Gordon Monahan & Mika Vainio at Villa Elisabeth Berlin / Friday 17.10.2014

“Speaker Swinging, from 1982, is a rite in which three performers swing loudspeakers over their heads. To this primitive ritual is added an electronic dimension, as each of the speakers relays a series of tones generated by nine sinewave or sawtooth oscillators, their rapid motion through the air creating complex overlays of effects, including phasing, vibrato, and tremolo. Speaker Swinging is at once static and dynamic, muscular and mechanistic, sacred and secular.” Ken Hollings.

Speaker Swinging was first performed in Toronto in 1982, and has since been presented in many varied venues at festivals and museums worldwide.

http://https://youtu.be/amEwNbVz8vg

Gordon Monahan’s works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer- controlled sound environments span various genres from avantgarde concert music to multimedia installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance.

Mika Vainio, currently based in Berlin, was one half of the minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic from Finland, (the other half was Ilpo Väisänen). His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, are known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness. Be it abstract drone works or minimal avant techno, Vainio is always creating unique, physical sounds. He has released on labels like editions Mego, Touch, Wavetrap and Sähkö and he has been producing among others with Alan Vega of Suicide, Keiji Haino, Chicks on Speed, John Duncan and Bruce Gilbert.

http://https://youtu.be/6ot3Jps-zIs

This is a project by Manuela Benetton, supported by Initiative Neue Musik e.V., Elektronisches Studio der Technischen Universität Berlin, Deutschlandradio Kultur and Digital in Berlin.