IMM Chronicle May 2013

 

LED suits for the stage
Dipl.-Ing. Tom Orr, graduate of the Audio and Video Engineering program, developed radio-controlled LED suits for the musical Hexflash. For the co-production between Barner16, Meine Damen und Herren and Lukulule e. V., a thrilling extravaganza of music, theatre and dance was produced, loosely based on Hansel and Gretel by the Grimm Brothers. Ten actors and dancers wear LED suits, which light up in different colours and are integrated in the dance choreography, or even become part of the set design. On 29 May the musical will celebrate its première in Hamburg at Kampnagel.

 

Documentary film production Der Dachdecker von Auschwitz-Birkenau
Together with the documentary director Johannes Kuhn, Tom Orr and Hannes Marget, both graduates of the Audio and Video Engineering program, are producing a 60-minute portrait about Mordechai Ciechanowe, a survivor of the concentration camp. The 89-year-old contemporary witness was detained in several camps in Poland and Germany between
1942 and 1945. In the course of filming, he visited those places with the film team and explained what he had to endure during that time. Recordings were also produced in Ramat Gan, Israel, where Ciechanower now lives with his wife Dvora. The film will première in January 2014. The documentary is being produced by Gegen Vergessen - Für Demokratie e. V. [Against forgetting - for democracy] in cooperation with the Concentration Camp Memorial Hailfingen-Tailfingen, and is being directed by Johannes Kuhn. Tom Orr is responsible for the editing and Hannes Marget is responsible for the audio.

 

Mastering engineer for Tabla Records
The début release of the Nuremberg House/Techno Label Tabla Records of the Dutch producer Ion Ludwig is now on the market. Kitaro Beeh, student of the Audio and Video Engineering program, is responsible for this record as a mastering engineer. The entire first edition is on the market and consequently the distribution company has already commissioned another pressing of the record.

 

Mixing at the Hurricane and the Southside Festival
Christoph Niemeier, student of the Audio and Video Engineering program, has been working as a FOH mixer since the start of the year for Torpus And The Art Directors. After an extensive tour in February, the festival season now begins, when they will guest at festivals including the Orange Blossom Special, Traumzeit Festival, Hurricane, Southside and Bootboohook.
In addition, he will be supporting the audio engineering for the band Ashes of Pompeii, in which IMM student Lukas Wiesemüller plays guitar, at the Fusion Festival.

 

Die Durch Die Nase Lachen [Laughing through one's nose]
On 6 May IMM assistant professor Christian Schäfer's piece Die Durch Die Nase Lachen was released on the vinyl compilation El House (Cómeme) with tracks by musicians from Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina and Germany. Die Durch die Nase Lachen [Laughing through one's nose] was produced exclusively with a TR 808 drum machine and can most likely be called a 'DJ tool'. However, there is also a special Long Hot Summer Version with additional samples.
 
IMM welcomes Bruno Spoerri
On 16 May from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Bruno Spoerri talks on his work as a pioneer of electronic and computer music as part of the seminar Speaking and writing about music and sound. The saxophonist, composer, pioneer of electronic music and interactive computer music specialist has been a professional musician since 1965 and has collaborated in numerous jazz groups and composed music for corporate films, documentaries and feature films, advertisements, a musical, radio plays and television productions. From 1984 he has focused on interactive computer music and given concerts in Europe, India, Africa and the USA (e.g. with Albert Mangelsdorff, Joel Vandroogenbroeck (Brainticket) and George Gruntz). In 1985 he was the co-founder and co-director of the Swiss Center for Computer Music. He is also the editor and main author of the publications Jazz in der Schweiz [Jazz in Switzerland] (2005) and Musik aus dem Nichts: Geschichte der elektroakustischen Musik der Schweiz [Music from nothing: history of electroacoustic music in Switzerland] (2010).
In the evening at 8.30 p.m. Bruno Spoerri is giving another talk on Hermann Scherchen and the acoustic experimental studio Gravesano in Düsseldorf's Salon des Amateurss. Following this, IMM assistant professor Marc Matter plays a record of music and acoustic experiments from Gravesano Experimental Studio.
 
Safeguarding the future of publicly funded cultural institutions
In the past year Mounir Mahmalat, graduate of the Music and Media program, has published a book with the title Aspekte zur Zukunftssicherung öffentlich getragener Kulturbetriebe [Aspects for safeguarding the future of publicly funded cultural institutions], which was originally written as a Bachelor thesis under Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klinkenberg in the major Music and Media Management.
In the May edition of the KM Magazins of the Kulturmanagement Network an article was published on 6 May summarising the key results of a study by Mounir Mahmalat that the book is based on, about cultural institutions and cultural managers. The aim of the study was to filter out which strategic management methods are used to manage public cultural institutions and under which requirements long-term strategic planning can be achieved in the cultural sector.

 

Christian Schäfer at the Acht Brücken [Eight Bridges] Festival
On 11 May, IMM assistant professor Christian Schäfer aka Christian S is performing at the Acht Brücken [Eight Bridges] Festival in Cologne together with two of the most important dub and techno executive producers, Moritz von Oswald and Adrian Sherwood, in Cologne's Stadtgarten. In the preannouncement about Christian S, Tom Fuchs writes, "If there is any artist in the field of electronic music, who comes the closest to the frequently named and revered Kraftwerk as a pioneer of this music, then it is Christian S. (…) Christian S' Elektro-Techno is arguably one of the best and most creative that this scene has to offer."
 
Motion design as a cooperative strategy of communication
On 8 May IMM professor Dr. Heike Sperling is be giving a talk on Motion design as a cooperative strategy of communication as part of the annual Highlights at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. As part of the talk she is also showing the trailer of the best works from the last two terms by students from the Motion Design program. Heike Sperling runs this major with Prof. Manfred Becker, which is unique to German Film Schools.
 
Recording of the Mannheim Philharmonic Orchestra
On 5 May, a team of IMM students is recording the fourth subscription concert of Mannheim Philharmonic Orchestra. The students are collaborating with the Philharmonic Orchestra already for the eighth time. Under the direction of conductor Boian Videnoff, this time the Piano concerto no. 1 by Johannes Brahms and Symphony no. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven is being performed. The multi-camera recording will be carried out by a team under director Richard Stier and recording producer Marcus Reineboth. Jonathan Lang is responsible for the technical direction.

 

 

 

From the IMM majors

 

Major Music and Media Management:
Music and Media Law
In the Music and Media Law seminar with IMM assistant professor Stephan Benn there awaits an intensive debate for the students in the summer term, with issues relating to copyright, such as the difficulty of protecting work, editing work and the scope of the right of quotation. In addition, on 10 May the block seminar Music industry contracts begins, for which a separate registration is required.

 

Major Music Informatics:
Neither Nor
Are there new forms of algorithmic composition to be found between analogue and digital sounds, which neither worship sharp difference nor smooth transition? Using the modular analogue synthesizer of the imm experimental laboratory, students in the major Music Informatics work toward the possibility of unsharp mixtures of cut and interval, of program and process.

 

Major Music and Text:
Sound poetry, acoustic literature and hip hop lyrics
This term, the students of the major Music and Text are devoting themselves to research in various areas. For instance, Florian Zeeh is viewing and analysing several key works in the field of sound poetry, and experimental text-sound compositions in literature and music since the mid 20th century. Moritz Hills is delving into the literature and poetry of the modern age, and as part of this will also look at acoustic literature approaches. David Fuesgen is undertaking research into contemporary hip hop lyrics and is trying to explain these using literary theories.
In addition, the students are preparing a sound installation for EXPERIMENTALE, a festival of literature and media, which will take place on 15 June in the Heinrich-Heine-Institute.

 

Major Visual Music:
Grafical scores
As part of the Visual composition and rhythm course with IMM assistant professor Christian Schäfer, music visualisation in the form of notation systems outside of our traditional European notation system was addressed. Alternative music notations of visual artists and musicians were examined, such as the music visualisations and notation of the musician Anthony Braxton or the collection Notations put together by John Cage.

 

IMM Chronicle April 2013

IMM BASECAMP: Eckart Altenmüller on the Neurophysiology of Making Music
In his lecture on 23 May at 17h00 (IMM studio A 2.24) Prof. Dr. Eckart Altenmüller will discuss that the ability to play music at a high level places the highest demands on the human central nervous system.
Prof. Dr. Eckart Altenmüller is a doctor and musician and one of the leading researchers in the field of neurophysiology and neuropsychology of musicians. Altenmüller studied medicine in Tübingen and Paris and music at Freiburg University of Music (flute major). After his doctorate to become a Dr. med. (medical doctor) at the University of Freiburg he stayed there for further training to become a consultant neurologist. Since 1994 Altenmüller has been a university professor and director of the Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine at Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media.

 

[PBUP]-a patchwork portrait at the Livecoding Festival
The Video 2 exam by Dipl.-Ing. Jonas Hummel, graduate of the Audio and Video Engineering program, was supervised by Prof. Manfred Waffender and can be seen at the first Livecoding Festival in Karlsruhle from 19 to 21 April. The festival for experimental computer music is organised by the Institute for Musicology and Music Informatics at the University of Music HFM Karlsruhe, together with the network live coding band Benoit & the Mandelbrots. The video work is a portrait of PowerBooks UnPlugged, one of the first laptop ensembles. IMM Professor Julian Rohrhuber is member of the ensemble.

 

25m² of White Space
From 9 to 10 April, the Kunsthaus Rhenania in Cologne will be hosting an exhibition called 25qm WhiteSpace – vom digitalen zum analogen Raum [25m² of White Space – from digital to analogue space]. Five media artists selected by a jury will each be given 25 m² of exhibition space and 25 GB of cloud memory, in order to present their interpretation of the relationship between digital and analogue space.
Two of the works being exhibited were created at the IMM: Manfred Borsch is displaying limbic, produced for the Video 2 exam, and Gerrit Kress it presenting the Rotomap 3000, a visual music game developed from his final year project Projection Mapping auf bewegte Objekte [Projection mapping onto moving objects]. Both projects were supervised by IMM professor Dr Heike Sperling.

 

Guitar for OK KID
Manuel Binder, a student on the Audio and Video bachelor program, plays guitar on the album OK KID by OK KID, with the exception of two songs. The album was produced by the Cologne executive producer Sven Ludwig (Revolverheld, Blackmail) and the Berlin executive producer Robot Koch (Marteria, Casper). The album will be released on 5 April by Four Music/ Sony.
Manuel Binder is now also a permanent member of the live band. At the end of March, OK KID played a short German tour, with performances at ZDF Kultur in Bauhaus Dessau and at Club Bahnhof in Cologne-Ehrenfeld, as part of the WDR Rockpalast series, both of which will be broadcast at the end of April. In summer, they will then be playing live at the Hurricane/Southside, Splash, co/pop, Frequency and Reeperbahn festivals.

 

Compliments for Bach: Metamorphosis
On 4 April at 5:35 p.m., Dr Michael Schmidt presented the latest CD Bach: Metamorphosis (Hänssler Classic) by pianist Angelika Nebel on the BR Klassik radio channel. He expresses his enthusiasm as follows, "It is the compelling blend of intuitive and sophisticated restraint, Apollonian clarity, and polyphonic feeling for structure that characterise Bach as played by Angelika Nebel. In short, this is an all-round worthwhile journey of discovery into rich, virtually unknown fields of Bach interpretation on piano!"
The recording for the CD was produced in July 2012 in the Partika hall of the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media. IMM professor Dagmar Birwe was responsible for the production as recording producer, and took control of the recording management, mixing and editing. Two students from the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media and the Institute For Music And Media were also involved in the recording: Wagner Stefani D'Aragona Malheiro Prado transcribed Ricercar a 6 from Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079 [Musical Offering BWV 1079] for the piano, and Thorsten Kuhn acted as sound technician.

 

Jazz at the Steinwayhaus in Düsseldorf
IMM assistant professor Martin Sasse (jazz piano) gives a concert at the Steinwayhaus Düsseldorf on 10 April at 7:30 p.m., together with the other two members of his trio (Henning Gailing - bs., Joost van Schaik - dr.). He will be performing his TrioClassics programme, which has already been published on two CDs.

Trumpet for Lou Bega
Lennard Schubert, a student on the Music and Media bachelor program, is currently working for the Hamburg executive producer Ivo Moring (ALANAproductions) as a studio trumpet player for the forthcoming Lou Bega album. Lennard Schubert records the songs independently, and also works for Ivo Moring on other projects as a trumpet player and arranger.

 

The Efficiency Rumor
On 10 April, Mounir Mahmalat, a graduate of the Music and Media bachelor program, published a comparative study of the efficiency of German and American opera houses in the Arts Management Newsletter of the Arts Management Networks. He produced this study within the framework of the major Music and Media Management, and at the Northeastern University in Boston, USA, in 2010. The title of this work is, The Efficiency Rumor - Do US-American Opera Houses Operate More Efficiently Than German Ones? - Economic Analysis and Comparison of Twelve German and American Opera Houses. The study attempts to answer the question of whether and in what areas German opera houses can learn from their American counterparts in relation to more efficient use of resources.
The study was supervised by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klinkenberg.

 

Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Auro 9.1
On 29 March, Michael Hohnstock, a student on the Music and Media program, recorded the St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was performed by the Chamber Jam Ensemble and the choir of the Johanneskantorei Düsseldorf, under the direction of Wolfgang Abendroth in the Johanneskirche in Düsseldorf.
The recording was made in Auro 9.1, and as a piece of coursework in a project module it is being supervised by IMM professor Dagmar Birwe.
The broadcasting van and equipment from the audio equipment rental of the institute were used. Recording producer Michael Hohnstock was supported by audio engineer Florian Breuer, tape operator Sascha Schiemann, and the sound technicians Christine Marzi, Robert Schwering, Simon Schwär and Bernhard Eurich – all students at the IMM.

 

Recording for Shaking Through in Philadelphia
For the recording of the March episode of the successful music documentation series Shaking Through, Julian David, graduate of the Audio and Video Engineering program, was invited as an audio engineer and representative of the microphone manufacturer AEA to visit the Miner St. Studios in Philadelphia. The video series documents the studio production process for a piece of music, and in the process promotes independent newcomer bands. Two videos of the latest episode in the series, featuring the band Night Panther, focus on the technical aspects of the production, which is described amongst other things in the form of interviews with Julian David, co-engineer Jonathan Low (The National, Sharon Van Etten) and executive producer Brian McTear.

 

 

 

From the IMM majors

 

Major Classical Music Recording:
Two Italians in Paris
This year’s opera double-bill evening in the Partika Hall of the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media, featuring Gaetano Donizetti’s Rita under the direction of Gregor Horres and Gioachino Rossini’s Le Comte Ory under the direction of Sabine Hartmanshenn, will again be recorded in audio and video by a team of IMM students. Production director Michael Hohnstock, director Kathrin Bingel and recording producer Christine Marzi will ensure that their team records the dress rehearsals in the best possible quality. The stage setting is sure to represent a challenge here, as this year it extends throughout the entire hall, even moving around the audience. For this reason, the students will be onsite starting from 4 April, and will be cooperating with the opera directors and the conductor Thomas Gabrisch to set up the technical equipment during rehearsals.

 

Major Media Composition:
Understanding and designing
Understanding and consciously designing sounds is the focus of the seminar by IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski. The lecture will introduce the latest sound syntheses and the associated software tools. Through the analysis and reproduction of various sound types, the students will learn to develop their own sound ideas for their productions in the major Media Composition. The skills thus acquired will then be applied in a style exercise which takes the form of a remix production.

 

Major Music Informatics:
The Return of the Living Code / Towards a logic of the undead.
Programming as a form of improvisation has infected concert halls, night clubs and music academies alike. What could be a characteristic Logic of the Undead, neither liquid nor solid?
Guests from Mexico, England, and Australia, as well as students and teachers of the IMM will share their experiences with algorithmic music, algrorave and live codingon 23 April from 11.30 a.m. until 5 p.m. in the Experimental lab at IMM. The follwing artists will be present: Hernani Villaseñor (MX), Ernesto Romero and Jorge Ramírez as Mico Rex (MX), Sick Lincoln (GB), Andrew Sorensen (AU) and Benoît and the Mandelbrots (D).
In the evening Algorithmic Pop will meet free improvised Gabber and Techno at Düsseldorf's Salon des Amateurs. The concert is curated by IMM professor Julian Rohrhuber and organized by Georg Dietzler in cooperation with the ON Neue Musik Cologne.

 

Major Music Production:
Multisamples, drum loops, synthesiser sounds
Do it yourself is the motto of the seminar on Computer-based Music Production in the summer term. While it is fairly simple and uncreative to put a production together out of ready-made samples, loops and presets, assistant professor Timo Bader wants to bring the students closer to producing their own multisamples, drum loops, synthesiser sounds and impulse responses for common pop music productions. The students will be introduced to the respective basic principles in theory, and will deepen this understanding through exercises and independent study. The seminar will be running over two semesters, and will conclude with a graded examination task.

 

Major Music and Audiovisual Media:
Good work takes time
After a 17-month post-production phase, the pilot of the IMM music show music@studio1 is now finally available to watch online. The first viewers and listeners all agree that the result was worth the long wait.

 

Major Music and Media Management:
Contracts in the Music Business
Following in-depth discussion of copyright issues during the Music and Media Law 2 module, the seminar Contracts in the Music Business, being held on 10 May and 12 July by IMM assistant professor Stephan Benn, will provide the opportunity to gain further insights into typical contracts. Using sample and example contracts, participants will have the chance to deepen their understanding about the contracts being discussed, and to gain knowledge relevant to practice. Discussion of agency, merchandising, management and filming contracts is planned.

 

Major Music and Text:
Research fellowship at Yale University
In September 2013, IMM assistant professor Marc Matter will complete a one-month research fellowship at the Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscripts Library of Yale University in New Haven (USA). There he will be examining the bequest of the French author, sound poet and publisher Henri Chopin (1922 - 2008) in respect of his artistic and publishing work.

 

Major Visual Music:
Workshop: Node-based Compositing with Nuke
The software application Nuke from The Foundry is now one of the most widely used compositing programs on the market worldwide, and is used both in large visual effects studios and in smaller post-production studios.
On 4 May, Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Jähner,, graduate of the Audio and Video Engineering program, will give an introduction to the basics of Nuke and node-based compositing, and will demonstrate the advantages of nodes compared to layer-based compositing. To this end, themes will be discussed such as 32-bit processing, linear workflow and Nuke’s unique channel system, which sets Nuke apart from the competition. The group will also take a look together at Nuke’s 3D system, and will see what options are created by importing 3D models, cameras and scatter plots, and how Nuke can easily be used to create clean plates.