The Rack of David

David

Davíð Brynjar Franzson is a freelancing composer based in Los Angeles.

David will tell us about projects he is currently developing, including a coil based feedback chordophone as well as various prototypes that allow traditional instruments to interact with open air feedback. To speed up development, David has built a small library of technical elements, heavily inspired by the lab’s organolib.

His other projects include an Urban Archive as an English Garden, developed in collaboration with Halla Steinunn Stefansdottir (Nordic Affect), Russell Greenberg (Yarn/Wire), Julia Mogensen, and Matt Barbier (wasteLAnd); the Negotiation of Context, developed in collaboration with Yarn/Wire–described as “engagingly tactile” by the NY Times, “compelling” by the Wire which selected the release as one of their top 10 modern composition releases of 2014, and as “sonic art that is clearly going places” by Gramophone; the cello concerto on Matter and Materiality, commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic National Radio’s commissioning fund–described as “strikingly static” by the Guardian; and the Cartography of Time, an ongoing exploration of the experience of time, developed in collaboration with Gnarwhallaby, Vicky Chow (Bang on a Can), Mariel Roberts, Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki (RAGE thrombones), Rusell Greenberg (Yarn|Wire), Matthias Engler, and Ingolfur Vilhjalmsson (Ensemble Adapter).

A recording of the monodrama longitude was released on Bedroom Community in Fall 2019. It made multiple year-end lists, and was described as “gorgeous and somewhat terrifying in equal measure.” by 5:4. His most recent release–in collaboration with Stephanie Aston and wasteLAnd––voice fragments ,was released on Carrier Records in January 2021. It has received critical praise with one reviewer exclaiming it as ‘stunning’ during the online premiere.

Davíð co-runs Carrier Records–a label for new and experimental music–with Sam Pluta, Katie Young, and Jeff Snyder.

Website: http://franzson.com/

Nicola

Nicola Privato is an Italian composer, musician, and PhD researcher at the Intelligent Instruments Lab.

Nicola will talk about his new version of the Magnetic Discs, two controllers based on permanent magnets that generate sound and haptic response by interacting with each other or with any other magnetic or ferromagnetic material. As the controllers repel each other, they produce the impression of an invisible interface that the performer can navigate. Nicola will tell us about the evolution of the controllers, about the magnetic scores he has been developing in order to perform with them, and about his experience with the DodekaOTTO spatialisation system he spent a week with in Linz.

Of course, after the presentation everybody will get the chance to jam with the discs!

Website: https://nicolaprivato.com/