aaamusic | On 18, Oct 2011

 

FASTER THAN SOUND: ROLY PORTER AND CYNTHIA MILLAR “FALL BACK”

Roly Porter (half of the British dubstep duo Vex’d) and Cynthia Millar highlight early electronic instruments in a unique new commission at Aldeburgh Music, for its experimental series Faster Than Sound.

This October, two of the earliest electronic musical instruments, the Ondes Martenot and the Dobro, are re-discovered in a specially commissioned work, Fall Back.  Created during a week-long Aldeburgh Residency, culminating in its premiere on Saturday October 29^th 2011 at 8pm, leading Ondes Martenot performer Cynthia Millar will join British dubstep producer Roly Porter (formerly of Vex’d) in a very special collaboration. The improvisation between these prolific exponents in one of the oldest and one of the newest forms of electronic music is sure to push genre boundaries, and create a truly unique musical experience.

The Ondes Martenot and the Dobro have strikingly similar aesthetics and both recently celebrated their 80^th birthdays, having been patented in 1928. The Dobro is one of the earliest resonator guitars, and the Ondes Martenot has been described as the “prequel to the synthesiser”. The eerie oscillated sound it produces has been used by composers from Olivier Messiaen to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. Placing these rare instruments’ aesthetics alongside muscular sheets of noise and the heavily machined tones of Porter, the early instruments’ sound maps out a compositional territory between 1920s avant-garde soundscapes and the dawning of new electronic musical explorations.

Following Fall Back, Porter will premiere his debut solo album, Aftertime (which also features the Ondes). The album fuses his background in bleeding edge British sound system music with experimental compositional strategies and a forensic attention to sound design.

Curated by Aldeburgh Music, Faster Than Sound is a groundbreaking series that joins the dots between musical genres and digital art forms. Developing a fresh approach which focuses on commissions, residencies and innovative collaborations, Faster Than Sound places strong emphasis on emerging technologies, to help create new musical adventures.

Faster Than Sound is supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Faster Than Sound: LAB receives generous support from the Esmée Fairburn Foundation.