ensemble – unyazi – JOÃO ORECCHIA

I presented two compositions at the 2016 Unyazi Electronic Music Festival in Cape Town, South Africa, which had the theme Infrastructures.

Feedback Loop for String Quartet and Contact Microphones (2016)
for violin, viola, cello, double bass and electronics

Feedback Loop for String Quartet and Contact Microphones is an experimental
process score. Contrabass, cello, viola and violin are networked by a chain of
contact microphones and transducer speakers to form a loop of vibrational
feedback between the instruments. Each segment of the chain is fed into an
equaliser so that specifc frequencies may be amplifed. The vibration of the strings
on one instrument excites the strings on the next and so on, causing a drone of
overtones, hums and squeals.

One performer will improvise with the equalisers for several minutes and then
invite the remaining performers to intervene in the vibrational circuit by
improvising on their respective instrument.

Soundlines (2016 [2008])
for piano quintet and electronics

In 2008 I was commissioned to musically interpret a drawing by Johannesburg
visual artist Marcus Neustetter depicting the Johannesburg skyline superimposed
over the staf (see next page). I redrew the outline into a sequencing software and
assigned several “instruments” to play in unison as well as to control the cutoff
frequency of a low pass filter. The result was somewhat random and chaotic.

The drawing acts as a graphic score that will be transposed over several layers,
taking on different shapes as the various transpositions overlap. Each musician will
follow the same line, though the contours of that line will bend or resist bending in
different ways for each player. The result will be unpredictable to some extent,
akin to the overlapping of multiple transport routes, telephone lines, electrical
wiring, mobile signals, etc.