walkie
Talkie Dream Garden at the Williamsburg Waterfront (Brooklyn, NY) and Walkie Talkie
Dream Angles at Washington Square Park (NYC). She’s authored two book chapters on
her work and articles on “Live Sound Processing and Improvisation” for New Music
Box. Dafna was a 2019 Artist-in-Residence at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts for a
new multichannel work for her “Audio Chandelier” series. After pandemic-related
postponements in 2020, she will realizes the new work in collaboration with
metalsmith Ayala Naphtali May-July 2021 on Governors Island.

Robert Dick

With equally deep roots in classical music old and new and in free improvisation and new jazz, Robert Dick has established himself as an artist who has not only mastered, but redefined the flute. Known worldwide for creating revolutionary visions of the flute’s musical role, listening to Robert Dick play solo has been likened to the experience of hearing a full orchestra. As one of the flute world’s most respected masterclass teachers, Robert Dick has been in residence in literally hundreds of universities, colleges and conservatories throughout the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. His performances typically include flute (with his invention, the Glissando Headjoint®) piccolo, alto flute, and bass flutes in C and F. On special occasions, he’ll bring out the giant, stand-up contrabass flute.

Satoshi Takeishi

Satoshi Takeishi, drummer, percussionist, and arranger is a native of
Mito Japan. He studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
While at Berklee he developed an interest in the music of South America and went to
live in Colombia following the invitation of a friend. He spent four years there and
forged many musical and personal relationships. One of the projects he worked on
while in Colombia was “Macumbia” with composer/arranger Francisco Zumaque in which
traditional, jazz and classical music were combined. With this group he performed
with the Bogota symphony orchestra to do a series of concerts honoring the music of
the most popular composer in Colombia, Lucho Bermudes. In 1986 he returned to the
U.S. in Miami where he began work as an arranger. In 1987 he produced “Morning Ride”
for jazz flutist Nestor Torres on Polygram Records. His interest expanded to the
rhythms and melodies of the middle east where he studied and performed with
Armenian-American oud master Joe Zeytoonian. Since moving to New York in 1991 he has
performed and recorded with many musicians such as Ray Barretto, Carlos “Patato”
Valdes, Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson, Eddie Gomez, Randy Brecker, Dave Liebman,
Anthony Braxton, Mark Murphy, Herbie Mann, Paul Winter Consort, Rabih Abu Khalil,
Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band, Erik Friedlander and Pablo Ziegler to name a few. He
continues to explore multi-cultural, electronics and improvisational music with
local musicians and composers in New York.