A recent article from Il Corriere della Umbria

A recent article from Il Corriere della Umbria on a concert with Alessandro Petrolati, Carlo Fatigoni and the Urbino Laptop Orchestra

Sguardi Sonori 2013

Concert at Discoteca Di Stato - Sguardi Sonori 2008

In addition to concert, there will be a conference in the afternoon at 16.00 at the Center for American Studies in Via Caetani 32, Roma.

Turn up the Volume: The Audio Archive and Ways of Listening
Sguardi Sonori presentation at Discoteca di Stato and the Center for American Studies
Rome, Italy
June 27, 2008

By Neil Leonard

This year’s edition of Sguardi Sonori is hosted, in part, by Discoteca di Stato (DDS), an extensive archive and study center dedicated to the preservation of sonic memory. The archive houses tens of thousands of hours of sound from around the world, with an emphasis on the unique sonic culture of Italy, including music, political speeches, and ambient sound of social events.
In this venue, Scanner (Robin Rimbaud), Kim Cascone, and I will present a concert of live electronics works. The personal collections of sounds we each work and tour with mirror DDS’s comprehensive collection. In our case, however, the collections are not the final product or center of discourse, but rather, raw material that we process to generate new works.

I was introduced to Scanner’s early work by my students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in the early 1990’s. They were fascinated by Scanner’s inventive recycling of disposable sounds from police scanners, which he collected for his early compositions – and from which he adopted his stage name, Scanner. His use of the disembodied voices and electronic noises, produced by scanning devices, did much to focus our critical discussion on the writings of Luigi Russolo and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and on the work of Marcel Duchamp, whose readymade sculptures of the early 20th century strongly suggested that sonic equivalents were just a matter of time.

Mining the airwaves, Scanner built an important body of work that changed to reflect the character of each location in which he eavesdropped. While John Cage explored similar ideas of appropriated broadcast and sound maps in his Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951) for 12 radios, digital technology handed Scanner the means to create real-time sound-maps that include the most private transmissions.

Like Scanner, Cascone has spent years constructing a sonic archive that fuels his current performances. Cascone’s work draws on a vast collection of sounds he created with hardware and software synthesizers. He builds home-brew software to navigate this repository in concert. After recycling and mixing these sounds algorithmically, to create a meta-soundscape, Cascone remixes them again on stage.

Cascone’s work epitomizes the extent to which new technologies are continually reshaping the ways we listen to, and work with, audio. In his recent Spectral Space, for example, Cascone uses indeterminacy to mimic the media overload that surrounds us. The work examines our ability to assimilate and decode this dense, omnipresent chorus of disembodied sound that has nothing to say, and yet, dominates our cultural soundscape. The result is a non-narrative performance in which Cascone finds “tangles of sounds that glint, shimmer, collide and implode within the fabric of noise.”

My own sonic archive has a distinct component of field recordings I collected while I was living in Italy for much of 2006. The sounds range from recordings of ancient Lazio ritual, that Dr. Massimo Pistacchi, Director of DDS, generously shared with me to recordings I made of Joseph Kournelli’s installation (located at La Marrana, the private estate for environmental art in La Spezia) to my recordings of Padovan a cappella groups -- comprised of workers from the open marketplace whose voices are quickly being replaced by the homogenous din of broadcast media. With the aid of computer processing, I have extracted, exaggerated and juxtaposed aspects of these keynote sounds to create a personal sonic statement.

My recent Italian commissions provided opportunities to leverage these sounds in three large scale works, including a permanent installation on the top of a mountain overlooking the Ligurian Sea, in a surround audio installation in the remains of the Templar church, Chiesa San Galgano, and most recently, as part of a 400-meter installation in the porticos of Padova’s historic district. These works explore the colliding sonic identities of new and old worlds and the relationship of the visitor to local histories.
Our short residency at Discoteca di Stato and the Center for American Studies provides several ways to reconsider the audio archive as an essential resource for 21st century art and examine how technological is changing the way we listen to and create sound works.

Neil Leonard
Boston
Director, Sonic Arts @ GASP
Professor, Berklee College of Music
May 2008

Neil Leonard @ Auditorium di Roma

Echoes and Footsteps - live at the Auditorium di Roma. Music copyright Neil Leonard, 2007.

Undicesimo Festival of Chiusdino, Abbazia di San Galgano, Siena

Carlo Fatigoni, Director Sguardi Sonori chose this Templar church for the sound installations by Leonard and Chang. Other events included a concert by Franco Battiato and a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto.

Sguardi Sonori 2007 at Isolda of San Servolo, Venice

In the early 8th century San Servolo hosted a Benedictine Monastry that was converted to a Hospital around the mid-eighteenth century. The island is about 1/2 a kilometer from the main site of the Venice Biennale, that was happening concurrently. Massimo Ongaro/ Teatro Fondamenta Nuove was our host.



Sguardi Sonori 2007
Isolda di San Servolo
Teatro Fondamenta Nuove
La Biennale di Venezia


A view of San Servolo

Setting up in the courtyard in front of Chiesa di Santo Spirito.

Performing Echoes and Footsteps in front of the church. Photo by Marilena Vita

Consulting with Phill Niblock before performing his work.

June 26, 20:00
Neil Leonard
Amnon Wolman
Phill Niblock & Katherine Liberovskaya
Pamela Z
A set by graduates of the Music Synthesis program of Berklee College of Music:
Anthony Baldino
Jess Hewitt
Pierce Warnecke

June 27, 20:00
Patrizia Mattioli
Duprass (Ido Govrin & Liora Bedford)
Steve Piccolo & Gak Sato
Cardiotest con Fathi Hassan, Alessandro Pintus e Morena Tamborrino
Mauro Sambo & Ignazio Lago
John Duncan
Dj set Obo Music

Sguardi Sonori 2007 in Benevento

At Benevento I presented sound works by Gary Chang and myself Chiesa di San Bartolemeo. We brought a Blue Sky Dolby 5.1 surround system for playback.

Later in the evening I performed at the Futurity Festival.

Pierce Warnecke, graduate of the Music Synthesis program at Berklee College of Music

Jess Hewitt and Anthony Baldino, graduates of the Music Synthesis program at Berklee College of Music

Sguardi Sonori 2007 at Auditorium di Roma, Parco della Musica

Sguardi Sonori 2007 began on June 20th with a concert at the Auditorium di Roma, Parco della Musica. This center for music designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano who designed the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris with Richard Rogers.

Neil Leonard performing Echoes and Footsteps with video by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

On stage after the performance Olivia Block, Neil Leonard, Pamela Z, Stephen Piccolo, Gak Sato.

Back stage with artist, organizer and friend Carlo Fatigoni.
Date: June 20
City: Rome, Italy
Venue: Auditorium Parco Della Musica, Teatro Studio, Roma
Concert works by Neil Leonard, Olivia Block, Pamela Z, 
Steve Piccolo & Gak Sato
 and a sound installation by Gary Chang.

Sguardi Sonori Press Release

SGUARDI SONORI 2007 - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

http://sguardisonori2007.blogspot.com/

Sguardi Sonori 2007 is a festival of media and time based art featuring artists from New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Havana, Israel, Egypt and Italy presenting works is sound performance, installation, video DJ/VJing.

Artists working in sound: Gary Chang, Neil Leonard, Olivia Block, Pamela Z, John Duncan, Phill Niblock, Katherine Liberovskaya, Steve Piccolo and Gak Sato, Amnon Wolman, Duprass (Ido Govrin and Liora Bedford), Patrizia Mattioli, Mauro Sambo, Ignazio Lago, CarDioTest, Fathi Hassan, Alessandro Pintus, Morena Tamborrino and Marco Benda Dj set. Emerging artists include recent graduates of the Music Synthesis Department del Berklee College of Music, Boston.

Artists working in video: Candice Ivy, Harvey loves Harvey, James Nadeau, Jen Schmidt, Justin Beckman, Matt Gamber, Taha Belal, Carlo Fatigoni, Fathi Hassan, Alberto Magrin, Alessandro Pintus, Gianni Moretti, Marco Benda and Marilena Vita, Pierce Warnecke.

Featured Exhibitions: Italian Dreams and Sognando l’Italia, works by Fathi Hassan, Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, Carrie Mae Weems, Carlo Fatigoni, Florindo Rilli, Marco Zoi, Daniele Brocchi, Alberto Magrin, Laura Troiano, Gianni Moretti.

Concert/Installation Venues:
June 20, Auditorium Parco Della Musica, Teatro Studio, Roma, Italy
June 21, Piazza Santa Sofia, Chiesa di Santo Spirito, Benevento, Italy
June 26-27, Isola di San Servolo, Venice, Italy
June 28, Cattedrale di San Galgano, Siena, Italy

Exhibition Venues:
June 8 - 24 Teatro Junghans (Giudecca) Venice
June 10 - July 8 July Rocca dei Rettori Benevento
July 15 - August 15 Scuderie Aldobrandini Frascati

Upcoming Events in Italy

Date: July 12
City: Padova, Italy
Venue: Rubano Art Festival
Event: Performance with Giuliano Perin Ensemble

Date: July 7
City: Padova, Italy
Venue: Notte Bianca, Tindaci
Event: Performance with Giuliano Perin Ensemble
Address: via Dante 17
Contact: spaziotindaci@tindaci.com

Date: July 6
City: Padova, Italy
Venue: Caffè Pedrocchi
Event: Un Anno di Jazz a Padova” voluta da Centro Porsche Padova e Caffè Pedrocchi
Giuliano Perin "Passion and Reason" CD release concert with Leonard (sax), Perin (vibes), Marcello Tonolo (piano), Luciano Milanese (bass), Massimo Chiarella (drums). The CD also features Dave Samuels (marimba)
Link: www.padovajazz.com

Date: July 1
City: La Spezia, Italy
Venue: Pop-eye festival
Event: Set by Neil Leonard and Anthony Baldino, Jess Hewitt, Pierce Warnecke (Students of the Music Synthesis Department, Berklee College of Music)

Date: June 30
City: Ameglia - La Spezia, Italy
Venue: La Marrana id Montemarcello
Event: Sound performance and installation

Date: June 29
Time: , 5:00 PM
City: La Spezia, Italy
Venue: Palazzina delle Arti
Event: Sound performance
Set by Neil Leonard and Anthony Baldino, Jess Hewitt, Pierce Warnecke (Students of the Music Synthesis Department, Berklee College of Music)

Date: June 28
City: Siena, Italy
Venue: Cattedrale di San Galgano
Event: Sguardi Sonori Festival of Media and Time Based Art
Sound Installation by Gary Chang and Neil Leonard

Date: June 26-27
City: Isola di San Servolo, Venezia, Italy
Venue: Chiesa di Santo Spirito
Event: Sguardi Sonori Festival of Media and Time Based Art
Concert works by Neil Leonard, Pamela Z, Phil Niblock & Katherine Liberovskaya, Pamela Z, Neil Leonard , Amnon Wolman, John Duncan, Steve Piccolo & Gak Sato, Duprass (Ido Govrin & Liora Bedford), Cardiotest with Fathi Hassan, Alessandro Pintus e Morena Tamborrino, Mauro Sambo & Ignazio Lago, Patrizia Mattioli
Sound Installation by Gary Chang, Chiesa di San Servolo

Date: June 21
City: Benevento, Italy
Venue: Piazza Santa Sofia
Event: Sguardi Sonori Festival of Media and Time Based Art
Concert works by Neil Leonard and Anthony Baldino, Jess Hewitt, Pierce Warnecke (Students of the Music Synthesis Department, Berklee College of Music)
Sound Installation by Gary Chang, Chiesa di Santo Spirito, 5:00 PM

Date: June 20
City: Rome, Italy
Venue: Auditorium Parco Della Musica, Teatro Studio, Roma
Event: Sguardi Sonori Festival of Media and Time Based Art
Concert works by Neil Leonard, Olivia Block, Pamela Z,
Steve Piccolo & Gak Sato
Sound Installation "Sanctuaries" by Gary Chang

Date: May 27
City: Padova
Venue: Giornata dell'Ascolto
Event: Music for dance performance with The Simple Company organized by the University of Padova