AGGREGATE

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AUTOMATED PIPE ORGANS / HYPERORGANS

Digitalisation advances ever further into areas beyond the virtual – for the pipe organ, this opens up new artistic possibilities. All of the instrument’s parameters can now be controlled by computer via interfaces, while the sound is still created in the pipes of the organ. In this way, a meshing of instrumental and electronic music, the possibilities of which are largely untapped, can be achieved. gamut inc‘s international concert series and festival AGGREGATE exposes this potential for artistic innovation in organ music of the 21st century. Composers with differing musical backgrounds and orientations create new pieces for automated pipe organs. Contemporary electronics, Neue Musik, avant-garde pop and noise music interweave with one another. Pioneering artistic strategies are explored, from purely automated organ concerts via combinations with instrumentalists to real-time control and synchronisation with electronics. AGGREGATE pursues the fundamental questions that computer controlled instrumental music poses: virtuosity and its overcoming, the limits of perception of highly compressed musical events, the crossovers and links between electronic and acoustic music, objective interpretation and the effects of mechanically precise reproduction.

organ console at Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche Berlin

INSTRUMENTS

The internationally renowned organs in Orgelpark Amsterdam, the Stavanger Concert Hall, Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche or in the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne all offer unique technical and sonic possibilities. The number of pipes, timbres of the register, additional striking mechanisms, wind pressure control and the acoustics of the spaces are all very different. The organ inaugurated at St. Antonius in Düsseldorf Oberkassel in 2017 was one of the first in the world to make use of SINUA control technology, in which the registration of the instrument is radically reorganised. The full potential of the organ as a synthesiser unfolds through the instrumentation of the timbres and the selection of pipe sounds. Unrestricted automation of the register makes the creation of completely new tonal palettes possible.

COMPOSITION

The compositions explore artistic stylistic devices that only become possible through programmability: automated changes in register, concurrency of different tempos, extreme density of events, complex polyrhythms, aural-physical phenomena, or sliding transitions between tonal, noise and rhythmic. Through automation, the characteristics of the pipe organ as machine and acoustic synthesiser come to the fore, uncovering innovative artistic positions between acoustic and electronic music. Automation, which was already being applied at the beginning of the 20th century, reaches a completely new quality through computer control. Control is now significantly more reliable, register changes and note durations can be adjusted in millisecond intervals, meaning that new acoustic phenomena can be created.

AGGREGATE at St Antonius Düsseldorf Oberkassel

CONTROL

MIDI technology developed in the 1980s is means by which organs can be controlled by computer. Current technology enables MIDI notes to be created in real time and immediately checked on the instrument. Algorithmic composition programmes enable intuitive composition processes with a large amount of material. Thousands of notes and parameters can be generated and manipulated in the shortest of time. The computer-controlled organ is the provisional and logical climax in the development of the instrument, which has been continually updated using the newest mechanical achievements since its invention.

During the pandemic we controlled the organ in St Antonius/Düsseldorf from Berlin

gamut inc‘s AGGREGATE Festival Berlin : Oct 11 – 13 2022

Oct 11
Kapelle der Versöhnung, 7-9pm
festival opening with the audio-visual installation CLASH/BLEND by Playmodes

Oct 12
Kapelle der Versöhnung, 11am-9pm
audio-visual installation CLASH/BLEND by Playmodes
Gedächtniskirche, 8pm
concerts and talks by Ellen Arkbro, Adi Gelbart, Hampus Lindwall / moderation Hans Fidom

Oct 13
Kapelle der Versöhnung, 11am-9pm
audio-visual installatino CLASH/BLEND by Playmodes
Gedächtniskirche, 8pm
concerts and talks by Jasmine Guffond, gamut inc, Mark Fell / moderation Thaddeus Herrmann

gamut inc‘s AGGREGATE Fesival Berlin : Aug 30 – Sep 1 2021

Aug 30 | ZIONSKIRCHE | Panels with Hans Fidom (Orgelpark Amsterdam), Sinua, Elisabeth Hubmann; Talks with Arturas Bumšteinas and gamut inc | Moderation: Paul Paulun

Aug 30 | KAPELLE DER VERSÖHNUNG | Selected works by Conlon Nancarrow, arranged for organ by gamut inc (MIDI files: Wolfgang Heisig), and a new work for hyperorgan and electronics by Arturas Bumšteinas

Aug 31 | AUENKIRCHE | Talks with Nils Henrik Asheim and Stefan Fraunberger | Moderation: Paul Paulun. New works by Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger, Stefan Fraunberger, Nils Henrik Asheim

Sept 1 | GEDÄCHTNISKIRCHE | Talks with Gamut Inc, Jessica Ekomane and Seth Horvitz | Moderation: Paul Paulun. New works by gamut inc, Jessica Ekomane, Seth Horvitz

KONZERTE / CONCERTS since 2020

Jan 25 2020 AGGREGATE:SUSTAIN @ Orgelnacht St. Antonius Düsseldorf
new works by gamut inc and Robert van Heumen

Feb 1 2020 AGGREGATE:SUSTAIN @ Kunst-Station St. Peter Köln
new works by gamut inc and George Rahi

August 13th 2020 AGGREGATE:SUSTAIN @ Auenkirche Berlin
new works by gamut inc and Robert Lippok

August 15th 2020 SUSTAIN @ Kapelle der Versöhnung Berlin
15:00 – 18:00 Installation by gamut inc

Jan 23 2021 AGGREGATE:SUSTAIN @ St. Antonius Düsseldorf
20:00 Telematic hyperorgan concert by gamut inc

Jan 30 2021 AGGREGATE @ Stavanger Concert House NORWAY
Telematic hyperorgan concert test by gamut inc

June 18 2021 Telematic Hyperorgan Concert @ International Symposium Orgelpark Amsterdam
gamut inc plays automated pipe organs in Berlin, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Düsseldorf

Aug 30 – Sep 1 2021 AGGREGATE Festival 2021 Berlin
Concerts & talks @ Zionskirche, Kapelle der Versöhnung, Auenkirche and Gedächtniskirche Berlin

Nov 13 2021 AGGREGATE @ Orgelpark Amsterdam, concerts from gamut inc and Robert van Heumen

March 13 – 17 2022 AGGREGATE @ Palau Güell Barcelona
gamut inc prepares installation for the automatable organ in the Palau Güell for Sónar 2022

March 26 2022 AGGREGATE @ Orgelpark Amsterdam

May 12 – Aug 9 2022 Residency @ Villa Kamogawa Kyoto | Goethe Institut
gamut inc works on new pieces at the Weimbs organ in Kyoto, Japan

June 11 2022 AGGREGATE Kyoto @ Orgelpark Amsterdam / International Symposium 2022
Hyperorgan Performance with gamut inc and Jun Sagawa in Kyoto, to be presented in Amsterdam!

June 16 – 18 2022 AGGREGATE @ Sónar Barcelona 2022
Installation for the automatable Organ in the Palau Güell

Oct 1 2022 AGGREGATE @ Stavanger Concert House NORWAY
Concert with new works from gamut inc, Nils Hendrik Asheim and more

Oct 11 – 13 2022 AGGREGATE Festival 2022 Berlin
Concerts on 12th and 13th of Oct @ Gedächtniskirche with new works from Ellen Arkbro, Mark Fell, gamut inc, Adi Gelbart, Jasmine Guffond, Hampus Lindwall and Santi Vilanova.

Nov 17 2022 AGGREGATE @ Église St Esprit Paris with works from Hampus Lindwall, Cory Arcangel, Mauro Lanza, gamut inc, Connlon Nancarrow

Dec 2022 AGGREGATE Residency @ Logos Foundation Gent
gamut inc develops new pieces for Hybr and quarter tone organs

U P C O M I N G
JUNE 1 2023 AGGREGATE@ Igreja da Lapa, Serralves em Festa Porto
JUNE 2 2023 @ Masterclass at Academy of Fine Arts Porto about AGGREGATE
JUNE 8–10 2023 AGGREGATE@ Orgelpark Amsterdam, International Symposium
JUNE 14 2023 AGGREGATE@ St Aposteln Köln, Festival Romanischer Sommer
AUGUST 12 2023 AGGREGATE@ Nikolaikirche Hamburg, Orgelsommer Hamburg
OCTOBER 21 2023 AGGREGATE@ Festival New Music Vancouver
NOVEMBER 2 2023 AGGREGATE@ Auenkirche Berlin
JANUARY 27 2024 AGGREGATE@ St. Antonius Düsseldorf
MARCH 22 2024 AGGREGATE@ Orgelpark Amsterdam