The School of Music and Fine Art’s ‘Music and Audio Arts Sound Theatre’ (MAAST) system is set to diffuse a sequence of electroacoustic works by the legendary French composer Bernard Parmegiani as an tribute to his music, during a 3-day Festival in March 2014.
The School’s research-focused sound diffusion system, designed to explore spatial sound, is set to relive some of the works of the late great pioneer of electroacoustic music, Bernard Parmegiani, who passed away last November. Hosted by LCMF, the event will take over a former carpet factory, a magnificent 20,000 sq ft space in Brick Lane, London.
Parmegiani’s rich body of work, spanning nearly 50 years, stands among the most important in electroacoustic music, influencing generations of artists within the academy and beyond it.
Following the success of the School’s recent Symposium on Acoustic Ecology, the School’s MAAST innovative diffusion system, comprising more than 30 loudspeakers, will once again be showcased from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd of March.
Curriculum Lead for Music and Audio Arts and Director of MAAST, Dr Aki Pasoulas, along with Ambrose Seddon and Diana Salazar will be diffusing Parmegiani’s music from the 1970s on Saturday 22 March.. The influential electroacoustic composers and scholars Denis Smalley and Jonty Harrison, along with Peiman Khosravi will be diffusing Parmegiani’s works on the first day of the festival, Friday 21 March; while on Sunday, the director of the renowned Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), Daniel Teruggi, will conclude the 3-day tribute festival.
We look forward to this event and encourage anyone interested in attending to book tickets online (http://lcmf.co.uk) as soon as possible, because they are selling fast We hope this gives our MAAST system another enthusiastic performance and platforms the developments we are making in spatial sound out to a wider audience.
Any SMFA students interested in volunteering for the event, please contact Dr Aki Pasoulas as soon as possible. This will be a work experience not to be missed, as you will be working alongside the most distinguished and influential composers and scholars of music and audio art today.
Bernard Parmegiani (1927-2013)
Parmegiani initially trained as a mime, a practice he often drew on when describing his music. It was Pierre Schaeffer who, in 1961, convinced him to start composing. In Schaeffer’s musique concrète, the building blocks of composition were not notes and rests, but recordings. Pieces were created through collage and the transformation of acoustic sounds on tape. It was this technique that Parmegiani developed so expansively from the 1960s onwards.
While Parmegiani found himself at the centre of Schaeffer’s GRM, he also led a parallel career, composing for film, television, and even for Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.