Tjong Pow & Elektron Mandala #67
Doors: 19:30
Start time: 20:00
Tjong Pow - improvisation project by Laurens van der Wee and Eliad Wagner
Elektron Mandala - immersive audiovisual performance by Ran Ancor
Tjong Pow is an improvisation project by Laurens van der Wee [NL] and Eliad Wagner [IL]. The duo leads the listener through their feedback induced daydreams and creates a collage of freeform hybrid electronics. Bizarre and highly captivating. By using tools and techniques from the improvised practice while borrowing from the sound world and principles of musique concrète, Tjong Pow builds bridges between human physicality and mechanical behavior. The result is an amalgam of sonic events, forced into place by the actions of the two performers on stage. All is fully improvised, without any planning or composition beforehand, other than our personal skills, experience, preferences and friendship.
Elektron Mandala is an immersive audiovisual experience, on the intersection of science and art, creating art by hacking on technology as an artistic medium. An electron beam deflected by an electromagnetic field and the sound of a long polyharmonic vibrations that expand in circular motion. A journey into pure light, before it enlightens the real objects. What we see is the moment in which these points of light are born.
Eliad Wagner (b. 1979, Israel) is a composer, performer and sound artist. A classically trained musician, holding academic degrees in physics and music, his activities explore the meeting point of composition and improvisation while addressing thoughts on synthesis, music technology, autonomous processes, alternative scoring and live performance. By working with process and interference, Wagner examines the human natural relation with technology. In 2012 Wagner relocated to Berlin, where he currently lives and works. As a performer he has played and improvised with many artists including Peter Brötzmann, Conny Bauer, Ignaz Schick, Louis Rastig, Wolfgang Seidel, Laurens van der Wee, Klaus Kürvers, Alexi Borisov, Olga Nosova, Johannes Bergmark, Korhan Erel, Tristan Honsinger, Olaf Rupp and Els Vandeweyer. Wagner’s work has been published by Metropolis [US], Digital Kranky [DE], c.sides [DE/IL], Must Die [UK], Wachsender Prozess [DE] and concrete plastic [UK]. Among others, his work has been presented at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Computer Music Journal (MIT press), STEIM and the Danish Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus.
According to himself, Laurens van der Wee is in an ongoing love-hate relationship with technology. This struggle is the source of all projects and endeavors pursued since 2007. With Galm Quartet and various other projects Laurens performs improvised sound art. Tjong Pow for example is improvised electronic sound, performed on a hybrid, interconnected instrument, together with Eliad Wagner. Zoodio was a big installation project with Roel van Doorn that reflected their shared ambivalent position towards technology. Another interesting project is the rebuild of (and performance with) the software of Anthèmes 2 by Pierre Boulez. Work has been published on a couple of labels around Europe and in the Computer Music Journal. Performances took place across Europe and in Canada and Hong Kong.
Ran Ancor is a Berlin-based artist dedicated to light research and video experimentation. He studied epistemology with a minor in computers, then started to work in between art and informatics. He is active in electronic AV live-set, light installations and wearable performances. Most significant elements in his works are immateriality, movement and metamorphosis, visual fluxus, fusion with sound and space. In 2001 he founded eXtraLight Advanced Visuals, focusing on the light as substance through its expression in the form of light performances, visuals and installations.