News on what looks like a fascinating evening at the forefront of new tweaks to music making, via a variety of performers and innovators working with intriguing new instruments and music controllers (plus adaptations of existing instruments)…
Xenia Pestova & Lia Mice present:
‘Augmented Instruments Lab – Live at IKLECTIK’: Xenia Pestova + Lia Mice + D. Andrew Stewart + Laurel S. Pardue/Jack Armitage + Giacomo Lepri + Kurijn Buys
IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, Waterloo, London, SE1 7LG, England
Friday 11th May 2018, 7.30pm – information here, here and here
“Augmented Instruments Lab, based out of the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, focuses on developing new instruments and interfaces for musical expression. Come experience a selection of live performances of the instruments of the lab performed by internationally touring performers and the instrument designers themselves.
The magnetic resonator piano
“Xenia Pestova (an internationally acclaimed performer of augmented instruments) will perform ‘Glowing Radioactive Elements’, a new piece she composed this year for the Magnetic Resonator Piano. The composition draws on the unique timbres, harmonics, infinite sustain, and pitch bends performable on the Magnetic Resonator Piano. The MRP, invented by Augmented Instruments Lab director Dr. Andrew McPherson, is an augmented grand piano featuring eighty-eight magnetic resonators.
“Canadian composer and digital instrumentalist D. Andrew Stewart performs ‘Ritual For Karlax’ – a unique performance with the Karlax digital music instrument (a gestural controller developed by Da Fact). Explore new sonic territories made of real and imaginary metallic ritual bells and electro-winds.
“Performing her augmented violin (that uses custom sensor arrangements to detect natural playing techniques to highlight musical and technical expression), Laurel S. Pardue (of Misshaped Pearls) will perform both a solo piece and a collaborative performance with coder and instrument designer Jack Armitage (in which parameters of the augmented violin will be live coded).
“Producer and instrument designer Lia Mice debuts her newest instrument in her ChandeLIA series: the SHIMI (Spiral hanging inharmonic metal instrument). The SHIMI ChandeLIA is a new suspended musical instrument exploring inharmonic resonances and spacial gesture mapping. Lia’s debut SHIMI performance will explore the instrument’s dark sci-fi-esque bell resonances, drones and chimes.
“For the first time in London, Giacomo Lepri will perform his set for clarinet and live electronics. The sonic output of this otherworldly futuristic clarinet system features both live processing of the clarinet and pure synthetic sounds. This setup combines algorithms, ideas and practises developed during Giacomo’s research at Amsterdam’s STEIM institute.
“Kurijn Buys performs experimental electronic music, conjured using an assortment of multidimensional gestural controllers including the Lightpad and Touché to control modular synthesis.”
Misfit City 
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