Shawn Pinchbeck
Shawn Pinchbeck is an Edmonton, Alberta, Canada based electroacoustic music composer and media artist. Since 1984, he's been activily performing, composing, releasing recordings, curating festivals and concerts; and for many years now teaching studio engineering, electroacoustic composition, sound design, Max/MSP/Jitter, computer interactivity and basic electronics.
Shawn started out doing noise electronics and tape pieces using found sounds, and quickly moved into sequencer laden electronic music inspired by Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. In the later 80's his style developed and he created a niche in Edmonton's music scene performing regularly and received charting campus radio airplay across Canada and the U.S..
In the early 90's he got interested in acousmatic music composition and computer interactive art. He continued to compose ambient electronic music for CD release and many film projects. In the mid-90's he started creating computer interactive installations with sensors, audio and video.
His recent works are varied and many including interactive audio installations, CD recordings, multi-media, interactive audio and video performances, film soundtracks and software design. He currently is a PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham, UK. and splits his time between Canada, Estonia, and the UK.
The recordings on this cd mark the beginnings of Send + Receive: A Festival of Sound, a festival which I directed until 2004. On November 21, 1998, a crowd of about 100 people gathered in the Bulman Student Centre at the University of Winnipeg. No one was sure what to expect from the pile of gear installed in the middle of the room surrounded by some chairs, and four speakers (a quadraphonic mix).
While Ken, Steve and Shawn began to play, the audience took up the 'invitation' to gather round. Chairs were slid to the side. The performance gradually built up layers of sound and then something totally unexpected happened. The crowd began to circle, mostly counterclockwise, in a slow orbit around the artists, moving into and out of different sound fields, creating their own ‘mix’, erasing the role of ‘passive’ audience and encouraged active participation, one that celebrates improvisation, and rewards people for getting off their asses. It was a spontaneous and beautiful reaction, to this day one of my favourite moments of Send + Receive.
- steve bates - february 27, 2006
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Check out Clips and Media below for some recent stuff. Myspace page seems to be out of commission. I can't upload any files for some reason, so check back here for latest stuff to listen to!
Upcoming Concerts
SONIC ARTIFACTS .............. an evening of live electronic and experimental music
Location: Von Krahl, Tallinn, Estonia......... Date: October 22, 2008 ......... Time: 20:00 ......... Tickets: 50 EEK
With performances by:
Anna Friz (Can)
&
Shawn Pinchbeck (Can/Est), Robert Jürjendal (Est), Hello Upan (Est)
RESPIRE
A solo performance built on the sounds of breath and other bodily exclamations that are usually eliminated from conventional radio broadcasts. Restless characters seep up into the thin heterodyne music of live and pre-sampled radio atmosphere, together with instruments that mirror the human breath (sampled accordion, live harmonica) or the detuned radio landscape (live theremin).
Anna Friz is a sound and radio artist, and critical media studies scholar. Since 1998 she has predominantly created self-reflexive radio art/works for broadcast, installation or performance, where radio is the source, subject, and medium of the work. She also creates dynamic, atmospheric sound works for theatre, dance and solo performance that are equally able to reflect upon public media culture or to reveal interior landscapes.
Anna has presented installation and performance works across Canada and in international media art contexts such as the Third Coast Audio Festival, Chicago; PS122, NYC; Digitales, Bruxelles; Radiophonic 07, Bruxelles; Club Transmediale, Berlin; Tesla, Berlin; die Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Ars Electronica, Linz Austria; Observatori, Valencia Spain; Art+Communication, RIXC, Riga; the Fifth International Biennial of Radio, Mexico City; and Arte Nuevo Interactiva, Yucatan. Her radio art/works have been commissioned by national public radio in Canada, Austria, Germany, Danmark and Mexico, and heard on independent airwaves in more than 15 countries. Anna is a free103point9.org transmission artist, and a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow in the Joint Program in Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities, Toronto.
http://www.myspace.com/littlepeopleintheradio
http://kunstradio.at/BIOS/frizbio.html
http://www.free103point9.org/artists/25/
PLASMAMORGANA
Shawn Pinchbeck – electronics
Robert Jürjendal – guitar
Hello Upan – plasmaviolin
Shawn Pinchbeck and Hello Upan make up the electronic noise improv duo Plasmamorgana. This performance marks their second live performance together, this time with the addition of their friend Robert Jürjendal on guitar. This performance will consist of improvisations where live instruments, natural and electronic sounds are mixed, molded and manipulated into a dynamic and sonorous landscapes; sometimes beautiful and ambient, other times raw and full of intensity.
Shawn Pinchbeck has been active since 1984 as an electroacoustic music composer, performer, installation artist, curator, sound designer and sound engineer. His work focuses on exploring the many realms of electronic music and sonic art. His current works centre around dance and motion tracking/translation, soundscape composition, interactivity, software art, video, and live performance.
He regularly presents his work at festivals and events in Canada and Europe including the International Computer Music Conference (Banff 1995, Barcelona 2005, New Orleans 2006), International Symposium of Electronic Art (Tallinn 2004), Send & Receive Festival of Sound (Winnipeg 1998), Sea of Sound Festival (Edmonton 2005), Interstanding (Tallinn 2001), Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre (Birmingham 2004/2007), Interactive Futures (Victoria 2006), Plektrum Festival of Visual Sound Culture (Tallinn 2007, 2008), and many more. Shawn has five solo CD releases and has appeared on more than 15 other releases. Shawn holds a Master of Music Composition degree, is currently a PhD candidate and a member of the renowned BEAST group of composers located at the University of Birmingham, UK. Shawn is a founding member and board member of the Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (Edmonton, Canada) and a board member of the Canadian Electrocoustic Community (Montreal, Canada). Since 2001, Shawn has taught courses and workshops on electroacoustic music, interactive art, Max/MSP programming, sound art, and sound design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Baltic Film School, Tallinn University, the Estonian Academy of Music, and the University of Alberta. He currently splits his time between Edmonton, Canada and Tallinn, Estonia.
Robert Jürjendal is a guitarist, composer, and teacher, living and working in Estonia, where he plays with musicians from the classical, pop, electronic, and experimental worlds. In the 1980s he worked together with noted Estonian musicians, including Erkki-Sven Tüür and Riho Sibul. In 1992 Robert participated in Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft Course in Germany. Robert formed the Weekend Guitar Trio (www.wgt.nu) in 1993. This group uses free electric guitars and live electronics. In 1995 Weekend Guitar Trio won the First prize at Lausanne International Guitar festival. They have toured in England, Russia, Lithuania, Moldova, Finland, France, Germany and Sweden and have recorded five CDs. Since 1997 Jürjendal has taught guitar at the Old Town Music House in Tallinn and since 2006 he is lecturer in music at Tartu University's Viljandi Cultural Academy. He has appeared on more than twenty recordings. His composers pocket includes music for cembalo, string quartet, classical guitar,various instrumental ensembles and choirs. Recently he has been collaborating with Riho Sibul, David Rothenberg, Petri Kuljuntausta, Kärt Johanson, Aleksei Saks, Old Town Guitar Studio and a prog-rock group Fragile, which includes a drummer, Arvo Urb, and a live action painter, Tõnu Talve.
Hello Upan is a performance artist and violin player. She is member of the Puhas Rõõm performance artist group, a member of the Muusikamaja Kitarristuudio, and has participated in many artistic events and performances around Estonia.
www.myspace.com/robertjurjendal/
www.spinchbeck.com
Phases - Fine 5 Dance with Shawn Pinchbeck- November 6 - 8, KUMU, Tallinn, Estonia - More information soon!