25-26 march 2011

http://www.myspace.com/cocartmusicfestival

III edition of the CoCArt audiovisual festival is partly based on the last year programme that could not be pefromed because of the national mourning on April 2010. This year the CoCArt public will have an opportunity to see some new artists performing during their first visit in Torun.

CoCArt music festival is an exceptional event, unique in this part of Europe, connecting some new trends of modern experimental music, electronic and electro-acoustic projects based on an aesthetic approach to multimedia, with visual productions, seen as rightful components of the musicians’ artistic activity.

III CoCArt festival is a creative continuation of the last two editions of CoCArt Music Festival, that took place in CoCA.  The 2008 edition was held under the patronage of the European Year of The Intercultural Dialogue and the 2009 – under the patronage of the European Year of Innovation.

During the last weekend of march 2011, various artists integrating music, video and the art of performance will be introducing their works. Similarly to the past editions, the main events of the III CoCArt Festival will take place  in the industrial scenery of CoCA’s underground car park.

Artists:

/ Asmus Tietchens (Germany)

Born in 1947 in Hamburg, Germany. As he writes about himself „No studies, no academic education, just pure learning by doing. I’m my own master”. In 1965 he started experimenting with tape machines and electronic sound generators (rhythm machines, sine tone generators) and with concrete sounds. In 1971 he started working with the Minimoog. After some time he got closer to live electronics scene and electro-acoustic music. His first album („Nachtstücke”), produced by Peter Baumann („Tangerine Dream”) was released in 1980 in France. After discovering his stylistic affinity to industrial music, his numerous LP were released on labels of the international Industrial scene such as  Staalplaat, Soleilmoon, Selektion, Mille Plateaux  a.o., presenting works with prepared piano, water sounds and various other concrete material. To present his work in the form of lecture-concerts upon invitation by the Goethe-Institute he travelled to Brasil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Since 1989 teaches sound design, communication design and sound research at the Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg (HAW). In 2003 and 2006, Tietchens was awarded the „Karl-Sczuka-Preis für Akustische Kunst” by Südwestrundfunk (SWR). www.tietchens.de

/ Raymond Salvatore Harmon (USA/London)

Born in 1974 in Chicago, now living in London, Raymond Salvatore Harmon is a sound and film artist whose work spans the past century of technological cul de sacs. With a filmography extending from performance based on 16mm and 8mm film to video circuit-bending and analog feedback installations as well as sound and visual conceptual installations and guerrilla media actions he related anthropological look  with philosophical discourse and contemporary art.  Over the course of the past ten years Harmon has been developing and evolving the theoretical and practical applications of transcendental cinema. Utilizing new media, web based content and interactive architectures in coordination with public performance, graffiti style ad bombing, and web community social engineering propaganda Harmon’s work has carved out an over arching form of new media insurgency. He coopoerated  with Chicago Undeground Trio, Rob Mazurek, Exploding Star Orchestra, Mikrokolektyw, Philippe Petit, Dave Phillips, HATI and Thom Yorke (Radiohead) – creating a video of his work in cooperation with a popular graffiti artist  Banksy. Harmon is also the initiator and director of the Equinox Festival in London.
www.raymondharmon.com
www.myspace.com/raymondsalvatoreharmon  

/ Todd Carter (USA)

Todd Carter has a striking presence in both foreground and background of a huge variety of projects including music production, sound installation, and sound engineering. He is part of the electro-acoustic free-improv group TV Pow, participates in live performance with the Chicago Phonographers, and recently presented a unique live multi-channel composition based on sounds taken from the Sun Ra / El Saturn Collection of the Creative Audio Archive at Experimental Sound Studio, where he is the archivist of the Sun Ra Archive. He also operates his own studio, bel_Air, in Logan Square, Chicago. www.kuronekomusic.com/artists/tv-pow

Todd Carter and Raymond Salvatore Harmon are performing as O/R and their piece titled „Digital Black” is based on material from the Sun Ra archive.

/ Dave Phillips (Switzerland)

Born in 1969 in Zurych. The  founding member of Fear of God (hardcore-thrash/grindcore-quartett). In 1987  he started his solo career  as Dave Phillips (dp). Since 1991 member of  Schimpfluch-Gruppe, a collective of bruitists and performers dealing with psychophysical tests and trainings, at the core consisting of Rudolf Eb.er (also: Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock/R&G), Joke Lanz (Sudden Infant) and dp.  Describes his work as „humanimalism”and uses bruitism (art of noise), voice, body, musique concrete, field recordings. Constantly touring. 1994 – 2004: various trips to Asia for field recordings, especially of insects. 2000 – 2004: founding member of OHNE, with Tom Smith (To Live & Shave in L.A.), Daniel Lowenbruck (Tochnit Aleph label, Raionbashi) and Reto Mader (rm74). His projects since 2004: ‚dead peni’ one-man-doom/metal/sludge-project. Since 2008: bassplayer with Ketsu No Ana. Since 1987: live performances and tours (solo and with various projects) in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Russia, Republic of Belarus, Romania, Canada, USA, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand. Phillips’s concerts are more than ordinary music events – they are artistic audio-visual spectacles, psycho-physical performances full of realism. The exceptional charisma of the artist makes his public participate and experience some kind of katharsis.
www.tochnit-aleph.com/dp
www.myspace.com/dpdavephillipss

/ Ove Volquartz & Ray Kaczynski (Germany/USA)

Ray Kaczynski – ITs and electronic, Ove Volquartz – contrabass clarinet.                         The duo presents a unique combination of mostly deep acoustic clarinet sounds combined with the endless electro-acoustic possibilities of Ray Kaczynski’s homemade ITs.

Ray Kaczynski studied composition and drums at Central Michigan University at the University of Wisconsin. Furthermore he specialized in South Indian percussion and worked with modern dancers. As composer and musician he performed mostly in the experimental field – for example at the Canada Jazz Festival, Leipzig International Jazz festival, Greenwich Summer Jazz New Heaven Jazz Fest, Jazz festival von Famagusta, Jazz Across the Border in Berlin. He also performed for the Goethe-Institut and played in radio productions. Kaczynski worked with musicians like Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Jimmy Knepper, Roswell Rudd, Doc Cheatham, Milt Hinton, Julius Hemphill, Richard Davis, Ernie Watts, Billy Bang, David Murray, Don Byron, Elliott Sharp, Georg Katzer and the Zeitkratzer-Ensemble…
www.xray-k.com
www.myspace.com/xray-k 

Ove Volquartz lives in Göttingen/Germany playing with musicians from the free jazz and improvised music scene but developed in the more open field of improvised music. Furthermore he works as a composer and collaborates in interaction projects with dancers like Tadashi Endo, painters, poetry or films. He worked with musicians like Cecil Taylor, Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Marion Brown, Gunter Hampel, Baby Sommer, Peter Kowald. As a composer he works in the jazz field as in contemporary music as well. In his playing he crosses the border between jazz, contemporary music, improvised music, rock… whatever.    www.myspace.com/ovevolquartz 

/ PAS – Post Abortion Stress (USA)

PAS (Post Abortion Stress) is a group out to create musical collages through the form of abstract sound.  The viewpoint fuels their creativity to create our own world of beauty. Since their inception the band has been interested in making music from the fringes of perception, creating soundscapes that aren’t defined by any particular conventions or viewpoints. The aesthetic underpinnings are defined by the notion that music can be whatever the ear perceives. It’s a conception fueled by the love of life and art. It’s a desire for honest artistic self-expression. The compositions themselves are more akin to soundscapes than “songs” in the traditional sense. There are no clearly defined melodies, no structural landmarks that give you any sense of traditional anchor. This is not music making with any sense of or desire for commercial viability, but sonic sculptures in the mode of pure art. At first, PAS was a solo project but over the years has developed into a collective. Video has also been introduced to make experimental filmwork with sound collage. Film has been included at the live shows complementing the live soundcsapes. Collaborations: Philippe Petit, Z’EV, Steve Beresford, HATI. In April of 2010 PAS traveled to Toruń to play on the 3rd CoCArt Music Festival organized by musicians of HATI in cooperation with Centre of Contemporary Art. On April 10th 2010, just before PAS embarked on their journey a terrible plane crash happened killing 96 people including Poland’s former President Lech Kaczyński. Festival was canceled but PAS still traveled to Poland. During this time two bands improvised together in a studio and recorded several hours of music. These special recordings are published on cd PAS/HATI present P.H.A.S.T.I. “The Stages of Sleep – A Metaphor for Toruń” (January 2011 – PAS Records and March 2011 – digital version on: www.alrealon.co.uk). www.myspace.com/postabortionstres

/ Antonie Chessex (Switzerland/Berlin)
Antoine Chessex is a Swiss saxophone player, improviser, composer and experimental  musician born in 1980 in Vevey (CH). His works are based on the exploration of the physicality of sounds and spaces. Nowadays Chessex plays mostly as a solo performer appearing either in fully acoustic settings where his circular breathing textures react with the sonic architecture of the space he is performing in or amplifying his horn with amps or PA systems and electronic devices often resulting in intense live actions. In addition to regular international touring as a solo performer, Chessex has also been playing with the band MONNO (Conspiracy records) and collaborating with different musicians like Thomas Ankersmit, Lasse Marhaug, Zbigniew Karkowski, C. Spencer Yeh, Chris Corsano, Didi Bruckmayr, Axel Dörner, Mattin, Dave Phillips, Valerio Tricoli, Hans Koch, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Christian Weber, Matthew Bower, architect Christian Waldvogel (Globus Cassus) and media artist Ulrike Gabriel(flow 2002-2003). In 2009, he received a composition grant by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia for the creation of DUST a piece for violins, electronic and diffusion in quadraphonic sound. www.soundimplant.com

/ NEMEZIS (Poland)   
The group was formed in 1996. At the very beginning their music was continuation of   industrial sound, that was previously presented in their former project The Raport. In 2001 Vivo Rec released their first official album – „Whispers From Behind the Window”. In 2007 their next album „In Between” came out. Currently Nemezis are working on new material in cooperation with the contemporary music composer Paweł Mykietyn (an orchestra and cello recordings) Visual side of all Nemezis concerts has been created by the group Suka Off and the painter Malwina de Brade. Nemezis line-up: Łukasz Pawlak, Konrad Kucz, Marcin Bociński, Maciej Staniecki.
www.nemezis.org.pl
www.myspace.com/nemezispl
www.requiem.serpent.pl

/ Michael Vorfeld (Germany)
Musician and visual artist based in Berlin, plays percussion and self-designed string instruments and creates electro-acoustic sound pieces. He is active in the field of experimental music, improvised music and sound art. Michael Vorfeld realises installations and performances with light and also works with photography and film. He is a member of various groups and collaborates with artists who work in many different art forms. His list of activities includes numerous concerts, performances and exhibitions in Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia. Performances among others at ‘Experimental Intermedia’, New York, in the ‘Centre of Contemporary Art’, Warsaw, in the ‘Zentrum für internationale Lichtkunst’, Unna, in the ‘Skulpturtenmuseum’, Marl, in the Kunstverein Kassel, in the ‘Museum Kunstpalast’, Duesseldorf, in the ‘Museion’, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano, at the ‘Outer Ear Festival’, Chicago, at ‘Plan B’, Tokyo. Exhibitions and installations among others in the ‘Stadtmuseum Cologne’, in the ‘Centre Pompidou’, Paris, in the arts and craft museum Frankfurt, in the museum for architecture, Basel, in ‘De Fabriek’, Eindhoven, in the ‘Staedtischen Galerie’, Luedenscheid, at the ‘Sound Art Festival’, Osnabrueck, in the Goethe Institute, Hanoi, at ‘Art in General’, New York, in ‘The Substation’, Singapore, in the ‘Hyde Park Art Centre’, Chicago. Numerous CD, book and catalogue releases. www.vorfeld.org

/ Philippe Petit (France)
Philippe Petit, born in Marseille, uses turntables and laptops to build up electronic layers and take advantage of vinyl material to fondle released sounds. A journalist for various magazines and radio as well as a musical activist, PETIT now celebrates his 25th year of sharing his musical passions. He is a composer, sound reconstructionist and an active member of STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS who have worked with notable luminaries such as JG Thirlwell, Barry Adamson, Eugene Robinson and Cosey Fanni Tutti. PETIT has done numerous solo performances around the world as Dj/ip@bip-hop.com, manipulating sounds to create other worldly atmospheres which envelop the listeners into a rich noir of psycho-ambience. His latest project TWIST OF FATE is a collaboration with LYDIA LUNCH, a provocative journey into the dark groove of endless night where possibility, mystery and mania entwine the listener into a deep cocoon of sound and voice.
www.myspace.com/philippepetit
www.bip-hop.com

/ KOMORA A (Poland)

The group is created by: Dominik Kowalczyk (Wolfram) – indie-rock drummer,  Setting The Woods on Fire – Karol Koszniec and the owner of the Monotype Rec. label – Jakub Mikołajczyk. Those three artists are undoubtedly connected by a similar, but not identical sound sensibility – as a result we get a dense and internally dynamic (more than in Wolfram’s solo impressions) improvisation. What draws attention is the high sound entropy: Kowalczyk’s concentrated, severe meditations find their counterpoint and their fulfillment in more predatory and extravertic temperament of other members of Komora A. www.myspace.com/komoraaa

/ DJ ZIPO (Germany)
Till Kniola – performing as dj Zipo, is the founder and editor of the Auf Abwegen music magazine and the Auf Abwegen label. He also organizes numerous concerts of experimental contemporary music in Germany.
www.aufabwegen.com

/ Wiktor Skok (Poland)

Lives and works in Łódź. Graduated from the Film Studies Department of the Media and Audiovisual Culture Institute of Łódź University (2003) and Curator Studies at the Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (2006). Author of publications, reviews and articles in official periodicals and low-budget issues of the underground. Curator of musical and visual projects. Promoter of numerous industrial concerts and events. Making no division between praxis and theoretical reflection, he makes exhibitions and music as well as edits and writes his own zines „Zygoma” (1988–1992) and „Plus Ultra” (since 1999). Since the first half of the eighties he has been active on the punk/hardcore scene. Since 1989 he has been promoting the concert series Wunder Wave. Founder and singer of the group Jude (since 1993) and an active underground electro industrial DJ, totally devoted to all varieties of extreme mechanical music. Author of graphic prints, posters, flyers, logos, short video forms, etc. Combines his visual art productions with music/noise. Main passions are industrial, bruitism, electro industrial, EBM, power electronics, power noise, punk, hardcore, post punk, new wave, electro, techno. Through his activities in widely perceived industrial culture, he decidedly eradicates the distance between art, ideology and propaganda in particular, as related to current history and the artistic expression of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. www.jude.org.pl

/ HATI (Poland)

The group (Rafał Kołacki and Rafał Iwański) was founded in 2001 (by Rafał Iwański and Darek Wojtaś), strongly fascinated in sound of ethnic and found acoustic instruments, forming a link between a personal interest in modern improvised and acoustic music with ritual and meditation. Since 2003 HATI have performed several hundred times in Poland, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Great Britain, France and Denmark. They played on festivals like Linien Festival and Laut und Luise Festival (Gottingen, 2010), Fano Free Folk Festival (2010), Equinox Festival (London, 2009 – with Z’EV & John Zorn), But Film Festival (Breda, 2009), Bleisound Festival (Monachium, 2009), Wroclaw Industrial Festival (2005 & 2007), Audio Art (Krakow, 2006) and many others.  Nowadays HATI performs as a duo: Rafał Iwański and Rafał Kołacki (since 2006), occasionally with other artists (Darek Brzostek, Sławomir Ciesielski).  Live cooperation with (among others): Z’EV (2 tours in Poland and Germany + full length album for Ars Benevola Mater, Italy), John Zorn, P.A.S. (full length album recorded  ”live in studio” in Toruń titled P.H.A.S.T.I. – will be published in 2011 in PAS Records in USA and  digital version on: www.alrealon.co.uk), Peter Votava/PURE (+ studio), Raymond Salvatore Harmon (video), Steve Buchanan, Heike Fiedler, Robert Curgenven, Andrzej Przybielski, Mirosław Rajkowski, WEREJU, Peter Puype, Phil Maggi, Sławomir Ciesielski (full length audio-video of HATI & S. Ciesielski will be published in 2011). www.myspace.com/hatitah

PROGRAMME OF ACCOMPANYING EVENTS:

Panel: The new recipient of art in contemporary universe of signs.

Debate suggestions:

1. Nostalgia or the end of technology, about the comeback of the analogue work methods.

2. Urban sonosphere and iconosphere  as an aesthetical environment.

3. The „hi-fi” and the „lo-fi” conception as a criterion of artistic value.

4. Independent production and redistribution of the „artistic goods”.

Festival’s organizers:

• Rafał Iwański & Rafał Kołacki (musicians of HATI)

• Centre of Contemporary Art  Znaki Czasu in Torun