• Performance Archive
• Performers
• Background

This concert was part a strand of electronic music events at Tate Modern which explores the contemporary face of digital music. It featured performances by leading electronic musicians and performers, Akufen (Canada), Janek Schaefer (UK) and Golan Levin (USA).

This music event complemented the international symposium, user_mode, which examined emotional engagement within interactive art and design. It is a collaboration between Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and Tate Modern.

In tandem with its exploration of the emotional dimension of electronic music, this performance event showed ways that interactive techniques can dissolve the boundary between musician and listener, artist and spectator, and producer and user.

Time	Session	View Webcast
20:00 - 20:35	Scribble - a live audio visual performance Golan Levin
20:40 - 21:15	Performance Janek Schaefer
21:20 - 22:00	Performance Akufen

 
Performers

Akufen is the main musical project of Montreal based electronic musician, Marc Leclair. The name Akufen is taken from the phonetic spelling of the French word for tinnitus. Leclair's music incorporates found sounds and samples sourced from radio, and he has been instrumental in the creation of 'microsampling'. His methodology is to uncover the emotive properties of sound artefacts by removing them from their original context. He has released recordings on some of the most influential electronic labels in Europe and North America, including, Revolver, Trapez, Perlon, Mutek, and Oral. His highly acclaimed album, My Way was released in 2002 on Force Inc. Though Leclair counts Phillip Glass and Steve Reich amongst his early inspirations and influences, the humorous possibilities of sound remain a relevant, flavour-enhancing element in Leclair's productions. He comments: "I prefer the playful approach, almost coming from the cartoon aesthetic".

His latest project is a nine-piece composition called Music for Pregnancy. Selections of were played at this concert at Tate Modern. With several of his female friends becoming pregnant at roughly the same time, this work is intended as a meditation on the process of childbirth. It will be released on Montreal label, Oral.

Janek Schaefer is a musician and sound artist based in London. His work addresses the role of the vinyl record as a compositional tool. Schaefer has released music on Fat Cat, [K-RAA-K]3, and Rhiz Records as well as his own label, audiOh. He has also created many installations and soundtracks for exhibitions.

His performances involving his self-built 'Twin' and 'Tri-phonic' turntables (officially The World's Most Versatile Record Player -- Guinness Book of Records) have become must-see events for audiences interested in experimental music and performance. When playing live, Schaefer combines manipulated field recordings with live modified vinyl in a manner The Wire magazine describe as 'concréte ruffian style'. In 1999 Schaefer was chosen as 'Sound Designer of the Year' by Creative Review magazine.

Golan Levin is an artist, composer, performer and engineer based in New York City. Levin's work spans a variety of online, installation and performance media, and he has performed at Ars Electronica in Austria, the Kitchen, P.S.1, and The Knitting Factory in New York, IRCAM in Paris, Sonar in Barcelona, and many other contexts.

He is known for Dialtones a concert whose sounds are wholly performed through the carefully choreographed dialling and ringing of the audience's own mobile phones, and Scribble, a live audiovisual concert performed on custom built software.

Levin is now in the research phase of a new body of work, which will lead to audiovisual performances conducted on highly miniaturized, interactive robotic systems.

 
Background

This event is linked to the user_mode symposium. user_mode is a framework for discussion and exchange on the topic of emotional engagement within interactive art and design.

This music event is part of a events at Tate Modern which explore the aesthetics and context of electronic music. Past electronic music events featuring Oval, Vladislav Delay, Scanner, Rosy Parlane, Tennis and Kim Cascone are archived in the Online Event Archive.