The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners
A special event will be the opening concert at Kino Zdrowie, during which we will hear performances of new compositions commissioned especially for The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners – a sixteen-person ensemble led by the Italian composer Luciano Chessa, playing replicas of experimental instruments designed by Luigi Russolo (the so-called intonarumori). In collaboration with the Performa biennial, the Intonarumori Orchestra (16 instruments) is brought from New York for the occasion. The concert will take place on the 110th anniversary of the announcement of the Art of Noise manifesto, and festival composer’s commissions realized by John Hegre, Mariam Gviniashvili, Aleksandra Słyż, and Gerard Lebik will be performed by the orchestra composed of Klaus Holm, John Hegre, Jon Wesseltoft, Mike McCormick, Guoste Tamulynaite, Magdaléna Manderlová, Mariam Gviniashvili, Martyna Kosecka, Teoniki Rożynek, Aleksandra Słyż, Martyna Poznańska, Piotr Peszat, Jacek Sotomski, Zosia Hołubowska, Gerard Lebik, Marek Chołoniewski and conducted by Luciano Chessa.
History of The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners
In 2009, the Performa 09 biennial,(New York) presented “Music For 16 Futurist Noise Intoners”, a concert of original scores and newly commissioned compositions for intonarumori, or “noise intonators”. As part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Italian Futurism, the Performa 09 biennial, in collaboration with the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) and SFMOMA, invited Luciano Chessa to direct a reconstruction project to produce exact replicas of the legendary instruments (8 noise families of 1-3 instruments in different registers) that Luggi Russolo built in Milan in the summer of 1913. As the first instruments capable of creating and manipulating sounds through entirely mechanical processes, the intonarumori can be considered the original analog synthesizer and the ancestors of the latest electronic synthesizers in use today.
Chessa presented the first modern live performances of two early Futurist pieces – a legendary excerpt from Russolo’s eerie “Risveglio di una città” (1913) and “La pioggia nel pineto antidannunziana,” a newly discovered 1916 piece on intonarumori and “Words in Freedom” of the futuristic the playwright and poet Paolo Buzzi – as well as “L’acoustique ivrese”, his brand new composition for 16 intonarumori and a voice for the poem also by Buzzi.
An amazing group of musicians and composers from the world of experimental music – including Einstuerzende Neubauten frontman and Nick Cave collaborator Blixa Bargeld, avant-garde saxophonist John Butcher, Deep Listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros, vocalist Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, Mike Patton, Anat Pick, avant-garde musician Elliott Sharp and songwriter and vocalist Jennifer Walshe working with composer and film/video artist Tony Conrad, Ghostigital with Skuli Sverrison, Finboggi Petursson and Casper Electronics – were asked by Performa to create and perform brand new compositions for instruments.
Performa Commission in collaboration with SFMOMA and EMPAC. Produced and presented by Performa. The project was curated by Luciano Chessa and Esa Nickle.
