ELISION – Codex-Melbourne

As preparation for a forthcoming major performance at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (HCMF), SIAL Sound Studios and Elision Ensemble collaborated on a spatialised performance of Codex by Richard Barrett, in the Iwaki Studios, ABC Southbank Melbourne.

This performance used a real-time version of our spatial sound diffusion system, to control up to 8 channels of instrumental sound over 8 speakers. The performance revealed the need for further work, in particular the need for a more robust system where 3D spatial sound trajectories could be pre-defined then easily modified during rehearsals. The number of sound operators and their roles was expanded from 2 to 3, and further work was needed on speaker locations, and a robust technique for speaker location initialization and signal path management. This approach was developed and implemented for the HCMF performances.

Additional workshops and recordings were carried out for a 4 channel microphone technique that would capture the local spatial sound field of a performer (sound immediately around a musician) to be scaled over a larger area.

Program:

Part 1:
transbraxton II (2011) Timothy O’Dwyer
Transbraxton I (2009) Timothy O’Dwyer
Imagines me into systems smeared along wires (2011) Robert Dahm
Ehwaz (2010) Liza Lim

Part 2:
An allegorical Landscape 2011) James Erber)
Misguided (2008-2011) Sam Hayden

Part 3:
Codex IX – Melbourne (2009/2011) Richard Barrett

Pre-performance research and development was supported by the ARC, LP0882872, while the concert was broadcast live-to-air on ‘New Music Up Late’ on ABC Classic FM, 10:30pm, 26 March 2011 and re-broadcast on 10 Dec, 2011 on New Music Up Late.