Interval 4.2 In One: curatorial statement

Juraj Kojs presents his thoughts on curating and conceiving the upcoming Interval 4.2 concert

The joint efforts of composers, instrumental designers and performers have defined the world of music. The spring of the 21st century finds us with an ever-increasing number of personas invested in a process of uniting the three music-making areas. The hardware and software technologies have frequently enabled a ground for such unification. As a result, an all-in-one composer-performer-designer-technologist has become the contemporary musician of our times.Interval 4.2's program showcases a multiplicity of approaches to such musicianship. In their works, seven selected musicians have combined existing music technologies in a creation of original forms and content (O’Halloran and Schedel), defined non-musical technologies as musical instruments (Matthusen and Variego), augmented the sonic possibilities of physical instruments with unique digital sonic structures (Topel and Kojs) and designed new hardware and software instruments (Miyama). The creators (with addition of some extra players in Matthusen’s piece) will be the sole performers of their compositions.Having defined the laptop computers as musical instruments, Paula Matthusen created a game-like composition lathyrus for a laptop ensemble, which will open the concert. The program will continue with the premiere of Spencer Topel’s Violine in which the sound-source separation digital technique delicately stretches the violin timbres. Jorge Variego will then engage a joystick controller in his composition Mimic to expand the performance and control interactions with the clarinet. Juraj Kojs will hybridize the sonorities of Slovakian sheep bells with digitally modeled cyberbell structures of non-physical parameters in At and Across. Sarah O’Halloran and Margaret Schedel will proceed with the premiere of their ...linger figure flutter...., an adventure to the domains of dramatic narration and visualization, involving the novel K-Bow controller, Zeta cello and video. The event will conclude with Chikashi Miyama’s Black Vox, in which the composer-performer hand-sculpts a myriad of musical structures in the air over his homemade non-haptic Peacock instrument.In one promises a refreshing musical experience infused with a wealth of performance methods, compositional approaches and instrument designs. The shared idea of amalgamating these elements in a single work will, however, enable a sense of coherence and integration. Truly contemporary, truly cutting edge, truly inspirational.