XXI – MARCH 11, 2011 | 6-10PM

XXI Subtropics Experimental Biennial of Music & Sound Arts settles in Wynwood, at on of the best performance spaces in Miami, Inkub8 (2021 NW 1st Place), from 6 – 10PM on March 11, 2011, to celebrate its 21st consecutive Marathon Subtropicalia, featuring work and performances by over 20 artists.

XXI MARATHON
HIGHLIGHTS

TOSCAMENTE
Nestor Prieto

Toscamente explores the use of a wireless BCI (capable of transmitting raw EEG and myoelectric data), as a viable controller and generator of sound material.  The operator follows a set of instructions that combine facial expressions and states of mind in order to control different parameters within a MAX/MSP patch.

IN MULTIPLES OF SIX
by Unheard of Music

The Miami-based experimental group UOM offers us its new piece “In Multiples of Six,” an exploration of alternative techniques of guitar playing. UOM uses divergent thinking as a means of finding less obvious paths to generating sounds from the guitar by, for example, altering the player/guitar ratio, the physical relationship between player and instrument, and the role of guitar as a (mainly) plucked string instrument. UOM also brings their own unique group approach to instrumental performance, embracing the ideas of group improvisation, creative interference and musical humor.

FLUTTER
ARRHYTHMIA

The video for Flutter Arrhythmia was created by Sheri Wills. The title stems from the knowledge that when a mechanical or electronic rhythm or motion takes on an idiosyncratic, human yearning = or when a natural rhythm becomes nearly perfect, like a machine – tension develops,creating a poignant counterpoint between ecstatic imagery and an underlyingpathos. The work was premiered at the Islip Museum ofArt, Carriage House, New York. In its original form, it is meant to be shown on three screens rather than one, with the viewer standing in the center of the three screens.

Dr. Charles Norman Mason is associate professor of composition at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.  His website is www.charlesnormanmason.com
PASTORAL CARE  ( 2010 )
by Juraj Kojs

For Slovakian fujara and electronics:

In those woods
maddening sap and algae
erupting palpitations
attuned under wet skins
like belching thunder
once conquered
once loose
there
and never after

PDMD

PDMD is a project born from the collaboration between professor Fred De Sena and three of his former and current students: Lawrence Moore, Nestor Prieto and Brian Del Toro. The main goal of the ensemble is to serve as a vehicle for their musical ideas while promoting innovative or otherwise unconventional approaches to performance and interpretation.  The group’s electro-acoustic palette includes a battery of software-based applications running from laptop computers or mobile devices, early, modern and electronic woodwind instruments, analog and digital synthesizers, acoustic/electric guitars, radios, samples, found sound, and acoustic/electronic percussion.

i o: ELECTRO < > ACOUSTIC
David Font-Navarrete

io: electro < > acoustic is an experiment in transforming the sounds of percussion and brass with acoustic (non-electronic), analog (linear and continuous), and digital (non-linear and discrete) technologies and processes. The title is meant to convey an unknown of greater value: a mysterious, borderless space at the intersections of electronic and acoustic music; synthetic and superhuman, but created physically and spontaneously in the moment. Layers of sound create new textures that may obscure a listener’s sense of an original source (schizophonia) or reveal delicate human gestures.

CONCEPTUAL SKETCH #2
Paul Poston

The piece attempts to recreate rain via subtractive synthesis and other simple electronic music concepts.  The piece swarms the listeners in a plethora of different sine and triagle waves and creates an light atmosphere of color and sound. The piece works in two ways: subtle changes in wave oscillations and difference tones.

SPATIAL LAMENT
Edrick Subervi

SKETCH #3
Paul Kinard

The piece begins with slowly morphing, frequency modulated sounds that move around in space. Next, a cluster of short blips of sound begin to pulse together once every 500 milliseconds, gradually becoming more and more out of phase. Each blip of sound is assigned to its own speaker. Towards the end of the piece things become more busy and rhythmic which builds up to a gradual fade out ending.

CONSCIOUSNESS
Nayla Mehdi

ANTHRACITE
Paula Matthusen

anthracite was composed during a residency at STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music). The short pieces are recorded improvisations, taking the smallest samples of objects in the room, and using them to fuel the timbral explorations.

FRIDAMUSIQ

Fridamusiq is a Miami-based improvisational music ensemble exploring the so-called “Cool Beans” tradition: accessing sound, assessing impact, and surreptitiously erasing the fine lines dividing nonessential dichotomies.

Fridamusiq is four composers and perfomers who all happen to be composition graduate students at the University of Miami. Sometimes we follow a predetermined path (sort of)—often based on a poem—sometimes we just listen and play.