NYEAF 2009

Baltimore based sound artist Peter Blasser makes electronic sound instruments based on androgynous nodes. He has explored the notion of "inner surface" in electronic sound production resulting in the creation of several large-scale electronic instruments that can produce sound on an exposed interior surface. One of his last instruments, 52 modules integrated into a large canvas roll, is a complex system of patches equipped with connectors that make it possible to produce sounds by directly touching the surface.

Nic Collins studied composition with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University, worked for many years with David Tudor, and has collaborated with numerous soloist and ensembles around the world. Since 1997 he has been editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Music Journal.  He is currently Chair of the Department of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Routledge published his book, Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking, in 2006.

Nick Collins performs using laptops and live coding. His body of work includes interactive music systems such as a computer mediated concatenative synthesis duet for harpsichord and recorder and a duet with beat tracking algorithmic program and a live drummer as well as generative works, and a concerto for oboe and three automated pianists. He is also the author of the forthcoming Introduction to Computer Music.

With a musical career spanning 25 years, Doctor Nerve founder and leader Nick Didkovsky is a guitarist, composer, and music software programmer. In 1997 he developed the music programming language JMSL, which he continues to develop and use for his own work today. He has composed new music for Bang On A Can All-Stars, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, New Century Players, Ethel, ARTE Quartett, and others. His compositions and guitar work appear on over 50 records. He is director of bioinformatics for the Gensat Project at The Rockefeller University.

David Galbraith is a composer, performer and media artist who explores the couplings between art, music, technology and the body through his sound installations, sound performances, video works, self-developed software and custom analog electronics. His work has been presented internationally at P.S.1/MoMA, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and KW Institute of Contemporary Art (Berlin), among others.

Lucky Dragons, an experimental music/art group based in Los Angeles, is the moniker given to “any recorded or performed or installed or packaged or shared pieces made by Luke Fischbeck, Sarah Rara, and any sometimes collaborator.” Blending an organic approach to electronic music with a background in the arts, everything Lucky Dragons produces is released under a CC BY-NC-SA license, allowing others to share what they have made as well as rework it (much of their music is available for free download on their website.

George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971. Lewis graduated from Yale University with a degree in philosophy and has served as a professor at Columbia University in New York City since 2004, having previously taught at the University of California, San Diego. In 2002 Lewis received a MacArthur Fellowship and In 2008, published a book-length history of the AACM titled A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago Press).

Miya Masaoka resides in New York City and is a classically trained musician, composer and instrument developer. She has created works for solo koto, interactive plant and brain feedback, laser interfaces, explosive powders, insect movement over her body, LED objects, sculpture installations and she has notated scores for ensembles, chamber orchestra and mixed choirs, including Bang On A Can, Rova, Volti, Kathleen Supove, and most recently for So Percussion.

Ikue Mori is a composer, improviser, and performer who began as a drummer in the No Wave band DNA before moving on to work with drum machines and laptops. She has collaborated with artists like Fred Frith, Ensemble Modern, and John Zorn, and has received numerous awards, grants, and commissions for her cutting edge work.

Joker Nies lives and works in Cologne, Germany. He is a musician, sound-designer, sound-engineer, photographer and technical editor for the German Sound&Recording and Keyboards magazines. Since the early 80´s, Nies experiments with all kinds of electronic sound-sources, like modular-analog synthesizers, individually designed electronic devices, DSP-based systems (like Kyma/Capybara or Clavia Nord Modular) and software-based sound-sources.

Adam Parkinson is an electronic musician based in Newcastle, England. Interested in the embodied experience of music, he likes to use improvisations to explore immersive bass tones and electrifying crackles. For this performance, he will be using two ipod touches running RJDJ alongside other electronics. He regularly plays with harpist Rhodri Davies, vocalizer Gwilly Edmondez and turntablist Mariam Rezaei.

Kurt Ralske's video installations and performances are created exclusively with his own custom software. His work has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, and most recently in the exhibition "In-finitum" at Palazzo Fortuny for the 2009 Venice Biennale. He is a faculty member at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The School of Visual Arts, NYC, in the MFA Computer Art Department.

Marina Rosenfeld is a composer and artist based in New York City. Her work has deployed both musical and visual media, including a noted series of performance works; multichannel sound installation; video; photography and hybrid forms drawing on these. Rosenfeld’s work has appeared in a wide variety of contexts including two Whitney Biennials (2002 and 2008); a public art commission for New York from Creative Time after September 11; and major festivals in North America and Europe

Composer, performer, and sound installation artist Laetitia Sonami combines text, music and found sounds from the world, in compositions which have been described as "performance novels". Her signature instrument, the Lady's Glove, tracks the slightest motion of her fingers, hand and arms: through its use, Sonami can create performances where those tiny movements shape the music and environment. She has performed in numerous festivals across the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and China.

Hans Tammen creates music that has been described as an alien world of bizarre textures and a journey through the land of unending sonic operations. He discovers hidden sound properties through means of his modified Endangered Guitar, interactive software programming, stereo and multi-channel sound systems, and by working with the room itself. He received a Fellowship from the New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) in the category Digital/Electronic Arts in 2009 for the Endangered Guitar.

Atau Tanaka bridges the fields of media art, experimental music, and research. He has worked at IRCAM, was Artistic Ambassador for Apple France, and was researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris, and was an Artistic Co-Director of STEIM in Amsterdam. Atau creates sensor-based musical instruments for performance, and is known for his work with biosignal interfaces. He seeks to harness collective musical creativity in mobile environments, seeking out the continued place of the artist in democratized digital forms.

Moritz Wettstein is a Brooklyn-based sound artist and software developer. Originally from Switzerland, he is active in the interactive sound community Netpd which provides a platform for real-time collaboration over the internet using the PureData software platform. His work has been presented at MonkeyTown (Brooklyn), Brooklyn College, Museum Platte (Zürich) and others.