From April 23 to 27, the international festival “Sound Days” of sound, art and experiments will take place in Liepaja. This year’s festival draws attention to the practices of sound art, electroacoustic music, audiovisual culture and design – searching for new means of expression, developing uniqueness and creative thinking, DIY or ‘do-it-yourself’ culture, practical work with materials and studying the principles of operation of things. Creative workshops, seminars, discussions, master classes, as well as presentations of the results of creative workshops and evenings of audiovisual performances will take place within its framework.
The central activity of the festival is the creative workshops that cover the fields of design, sound art, music, visual art and technology. Participants will have the opportunity to learn various prototyping and electronics techniques, making musical instruments and other sound objects, playing analog synthesizers, unique methods of creating spatial sound, creating performances and compositions, developing stage design and other skills. Workshop leaders are internationally recognized artists, musicians and designers from Latvia and abroad: Lise-Lotte Norelius (SE), Christian Faubel (DE), Marko Timlin (DE), Shawn Pinchbeck (CA), Julie Delisle (CA), Émile Gingras ( CA), Girts Ozoliņš (LV), Martiņs Zutis (LV), Paula Vitola (LV), Rogier Jupijn (LV/NL), Fricis Kalvelis (LV). The creative workshops will take place in the Art Research Laboratory (MPLab) of RTU Liepaja Academy and in the digital production laboratory “FabLab Liepaja” of the Science and Education Innovation Center of the Liepaja Board of Education.
On the evening of April 25, as part of the “Sound Days”, we invite you to attend the concert “Times Play. Canadian and Latvian Electroacoustic Music” in the chamber hall of the “Lielais dzintars” concert hall. The concert will feature compositions for electronics, which will be spatialized around the audience in an 8-speaker acoustic system. The concert in two parts will introduce the contemporary state of electroacoustic music and immersive sound in Canada and Latvia.
The name of the concert is a direct reference to the first part of the concert program, in which the compositions of the winners of the “JTTP – Jeu de Temps / Times Play” contest and thematic prize winners will be played. The competition was organized for the 24th time by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC) and is dedicated to new electroacoustic music in Canada. The electro-acoustic music concert of Canada’s new and emerging composers will feature spatialy diffused sound compositions as well as audiovisual compositions. CEC representatives and several composers will be present at the concert, who will introduce the culture of electro-acoustic music in Canada in a short pre-concert conversation. The 75 minute long program will feature works by Julie Delisle, Jules Bastin-Fontaine, Émile Gingras & José-Gabriel Bazán-Gauthier, Parisa Sabet Sarvestani, Mimi Allard and Kristian North.
In the second part of the “Times Play” concert, a program of compositions by Latvian composers will be played, created by the artistic director Voldemārs Johansons in cooperation with the immersive sound and science festival SWIRL.SPACE. The program includes compositions by Voldemars Johansson, Platon Buravits and other composers for spatial performance.
On April 26, a seminar will be held in the cultural center “Kursas putni”, where guests of the festival – artists and various representatives of creative industries – will present their activities, as well as a discussion on the topics studied at the festival. In the continuation of the evening, the open performance program will be held, where the new artists of experimental and electronic music will perform.
The end of the “Sound Days” week will be celebrated on the evening of April 27 in Liepāja, in the “Kursa” club. The evening will begin with the presentations of the results of the creative workshops – there will be performances, demonstrations and other artistic experiences, which the participants will create during the week under the guidance of international artists and designers.
The event will be followed by a diverse and experimental program of audiovisual performances. Christian Faubel (DE), Lise-Lotte Norelius (SE), Marko Timlin (DE/FI), Shawn Pinchbeck (CA/EE), Julie Delisle (CA), Paula Vitola and Alvis Grigaluns (LV) will perform. Spare Vitola and Marta Ansone (LV). The evening will end with a program of electronic dance music.
Information about the full festival program, creative workshops and application, ticket sales for festival performance evenings on the website http://sound.mplab.lv. Tickets are available at “Biļešu paradīze” ticket offices and on the Internet: https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/lv/custompage/4255.
In 2024 the festival partner is The Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC) and the contest JTTP 2023.
The festival is organized by the society “ASTE. Art, Science, Technology, Education, association “E-Lab, electronic art and media center” and RTU Liepāja Art Research Laboratory (MPLab). The festival “Sound Days” take place thanks to the financial support of the Cultural Administration of Liepaja municipality and the State Culture Capital Fund. Technical support for the closing program of the festival will be provided by PXB.LV.
Press photo:
https://failiem.lv/u/vqj68tjsnc
Photo: Ieva Vīksne, Krista Dintere, Christian Faubel, “La Conserve Media”
Information prepared by:
Krista Dinter
krista.dintere@gmail.com
tel. 25997662
Website: http://sound.mplab.lv
Date: 08.04.2024.
