Olivier Toulemonde: objects
Michael Thieke: clarinet
Both actives in the Berlin improvisation scene, Michael Thieke and Olivier
Toulemonde work together on the way of a quiet music, in which scraped and
breathly sounds pull out from the silence some rich noisy textures. Playing
totally acoustic, they develop a real sense of air in and around the sounds.
The space plays also a significant role, like the third part of a trio, with
Michael's clarinet and Olivier's acoustic objects.
Concert of the duo Toulemonde/Thieke is supported by French Institute in Prague
"Multiple Systems of Events, Evolving at Their Own Rates"
With the first word, the second follows, and so it goes with sound. Sound, though it may be caught in a moment, and held, what is held is only an image, a tracing, a sort of footprint of the passing wind on a sandy landscape, or a cross-section of the intensity and pressure moving through a certain space at a certain moment. A sound has an inner life, and evolves in time. In the moment the sound is listened to, the mind is changed. With the changing consciousness, the person too changes. A step towards a textural interpretation of reality is made.
What is the role of the performer in this circumstance? Is it enough for the environment to simply make itself available to be perceived? Is the performer to take on an acrobatic role, providing vicarious physical entertainment for the audience? Must he or she themselves attempt to enter an ecstatic state on behalf of the audience that this may (again vicariously) be transmitted to the audience (presumably through the sounds)? Or is the musician/performer simply an advanced fabricator of sonic textures, which must then be parsed phenomenologically by each audience member? What is the use of these performed moments? What are we doing here? When the environment is ready to stand up and vibrate will we be ready to vibrate, will we hear it?
The totality of the universe can be understood as multiple systems of events, evolving at their own rates. Such systems can interact, or can exist in a sort of state of pseudo-ignorance of one another. Some define their movements, and to certain extent, some can even define their movements in relation to time. Others are borne on, as if moving along the current beneath a river, stretching outwards towards along the edge of universal expansion. Surf's up.
Core of the Coalman, the solo project of sound artist Jorge Boehringer, consists of continuity and discontinuity for viola, voice and circuits on the border between order and chaos. Sonically diverse and at times explosive in texture, Core of the Coalman emphasizes the physicality of sound in its synesthetic relationships between ear, mind, and environment.
Performances including feedback-driven yodel triggers,descending tympanic pressures implying sexual interface, and extended upwardly-mobile Carnasitic arrays, with ornaments, have been featured on all kinds of concert programs. This project has comfortably shared programs with everything from power electronics and noise (such as Deathroes, D Yellow Swans and Dead Machines), to rock bands (from Deerhoof to Caroliner Rainbow to Skullflower) and famed avant-garde figures (like Ikue Mori, Pauline Oliveros, and Ghedalia Tazartes), and been presented on several major festivals such as Impakt Festival (presented by Kraak) and Colour Out of Space (presented by Chocolate Monk).
Boehringer and his solo project accidently moved from Oakland, California to Prague, Czech Republic four years ago, and since then he has released several recordings some of which are: Aggregate and Crackle (Chocolate Monk, UK), Symmetrical Cavepeople (Insect, CZ), You'll Need A Catapult (KlangundKrach, CZ), Box of the Last Help (Zum, US), Affinity Groups (self), Precambrian Figures (Unverified, UK). He teaches sound, experimental and interactive media, and runs a visual art studio at Prague College, where he also moderates the Experimental Arts Reseach Lab (EARL) a clearinghouse for crazy people with soldering irons and noisy ideas.
