Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan
2009 | Audiovisual duo for augmented electric bass guitar, augmented piano and multi-channel live video
“Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan is not meant to be classified as any genre type, does not mind to analize any common content, does not create and compose inside of the written rules.
Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan does not compromise its feelings with gifts of technology, but express them freely playing with its instruments, voices and images.
Far from the stereotype of the idilliac plastic abstract landscape of appealing art or music, far from technologic infrastructures and sadistic laptops who make us slaves of the technology we created, we just perform, we act – inside of the sound, inside of the image. Technology is our tool, not our status symbol.”
Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan (Marco Donnarumma and Ioann Maria, 2009) play augmented musical instruments transforming its natural sound in unexpected realm of sounds, noises and voices. The composition is nervous, disrespectful, screaming for attention, blending the different influences of the duo, inspired by the masterworks of Beethoven and Mozart, the avant-garde studies of John Cage, Giacinto Scelsi and the DIY ethic of DNA and Sonic Youth.
Two artists interact on stage thanks to a local network used to exchange audio-video real-time processing data, building dynamic non-linear narrative structure.
The sound and the images – processed exclusively live, no playback – react in real-time to the gesture and the score artists play, creating synesthetic performative act where technology disappears.
The visual aesthetics focus on the symbolism of mime, movements and contortions of the human body, describing a social organism as a metaphor of the games of society and its absurdity.
Quiet and simple, hard and violent, the growing tension of existence.
The engine of the performance is the action on musical instruments and its inseparable connection with video.
Thanks to the software C::NTR::L, a FLOSS Human Computer Interface developed in Pure Data by Donnarumma which exploits the physical computing technology – artists transform their unmodified musical instruments into augmented audio-visual tools.
Ioann Maria: augmented piano, voice, trumpet, live electronics, live video
Marco Donnarumma: augmented electric bass guitar, noises, live electronics, live video
Below you can listen to a recorded piece titled “Klangst”.
Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan – Klangst by Marco Donnarumma
Project Keywords
Klangst, schwartz, swan, symbolism, man, woman, contortions, society, violence; live music, augmented music, no wave, noise; performance, non-linear narration, real-time physical interaction, interactive, audiovisual real-time processing; electric bass guitar, piano, augmented instrument, pitch detection, score recognition, physical computing, pure data.
Selected performances
- Vision’r Festival – AVIT France, Le Bellevilloise, Paris, France, April 2009