(DA)(NE)S festival 2009

The current edition of (DA)(NE)S festival focuses on artistic explorations by contemporary musicians who, despite being academy trained, are far from conventional – the emphasis, on the one hand, will be on microtonal music and alternative tuning, and on the other hand, on less usual electronic performances (Barbara Buchholz, Howie B., Marko Ciciliani).

Microtonal music puts particular emphasis on the aspect of music that rarely stands out in Slovenia, as the aspect of rhythm here seems to be more understandable. It focuses on specific presentation of music being created “inbetween individual piano keys”, that is, microtonal music and music with alternative tuning (Jurica Jelić). Sometimes this literally means creating the instruments anew to better realise this music principle (Jacques Dudon).

The original concept of placing music creations into space (the Main square in Maribor, Slovenia) and time (end of summer) is preserved. Past practical experience has affirmed such development of the festival, from the technical basis to the venue where the strength of the sound system is appropriate and non-aggressive, observing the audience in a subtle way. Performance tailored to people's needs.

However, it is also important for local artists to integrate self-confidently into the international scene and accept new challenges willingly. At (DA)(NE)S festival, local musicians and artists connect with international guests. If the 2nd edition of the festival was mainly locally oriented, the 3rd edition is international.

The idea of the main square as the sound site specific, space and portal where the old and the new are realised equally – the genealogy and construction of sheer sound.

Cameron Bobro

Marko Ciciliani & Barbara Lüneburg (violin, viola), 9. 9. 2009
The music of the acclaimed, outstanding sound and light artist Marko Ciciliani uses a sound vocabulary that extends from chamber music to electronic noise. The audiovisual performance “My Ultradeep I” by Ciciliani and his band Bakin Zub is a synaesthetic experience with its surprising turns and dazzling tone colours.
Marko Ciciliani (1970 Zagreb/Cro) received his musical training as a composer in The Hague, New York and Hamburg. He has written for a huge variety of settings like orchestra, chamber and solo scorings, with and without electronics. Ciciliani is also active as a performer and improviser and has worked in various collaborative projects in the fields of theatre, dance, video and music.
As a performer, Marko Ciciliani has made his name as a virtuoso on the no-input mixer - a mixing board, in which sounds are produced by causing internal feedbacks, refraining from using any external sound sources. As a soloist he performed amongst other at the Munich Biennale 2002, the "International Noise Festival Ljubljana 2002" and the renowned "no-backup" concert series at STEIM in Amsterdam. He was invited to perform his solo composition "Mask" at the Zagreb Biennale 2003.

Barbara Buchholz (theremin), 10. 9. 2009
The theremin is enjoying growing popularity, and Berlin-based Barbara Buchholz is one of the world’s top virtuosos of this instrument: the magic kit that came to us from Russia at the beginning of the previous century. It is the only instrument that is played without being touched and the grandfather of all electronic instruments. It is the tremulous-sounding superweapon featured on the soundtracks of countless horror films. On her internationally celebrated debut album, Russia with Love, Barbara Buchholz took stock of this unusual instrument’s capabilities. On her CD, Moonstruck, she places it in an entirely new context.

Jurica Jerić (guitar), 11. 9. 2009
A microtonal, fretless guitar player from Knin, Croatia. He learned his first chords from his father and started playing bass and guitar in few bands and age of 14. Over the years his affinity towards rock, blues, jazz was constantly developed. At age of 20 he discovered a fretless guitar and wonderful world of non-twelve tone-tuning systems by the help of great microtonal guitar player and composer Neil Haverstick. In his music Jurica uses both acoustic and electric fretless guitars tuned in 10tet, 19tet, atonal and just intonation and 19tet fretted acoustic guitar. Also he plays guitar (12tet fretted and 12tet fretless) in Croatian alt. pop band "The Alibor" and works on a microtonal project with Croatian composer Samuel Sacher from the bands "Vjestice" and "Haustor".

Howie B. , 17. 9. 2009
Howard Bernstein (born 2 March 1963, Glasgow, Scotland), professionally known as Howie B, is a musician and producer who has worked with artists such as Björk, U2, Robbie Robertson, Flisa and Tricky. He has issued the following albums: Music for Babies (1996),
Turn the Dark Off (1997), Snatch (1999), Sly and Robbie drum & bass Strip to the Bone by Howie B (1999), Folk (2001), Another Late Night: Howie B (DJ mix album, 2001), FabricLive.05 (DJ mix album, 2002), Last Bingo in Paris (2004), Music for Astronauts and Cosmonauts (2006)

Jacques Dudon, 18. 9. 2009
He is a French Just Intonation composer and instrument builder. He is renowned for developing a series of photosonic disk (disque photosonique) instruments over the last several decades that produce sound from modulated light. A light source shines through painted glass discs; the resulting patterns of light are picked up by solar cells and converted into a voltage, which can then be treated as a sound signal.
The production of synthetic sound in this manner has been used in 'optosonic' instruments since the early 20th Century. However Dudon's method is notable for the generation of tone which is produced by the overlapping of two or three discs, and the opportunities this design provides for timbral shifts by slowing one or more discs manually, thereby altering the waveform.
Dudon has also created 150 water instruments called ‘aquaphones’ (described in his pioneering book ‘La Musique De L’eau’), including a "flutabullum", a system of transforming flute sounds by recording them underwater.