Classical and Jazz: Latest news>July 1 - Sound Park Austria: New Age double bill at The Forge
Published: 01 July 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
WHAT, one has to wonder, would the great composers make of Mia Zabelka, an Austrian violinist/composer?
What would Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert make of her rumbling stomach?
Rumbles and other churning noises emanating from her stomach, and elsewhere from her internal organs, will be heard by way of background music in her upcoming solo violin recital at The Forge in Camden Town on Tuesday, July 13. It’s all part of her thrilling new solo project “Canta il Corpo Electtrico”, focusing on the development of experimental improvisational techniques, a process she calls “automatic playing”. “I explore the relationships between the body, gesture, sound, machines and space, using live electronics to expand the electro-acoustic sound spectrum,” she says.
Mia Zabelka works with the sound of her own body using small contact microphones applied to her skin and hair. Her internal body sounds, including those stomach rumbles, are recorded by medical equipment. These are then transformed into electro-acoustic compositions.
She combines these various elements into live performances accompanying her violin improvisations and vocal interpretations of writings by William Blake and Walt Whitman. What would they make of that?
Her concert is the second in a joint project with Sound Park Austria backed by the Austrian Cultural Forum and The Forge. Musicians are selected on the basis of projects that combine risk taking, open-mindedness and self-confidence.
Experimental Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies will also be playing at the concert.
• Sound Park Austria: New Age double bill, The Forge, Delancey Street, NW1, 020 7383 7808, July 13, 7.30pm, £10/cons £7