Hammerhaus 

(2010) 

by Kurt Laurenz Theinert (visual piano) and Axel Hanfreich (sequencer). The music is insignificant in the positive sense, autoreferential, and its visual equivalent is the rectangles and lines with which Theinert fills the screen.

Hanfreichs Minimalist sounds resonate like impressions from an abstract world that knows no natural noises, not even diagonals but only right and left, top and bottom - as if Mondrian had painted the music. (...)

 

Form and content are of one here. The Visual Piano performances explore professional contemporary artistic practice through the abstract, ephemeral medium of light, but at the same time they are consciously located in close proximity to the genre of serious entertainment.

 

Source: Kurt Laurenz Theinert

 

 

Rustling is heard out of stillness. Then a blunt knocking. Gradually a beat develops, which at first raps arbitrarily but soon hammers challengingly, sweeping harmonies and tone sequences along with it to ultimately arrive at densely structured rhythms and sounds. The electronic music played by the Hammerhaus duo is strong on the escalation principle and combining club beat with sound configurations between ambience and experimental tone art. Axel Hanfreich is responsible for digital beats and analogue loops while Kurt Laurenz Theinert works with a Visual Piano, which which he can generate and modulate graphic elements in real time via a keyboard. The images he thus projects on the wall are an integral part of the overall concept.
The pieces which the duo play in half-hour sets are the result of improvisation and, moreover, leave the sound and video artists a great deal of scope. Sometimes Theinert's translations into graphics accompany the sound picture; at others they form a counterpoint to it. And Hanfreich turns out to be a virtuoso on the sequencer controls, who loves beats that seem to smack the the ground and stick there.

 

Source: ARTE

 

 

Hammerhaus, real time, software, piano / organ, Live Visuals

Reading

Expanded Cinema (1970) - In a brilliant and far-ranging study, Gene Youngblood traces the evolution of cinematic language to the end of fiction, drama, and realism. New technological extensions of the medium have become necessary. Thus he concentrates on the advanced image-making technologies of computer films, television experiments, laser movies, and multiple-projection environments. Outstanding works in each field are analyzed in detail. Methods of production are meticulously described, including interviews with artists and technologists. (John Coulthart)

Film as Film: Formal Experiment in Film 1910-1975 (1979) is a catalogue of an exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery in London from 3 May until 17 June 1979 on rare, essential and controversial avant-garde film history.

Farbe-Licht-Musik – Synästhesie und Farblichtmusik (2005) by Jörg Jewanski and Natalia Sidler focuses on the research on the color-light-music of Alexander Lászlo who in 1925 achieved overwhelming success with his multimedia show. A short time after his new art form fell into oblivion. The autors of this work revived and developed the experiments of Lászlo: his music has been rediscovered and coupled with actual visuals. (Natalia Sidler)

 

SEE ALSO

Tarik Barri is an audiovisual composer based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Reflecting his interests in programming, drawing and composing into a coherent multimedial discipline, he developed and uses software that merges audio and visuals into a new audiovisual reality. (Sonic Acts Festival)

Lamp Shade (2007) by David Muth visually explores rhythmic patterns and their underlying harmonic shifts through abstract minimalism. Specially written software generated the imagery. Music by Alvin Lucier. (David Muth)

Digital Harmony (1980): On the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art – John Whitney, Sr. wanted to create a dialog between "the voices of light and tone." All of his early experiments in film and the development of sound techniques lead toward this end. He felt that music was an integral part of the visual experience; the combination had a long history in man's primitive development and was part of the essence of life. His theories On the complementarity of Music and Visual Art were explained in his book, Digital Harmony, published by McGraw-Hill in 1980. (Paradise 2012)

Visual Sound Design (2010) by Reza Ali is a little app he made to help him understand microsounds, oscillators, timing, frequency, low frequency oscillators, polymorphism, sequencing, filtering, time domain effects, such as reverb, chorusing, etc, and distortion effects, such as clipping and more... in real-time in a visual manner, which is how he learns best. (Reza Ali on Vimeo)

Aphex Swarm (2008) is a Visual Muisc clip by Reza Ali. The base video material was a flocking simulation in Maya. The audio track is Girl/ Boy Song (18£ Snare Rush Remix) by Aphex Twin. (Reza Ali)