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Robert van Heumen - composer / musician - laptop (LiSa & Super Collider 3) (download resume) (download HiRes promo photo) Bio. Robert van Heumen works with sound: electronic, experimental, improvised, structured, composed. Recent works include the compositions 'Vreemdeling (Stranger)', 'Fury', 'Silent' and '12 Bullets' which are performed in multichannel and semi-improvised environments as well as produced for release on CD. As a musician he uses STEIM's live sampling software LiSa and real-time audio-synthesis and algorithmic composition software SuperCollider. He is active as a member of the electronic audio-visual trio SKIF++ (with Jeff Carey & Bas van Koolwijk), noiseband Man in the Middle (with Nicolas Field & Tom Tlalim), Shackle (working with electro-flutist Anne LaBerge on restriction), electro-acoustic sextet OfficeR (with Koen Nutters cs.), founding member of the N Collective, and has shared the stage with dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit), Michel Waisvisz, Richard Barrett, Sakata Akira, Nicolas Collins, Oguz Buyukberber, Luc Houtkamp, Guy Harries, Morten J. Olsen, Daniel Schorno, Roddy Schrock, Audrey Chen, Nate Wooley a.o. His soundworld is a mixture of digital crackles, heavy distortion, melancholic melodies, environmental sounds, voices, sounds from kitchen appliances, most of the time smashed beyond repair. Van Heumen is Managing Director of the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam, curator of the Local Stop concert series and member of STEIM's Artistic Committee. In a previous life mathematician, trumpet player and software programmer. He still reads L.E.J. Brouwer. Selected Works.
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SKIF++ / SK++ [01,02,03,04,00] (CD on fridgesound: the label) Released April 2008 |
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Robert van Heumen / Fury (CD on Creative Sources Recordings) Released Jan 2008 Fury is about the primitive in man. The hidden part of us that we try very hard to suppress or control, that boils within us and breaks through the surface only under extreme circumstances. |
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Robert van Heumen / Silent (CD-R on Fridgesound) Released Mar 2007 Solo work based upon a single synthesis procedure after James Tenney. |
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Office-R(6) / Mundane Occurrences and Presentations (CD on Lampse) Released Feb 2006 All tracks are performed live and are, in essence, improvisations around a handful of structures. These preconceived structures act as the matrix onto which the material is skillfully laid to form a musical whole. An electro-acoustic unit, Office-R(6) manage, in this process, to initiate an interesting dialogue between the electronic and the acoustic part of their sound. |
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Robert van Heumen / Solitude (CD-R on Fridgesound) Released 2006 An audio-visual composition based on the extatic feeling of loneliness - awareness of the sounds normally unheard: the fridge, faint sound from outside the room, heater switching on - with texts from `the invention of solitude` by Paul Auster. Created in cooperation with visuals by Arnoud Noordegraaf. |
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N-Collective / Live at STEIM (CD-R on A-version) Released Apr 2005 CD-R capturing a storming collection of live improvised music from the formidable International N-Collective. Tracks from Office-R(6), Thai on Top and Pho. |
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N-Collective / News from Holland Vol 1 (CD on X-OR) Released 2004 N Collective's debut CD, showcasing the efforts of all the different N groups. Tracks from Office-R(4), Robert van Heumen and the illustrious b:lab. |
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Kraakgeluiden / Document 1 (CD on Unsounds) Released 2003 3 years of live electronic improvisation from the Kraakgeluiden series of improvised music-performances in Amsterdam. Appearing on the CD are over 30 musicians including: Jaap Blonk, Cor Fuhler, Gert-Jan Prins, Anne le Berge, Marko Ciciliani. Includes a track by OfficeR Extended. |
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In an interview with Anne LaBerge for the Kraakgeluiden seminar 'Different codes' (February 2005): 'I started playing improv seriously with officeR, an electro-acoustic sextet, in 2001. At that time we started thinking about structures in improvised music, searching for ways to get away from the much-used improv paradigm of slowly building up drone-like atmospheres that even so slowly build down, or the massive hectic noise-like sessions where everybody tries to make himself heard. During the years, we build a specific 'language' that is very difficult to describe, but the better is it recognized when heard. It focuses more on sound than on melody or rhythm. Structures describe a type of sound and a type of communication, more than a pattern in time or pitch. My setup consists of a laptop, a midi controller and a joystick, with which I control LiSa, a live sampling software that enables me to treat pre-recorded sounds as well as live-sampled sounds in various ways. With the joystick I can react quickly and intuitively on other musicians, building up a lively communication without locking myself up in the computer. I believe listening and reacting - together with collective experience building - is the key to interesting improvisation. And to me improvised music is interesting when I can see communication and concentration in people, no matter how the sound is generated. Improvisation for me is very intuitive. Concious thought usually happens after the fact, in retrospect. Of course I evaluate then, and try to learn from it, but when I'm playing I don't rationalize.' |
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