TEMPO REALE/MAGGIO ELETTRICO – SUONI AL FUTURO II

A great international performer is coming to Florence, with the powerful music of composers who are projected towards strong and fore-running aesthetics, such as maximalism and saturationism: an itinerary into the extreme and captivating sound of the future, from France to the United States, with the works of Niblock, Cendo, and Vaggione, always characterized by occurrences in motion thanks to modern amplification and spatial sound projection techniques. The energy of Cendo’s musical flux charms and captures listeners, projecting them into a dense and overflowing universe where the acoustic instrument seems to act as a trigger, generating music which leaves no space for silence. Niblock’s “sound drones” develop in the opposite direction, with their static nature and their extended duration (accompanied by images from the composer’s films), stratifying into a lasting structure, cohesive and powerful enough to captivate and thrill even the least concentrated listener.

Tempo Reale Festival 2018

Program

Horacio Vaggione
MYR-S, for cello and live electronics (1996)

Raphael Cendo
Foris for cello, electronics and six-channel spatialization (2012)

Phill Niblock
Harm, for cello and live electronics (2003)

Artists

Cello
Arne Deforce

Live electronics and sound projection
Damiano Meacci

ARNE DEFORCE
Arne Deforce is renowned for his passionate and unparalleled performances of contemporary and experimental music. His inventive programmes explore new musical forms of expression in which the discovery of the 'Other' of the cello and the act of an uninhibited creative listening is foremost. As a musician and researcher, he is fascinated by how, at the intersection between music, art, science and technology, new concepts and relationships in music can be developed between the instrument, musical gesture and electronics. As such, his collaboration on life-form (2012), a one-hour cycle by Richard Barrett for cello and electronics, or on the piece Foris (2012) by Raphaël Cendo, reflects the fact that a sound-world of untapped potential between the physicality of playing, technology and extended notations can further be developed in a collaborative project between composer and performer. His repertoire is focused mainly on solo and chamber music, with a special interest in works by composers such as Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey and Karlheinz Stockhausen. His fascinating, energetic and imaginative approach to music has inspired many composers including Richard Barrett, Luc Brewaeys, Kee-Yong Chong, Raphaël Cendo, Hèctor Parra, Alvin Curran and Phill Niblock, to collaborate or to write original works especially for him. In 2004, after one such collaboration, Jonathan Harvey described Arne Deforce as “one of the most exciting new cellists I have come across. Everything he plays is approached with a powerful intensity born from an engagement with the music on a deep spiritual and psychic level. He is highly imaginative and brings an originality and, above all, creativity to his interpretations which is both fiery and structured.” His collaborative partners include musicians such as Daan Vandewalle, Mika Vaino, Richard Barrett, Peter Jacquemyn and Yutaka Oya, in addition to Champ d’Action, Ictus, MusikFabrik, the Concertgebouw Brugge (Bruges), Centre Henri Pousseur Liège, Ircam Paris, and Grame Lyon. Arne Deforce is featured regularly at leading international new music festivals (Ars Musica, Holland Festival, ManiFesta–Agora Paris, Archipel Genève, Musica Strasbourg, Mito, Fondation Royaumont, Musica Sacra Maastricht, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Amsterdam Cello Biennale).