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Zvokotok

A cycle of contemporary composed music

Zvokotok focuses on contemporary composed music. It is defined by the research of compositional procedures and often linked to music technology. It encourages and merges unique sound languages and performative innovativeness and moves contemporary compositions into new spatial and concert forms.
Zvokotok connects established institutional spaces of artistic activity with premises of the dynamic action of NGOs. It implements and maintains unburdened space of dialogue and overcome the artificial distinction between areas and venues of artistic activity.

The program in 2023 was conceived by Nina Dragičević.

In 2023, in the Zvokotok cycle, we will expand the concepts and scope of the sonic: we will not stop at reducing the auditory as exclusively musical, nor will we intervene only in sonority as omnipresence, but we will expand the object of sound's origin. We will put at the center the sonic potential of cultural, one might even say civilizational, products such as the text (and therefore, of course, intertextuality) and the visual. Sound emanates from text. The 20th and then the 21st century placed textual and visual (graphic) composition in the field between the extreme poles of composition and 'pure' improvisation, shaking up the relationship between composer and performer. If musical notation assumed that composer and performer would understand each other as precisely as possible, with new approaches to the articulation of musical ideas this is no longer only unlikely, but above all not necessary. On the one hand: a renunciation of commandment. On the other: a renunciation of following the commandment. But also, a renunciation of breaking ties in the name of independence. A renunciation of atomism. A renunciation of totality. A release. We will argue that textual and/or graphic composition is the site of humanist contact par excellence. And we need that.

The series consists of five concert evenings, i.e., performances of at least five compositions. Since textual and visual composition widens the field of interpretation - so much so that it allows (even encourages) the performer to play a compositional role - we can say that with each performance a new composition is created, but not entirely, since it is at the same time an interpretation of a specific composition. Therefore, where possible, in each concert, a particular composition (its textual or visual notation) will be performed several times, but each time with a different performing ensemble, i.e., each time anew. In a sense, we will be observing not only the performance, but the creation of a (different) composition each time. The emergence of a non-authoritarian system of communication.


The program was conceived by:
2014 - Nina Prešiček, Bojana Šaljić Podešva, Luka Juhart
2015 - Nina Prešiček, Bojana Šaljić Podešva, Luka Juhart
2016 - Tomaž Grom
2017 - Jonas Kocher
2018 - Tomaž Grom
2019 - Primož Trdan
2020 - Mauricio Valdés San Emeterio 
2021 - Luka T. Zagoričnik
2022 - Steven Loy  

12.10.2020

Zvokotok: Amacher, Ferreira, Schimana / City of Women

Zvokotok: 12. 10. 20.00–23.00 Cankarjev dom, Štihova dvorana
Maryanne Amacher, Beatriz Ferreyra, Elisabeth Schimana

Interpretations of electroacoustic music from the past and the present


Maryanne Amacher: Remainder [excerpt] (14′55′′)
Maryanne Amacher’s work anticipated many concerns and interests of the 21st century sound art. Her electroacoustic composition Remainder (1976) was commissioned for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company piece Torse and later for the Charles Atlas film of the same name. We will listen to an excerpt from the composition.

Beatriz Ferreyra: Un fil invisible (18′00′′)
The composition Un fil invisible (2009) by the Argentinian composer of electroacoustic music Beatriz Ferreyra is dedicated to the French composer Christine Groult. This piece was inspired by various stages of medieval alchemy. The alchemical process is one of transformation, whose actual subject is the alchemist himself. Here, the process is inextricably tangled with the transformation of sounds and the very structure of the piece. 

Elisabeth Schimana: Into the Sun, multi-channel piece (approx. 30′00′′)
Since 1960, we have known that the sun is oscillating. Helioseismology is the study of oscillation waves through the sun and allows astrophysicists to develop extremely detailed profiles of the interior conditions of the sun. The inspiration for the artistic work is the idea that the sun is a huge resonating body for sound waves traveling to the interior of the sun and being reflected, as well as the awareness of taking a look into the past by observing the processes on and in the sun – a paradox working with the medium of sound, which can only be experienced in the present. A new work commissioned by Zavod Sploh (Mauricio Valdes San Emeterio).

Before the concert, at 18.30, Lona Gaikis is going to present the book Hidden Alliances – versteckt verbunden in Lili Novy Glass Hall.

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