GUTZ

AURES LONDON - 03.03.2019

Sound art project GUTZ produced its first release on Aures state of the art 3D sound system. The artists presented four pieces in a one-hour blindfolded sonic experience. The partial sensory deprivation aimed to pause the narratives of modern life, taking the participants through a meditative journey in the recesses of the unconscious.

“I do not defend sonic matter as an aesthetic or conceptual category, but as a gate to different worlds of perception, experience and creation. Sound is a fiercely powerful medium, in the original sense. This raw primordial quality is easily lost in the mud of contemplation.”
-Francisco Lopez

This performance invited the four artists to investigate pain in the everyday human experience. Going beyond the limitations of linguistic expression, the sound pieces aimed to give various insights into the role of pain in emotional regulation, personal growth and transformation. In the context of this shared experience, GUTZ also explores the role of pain in social bonding.

JOSE MACABRA

Jose Macabra is an artist, sound designer, curator and lecturer at University of the Arts and SAE Institute. Jose’s work nourishes from many influences, from the industrial and noise scenes, together with a legion of related genres such as ritual and the darker flavours of techno, blended with sound art, art brut and experimental music. Macabra's voice, vision, sound, style and art make up for a cohesive aesthetic mixed with the sense of danger and unpredictability Jose brings to his performances.

Jose Macabra’s work has been performed in art establishment venues including The Barbican, Tate Modern, BFI and The Photographer’s Gallery, Camberwell College of Arts and Kent University. Works involving Jose’s sound design have toured major festivals in Madrid, Berlin, Athens, Brussels, Milan, Barcelona, Lisbon, Manchester, Liverpool and other cultural centres.

AKI PASOULAS

Aki Pasoulas is an electroacoustic composer, lecturer at the University of Kent and the director of Music and Audio Arts Sound Theatre (MAAST). He composes mostly acousmatic music listened to through multiple loudspeaker systems without live performers apart from the person diffusing the work. His scholarly and music works are published through EMI/KPM, ICMA, Sonos Localia, Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press.

Aki’s interests span psychoacoustics and sound perception, time perception in relation to music, spatial sound, acoustic communication, and soundscape ecology especially in relation to listening psychology. He has written for instruments, found objects, voice, recorded and electronic sound, composed music for the theatre and for short animation films, and organised and performed with many ensembles.

GUY HARRIES

Guy Harries is a composer, sound artist and performer, working with electronics, acoustic instruments, voice and multimedia. His research explores the use of live electronics in music with a focus on dramaturgy, the performative and audience participation. He also composes socio-politically engaged opera including Jasser (tour throughout the Netherlands in 2006/07) and Two Caravans (Flourish New Opera Prize winner 2012), and runs a community opera devising workshop at Theatre Deli studios.

He also works as a singer-songwriter under the moniker Guy XY and recently released the album Turing Cabaret inspired by the life of Alan Turing. His music releases include solo work and collaborations with the POW Ensemble, Meira Asher and Yumi Hara on the labels X-OR, Sub Rosa, Migro. His latest album titled Fault Line was released on the label Sombre Soniks.

CHRISTIAN DUKA

Christian Duka is a sound artist, art director and curator of the generation that emerged in the wake of digital technology. He lectures Electronic Music at SAE London and curates the artistic programme of Aures London, UK's first fully immersive venue with cutting-edge acoustics and 3D audio-visual projection.

Christian Duka’s pieces take place in immersive settings, where space becomes an instrument at the hand of the artist, a tool at the service of sound & visual design, a canvas where body movements can be metaphorically painted.Christian explores the intersection of sound with different art forms and the imageries appearing on close eye-lids.

His last piece, UR: Human Presence, combined contemporary dance, performance, visual, 3D sound art and the presence of the participants to depict the inner workings of the human body.

Ph. by Sophie Le Roux