Ressi/Benes: game_over

Join the ZOOM meeting after the concert here.

Composer Christof Ressi and clarinetist Benes Szilárd are the resident artists of the 2021 Transparent Sound New Music Festival. The world of video games and the artistic aesthetic of new music come together in their works. The duo’s planned program for Budapest, including exhibitions, workshops, concerts, and presentations, were postponed to a later date of the year. However, we present two of their collaborative works, game_over and Terrain Study, in an online form. True to the traditions of the festival, we will also have short introductory sessions relating to the pieces, and to finish off the evening, we invite the audience to a Zoom meet and greet.

game_over_0.2.2

Video game for clarinet solo

game over is a series of explorative musical video game environments which can be either played live on stage by a performer or presented as interactive installations. In this performance, a clarinet player navigates an avatar through extensive complex 2D game worlds with the help of a motion sensor on his/her instrument. Since almost every action triggers musical events, the performer is invited to freely explore the environment, interact with its (computer-controlled) inhabitants and exploit the game mechanics to provoke unconventional musical structures. The game worlds are collages of well-known 2D game genres, which often superimpose or blend into each other; they are thought of as musical scores, which can be always read anew. Occasionally, the composers intervenes with the game play by sending events or reprogramming parts of the game in real time. There is a notable tension between “reasonable” game actions on the one hand and purely musical decisions on the other hand. Since they often conflict with each other, the player is constantly challenged to maintain a balance and find meaningful goals within a vast space of possibilities. The performance is a reflection on the role of the individual within a system of constraints and searches for the expressive potential of rebellion against predefined rules.

Terrain Study

terrain study is a work for solo performer and virtual reality system. The player starts in a simplistic 3D world consisting of only three basic elements: a randomly generated, slightly undulating terrain; a texture mapped cube which creates the illusion of an endless horizon (a so-called sky box); and several metal-like spheres hovering above the ground which the player can interact with musically.
The performer can move freely within a space of roughly 25 m², with his/her field of view being projected on the screen. The virtual acoustic space is created with higher order ambisonics and depends on the position and orientation of the player within the 3D space. While the binaural rendering – only heard by the performer over headphones – suggests a static environment, the reference point for the audience is the player perspective seen on the screen (like in a first person video game), so that the acoustic space is constantly shifting and rotating according to the movements of the performer. By and by, the visual and acoustic representation of the game world is manipulated by the sounds produced on the instrument, leading to bizarre structures and surreal perspectives, eventually questioning the division of subject and world.

Christof Ressi is an Austrian composer, arranger, software developer and multimedia artists. As a composer, he works in various fields of music such as contemporary classical, jazz, dance/theater or experimental electronics. Besides writing instrumental music, he has a keen interest in interactive live-electronics and audio-visual art and is currently working on an extended series of pieces exploring the aesthetic potential of computer game environments. He arranges music for all kinds of ensembles and instruments, including big band and orchestra.

Together with clarinet player Szilard Benes he regularly performs as a duo, playing both audio-visuals compositions and improvisations.
His music has been performed worldwide and has received several prizes. 2017-2019 he has been part of the artistic research project GAPPP at the Institute for Electronic Music (IEM) in Graz. He is a regular contributor to the open source computer music environments Pure Data and Supercollider.

www.christofressi.com

vimeo.com/christofressi

Donation for communities in need!

Dear Friends!

Because of our wonderful partners and venues, we are lucky enough to bring you all of our events in January for free! Likewise, you are lucky enough to be the owner of a screen which gives you access to this online space, where we are working during the pandemic. The current global situation makes the lives of those who are already struggling, even harder. That is why we are asking you to kindly send the money that you would normally spend on tickets for our events, instead to an organization working with people in need.

Further information of the organization: Autonomia Foundation

Details you will need for the payment:

Autonómia Alapítvány

HU18 1090 0011 0000 0015 6045 0001