AVLAB Meeting: Sound It Yourself

Fela Borbone

 

Sound It Yourself explores and presents contemporary sound creation, characterized by the construction of Lo-Fi musical instruments, the modification of everyday objects for sound purposes, and incorporating noise and ambient sound into current musical trends.

At a time when the “Do It Yourself” philosophy is in widespread use, there are proposals in the sound field that trace their roots to the Punk attitude of the 1970s seen through a technological filter, such as that of Fela Borbone, –who formed Los Borbones and Ulan Bator Trío. He performs his unique bizarre show with a battery-operated amplifier for his guitar and a rhythm box based on an Amstrad CPC 6128.

The En Busca Del Pasto collective will present the results of their public call Pasto on Stage: Spontaneous Expression Workshop to create a small noise orchestra in the Futurist style of Luigi Russolo, but based on free improvisation using everyday objects transformed into musical instruments. Performers Hectruso y Tomoto will then present their project MINIROC, in which a broken-down multitrack device becomes the creative centre for a wandering rave that will make a sound stop at Medialab-Prado.

By Pedro Portellano, coordinator.

PROGRAM:

7 pm: En Busca del Pasto: Pasto En Escena

see call*

7:30 pm: Hectruso and Tomoto: MINIROC

8 pm: Fela Borbone: Felón y su fonofón

 

7 pm: En Busca del Pasto: Pasto En Escena

“Pasto en Escena” (Pasto on Stage) is a game byEn Busca del Pasto where the improvisers have not previously established their positions on stage or their costumes. Instead, they improvise everything, including their poses, gestures, and so on. That is, our idea is to offer a strictly improvised stage performance, where musical actions and performances both have their place. Our aim is to lend a theatrical quality to musical performance, admitting all kinds of “actions” on stage, using all types of instruments, machines and objects. No standard rules are followed in composition or instrumental execution, there are no pre-established rhythmic or harmonic patterns, and the members have not made any prior agreement about any particular musical criteria. Everything must always be spontaneous. Our aim with all this is to construct musical periods full of nuances and changes that are unstable and unpredictable, with room for trial and error, the beautiful and the ugly, what we we like and what we don’t… Like life itself! Nothing is superfluous!

* On this occasion En Busca Del Pasto will carry out “Pasto en Escena” along with up to 10 collaborators through the AVLAB open call. The collaborators will contribute their performance as well as whatever materials and objects they like, with no filter or selection at all. Following a brief introduction to the concept,  “Pasto en Escena” will be carried out with the collaborators, and, given its nature, we do not yet know what will happen then.
You can sign up until 8 April.

Register before April 8. More information

 

7:30 pm: Hectruso and Tomoto: MINIROC

MINIROC is a wandering rave based on a broken-down multitrack device that composes its own melodies. 600 watts of portable sound traveling along the streets or the countryside. MINIROC is the result of the joint work of artists Tomoto and Hectruso.

 

8 pm: Fela Borbone: Felón y su fonofón

This project presents a different view of the interaction between humans and machines, in this case, through music. What is the point of having a machine play music live when it can easily be recorded and then reproduced? There is certainly a difference but why is that?

Fonofón (or Fonófono) is a rather silly name for an artefact that is already obsolete. In the era of Gigabytes, and even Terabytes, it is quite a challenge to write programmes for a computer with only 128 Kilobytes of RAM. We are talking about an Amstrad CPC6128, a survivor of the 1980s, which has percussion components (metal tray, Tupperware and cake pan) that are hit by hard disc heads adapted for that purpose. Its rhythms are accompanied by the classic square wave beeps from its AY-3-8912 sound chip, which inevitably evoke memories of primitive videogames. In spite of its playful look, it is able to execute relatively complex accompaniments with a machine sound.

In juxtaposition to the precision of this automatic factor is the human component, Fela Borbone  who, with a four-string “guitar” made of a large container for liquids, proves to be very human. Surf beats, Rock and Roll and other more tropical styles are reviewed during the show and inevitably are transformed into a techno-primitive nightmare that ends up hypnotizing the audience.

During the presentation, the artist will perform several short pieces and will answer any questions that arise.