Medialab Prado

Oscar Martín: noish_vs_automata

An AVLAB is usually synonymous with breakthroughs, actions, noise, state of the art, a manifesto of what is emerging, what is vocationally free, surprise, and a reflection on these and other phenomena.

Not this time.

Transgression is no longer transgression when it becomes customary, so for this Saturday, I propose a brief return to an order that will seem, for almost all of us who are regulars at Medialab, like a distant concept.  The fact is that all music is based on a certain order, as pure randomness and basic spontaneity do not exist, and all music is based on mathematics, as shown in the first scene of Donald in Mathmagic Land, where the nasal duck meets the Pythagoreans.

Moving on from there to proposing an almost old-fashioned evening on Music and Mathematics was just a small step, drawn by a strong temptation. I hope that the evening will be a pleasant one, as we listen to the sounds of Yolanda, Alberto and Oscar, knowing that they will go from our ears to our brain’s psycho-physical calculator, and the order we disdain is just one form of chaos. Then we can go back to our usual activities.

By José Manuel Costa, visual and sound arts critic.

PROGRAMA

• Olaya Hernando: An analysis and commentary on Bach’s works for piano, Fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

• Roberto Catalá: Dusan Bogdanovic’s works for guitar: compositional aspects, techniques and their mathematical relationship. Mysterious Habitats, Homage to Mompou, Fairy Tales.

• Oscar Martín: noish_vs_automata

Olaya Hernando

She was born in Valladolid, where she started her musical studies at the age of 6 and completed her professional degree in piano, under the tutelage of Eduardo Rodríguez. She studied piano in 1992-1993 at Wittenberg University in Ohio (USA), with Stephen Sieck. That year, she won first prize at the Ohio Music Education Association contest.
She studied advanced piano with Professor Anatoli Povzoun. And in 2000, she completed her advanced piano degree at El Escorial music conservatory. She has taken numerous specialized courses in piano pedagogy and performance, as well as classes from prestigious teachers including Stephen Sieck, Mariana Gurkova, Anatoli Povzoun, Rita Wagner, Luca Chiantore, and Nino Kereselidze.

She has played numerous solo piano recitals throughout her career and performed with various chamber music ensembles in Spain and the United States. She was an active member of the Springfield Youth Symphony Orchestra in 1992 and 1993. During the 2001-02 and 2002-03academic years, she received grants from the Castilla y León Regional Government to take part in the “Jóvenes en concierto” (Young People in Concert) programme.
Currently she is a member of Adartia trio, which strives to disseminate music composed by women throughout the history of music, and is also a member of the Insieme guitar and piano duo.
In 2009 she took part in a series of music for two pianos sponsored by the Extremadura Regional Government in that region.
She has a degree in History and Music Science. She also teaches in Valladolid.

Roberto Catalá Navarro, born in Valladolid, began playing the guitar at the age of 6, taking his first lessons from his father, Jaime Catalá.
At the age of 10 he started at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Valladolid, receiving his first musical lessons from the director at that time, Ms. Mª Ángeles Porres (Sight-singing), Mr. Pedro Aizpurua (Choral Singing), Mr. Pedro Zuloaga (Music Theory), and Mr. Benigno Prego (Harmony).
His teacher for the last few years of the professional guitar specialty was Ms. Nuria Mora.

Since his student years, he has taken part in the Santa Cecilia festivals organized by the Conservatorio de Música de Valladolid. He has also collaborated with charity organizations such as “Doctors without Borders”, “Medicina y Mundo”, and the Spanish Cancer Association (A.E.C.C.) in various galas in the Valencia region.
In addition to music, he got a degree in Art History from the Universidad de Valladolid. Currently, he is studying Music History and Science at the Universidad Vallisoletana.
He often attends advanced courses such as the “Ciudad de Alicante” and “Ciudad de Torrente (Valencia)” festivals, the Vila de lÓlleria guitar contest, the Villa de Petrer Guitar Week, and the International Guitar Festival at the Palau de la Música de Valencia, as well as musical specialization courses at the music department at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares  

He has attended master classes with renowned guitarists such as Hugo Geller,  Miguel Barberá, José Miguel Moreno, Ignacio Rodes, David Russell, Joaquín Clerch, Ricardo Gallén, Roberto Aussell, Pavel Steidl , Manuel Barrueco, Ángelo Guilardino, and Leo Brouwer.  He has studied analysis with Enrique Blanco, Yvan Nommick, Benet Casablancas, and Charles Rosen and chamber music with Dimitri van Halderen.

Oscar Martín: noish_vs_autómata

The presentation will be an audible improvisation between Noish and the Automata_v001 generative sound machine, a kind of Human versus Machine.

Automata_Sonoro_v001 (generative sound machina) s a software programmed in Pure Data for generating real-time sound compositions. It creates compositions from 7 small sound seeds (samples of 5-15 seconds) with which it generates 7 files of 1 min, to be with those who play after, transforming and mixing them iteratively in a mechanical evolution, growth and deterioration. Its based on the Fractal model and somehow with more conceptual distance also inspired by the work of Alvin Lucier "I'm sitting in a room" 1969. All of this does not chase to carry out strictly fractal music, but born of an interest to know and experiment with these math-concepts and strategies looking for a king of organic unpredicatability, noncontrol and chaos with which creatively play during the live perfomance.
Live en Piksel

Oscar Martín holds a Fine Arts degree from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, specializing in Sculpture and Audiovisual Media. That is where he came into contact with sound art through Leopoldo Amigo and Bartolomé Ferrando.

A sound explorer, he bases his work on the deconstruction of field recordings and the creative use of technology errors. Luthier-digital with a “pure data” environment, which he uses to develop his own experimental tools for processing and real time algorithmic-generative composition. He can be placed somewhere between Computer Music, the aesthetics of error,  and generative noise.                                                                 

He seeks the creation of virtual sound universes, imaginary soundscapes that encourage active listening and a different sensibility toward the perception of sound phenomena.

He works under the open source paradigm. All his work is published under Creative Commons licence, by different recording labels and net labels  (dronerecords, tecnoNucleo, costellam, etc.).

His music has been presented both as a solo artists (noise dreams machina, noish~) and along with a variety of collaborative projects (segmentation Fault with Xavi Manzanares, Mecanikas Moebius with Javier Marisco) in different spaces and national/international festivals; Piksel.no (Begen-Norway), PdCon09 (Sãu Paulo-Brazil), VAD (Girona), LEM06 (Barcelona), LAC08 (Germany-Koln), Mastul(Berlin), De Player (Rotterdam), Maus Habitos (Porto), Remor0 (Girona), Distorsion (Mataro), MIDE-Arteleku (Donostia), LABoral-SummerLab (Gijón), Hangar (Barcelona), Ulterior09 (Madrid), etc.

http://noconventions.mobi/noish/