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Dimitri Voudouris - ΑΛΘ=Φ
/ UVIVI / 1:ΘΦ4 / ΟΝΤΑ
 Greek-born
Dimitri Voudouris (b 1961) writes electro-acoustic music in the grand
manner. Like Xenakis and Stockhausen before him, he favors long
audio-audible poems that utilize complex sounds in an almost symphonic
manner, except this is high avant garde in result. And he does not
remind of either composer in any concrete way. He does sound very much
individual, original.
His four-work release on Pogus (21056-2) brings some important music to
our attention. Complex pitch-noise constructions come together and
undergo extensive development and transformation in the long-formed
pieces we hear. According to the liner notes, he "bases his technical
and theoretical compositional approach on research of cognitive
psycho-acoustic behavioural patterns in humans, and the behaviour of
sounds in relation to continued environmental changes." Hearing in this
case is believing.
The music is more in the realm of flowing sustained soundscapes than it
is a matter of serialist hot-potato passing. And for such flow the
music is invitingly narrative-like. Each work seems a story in sound
with no literal meaning but quite meaningful in an abstracted way.
Voudouris to my mind is a major voice in the electronic music of the
present. For all that this release gives you an excellent sampling of
what he is about. All Gyro Gearloose folks like me will find it most
pleasingly enveloping. Definitely recommended. Grego
Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate
A second release by self-taught composer Voudouris for Pogus, a composer from
South africa of Greek birth. Here he presents four new works of an abstract level
with cryptic titles, of interest for lovers of true computer generated music.
"Voudouris bases his technical and theoretical compositional approach on
research of cognitive psycho-acoustic behavioral patterns in humans, and the behavior
of sound in relationship to continued environmental changes." Reading the
booklet and doing my best to comprehend it, it is clear that Voudouris creativity
is channelled through highly theoretic interests and make each composition the
result of some kind of research. The opening piece is "for text to speech
synthesis with computer assisted processing for 24 speaker interactive robotic
ensemble". A work that like many others is about communication between man
and machine. So be it. But what is the statue of this 'interaction' exactly? For
me as a listener it is impossible to detect where and how this interaction is
happening. "4? is a "singing synthesis for four artificial female voices".
The most quiet piece of all four. He works with aspects of voices that sing in
greek, spanish, portuguese and italian. Again this is what I got from the liner
notes. But it is not possible to hear this. This may be not the aim of Voudouris.
'Onta' is for voice and electronics. This lengthy piece (28 minutes) is also the
one I liked most. The music is very open which makes it possible to follow all
manoeuvres and see all colors and to enjoy all subtle changes that constantly
occur. Here I started to forget about Voudouris experimental interests,and I just
enjoyed the Music.That is what I'm aiming it - DM, Modisti.
A second Pogus CD for Greek-born South-African composer
Dimitri Voudouris. His artistic approach is very complex and conceptual - and
shrouded in academic lingo. But his oeuvre includes some interesting, even surprising
works, such as ??T=F for a 24 speaker interactive robotic ensemble, or 1:TF4,
a singing synthesis for four artificial female voices. Lots of ties between
daily life and Voudouris' sources and processes. Dense music, hermetic. I'll
need several listens if I intend to decipher its codes. - Francois Couture Jan/2011,
Monsieur Delire
Born some ten years earlier than his compatriot above, not that age matters, is
Dimitri Voudouris who is in fact South African but was born in Greece. Pogus has
assembled a handy collection of this self-taught electro-acoustic composer, and
ΑΛΘ=Φ / UVIVI / 1:ΘΦ4 / ΟΝΤΑ
(POGUS PRODUCTIONS P21056-2) displays an impressive range of avant-techniques
and methodologies - computer-assisted composition, graphical scores, treated voices,
loudspeaker set-ups, and an interactive troupe of robots on the astonishing 25-minute
composition which opens the record. Voudouris provides concise notes in the booklet,
and a cursory skim reveals he is brimming with strong ideas about language, emotion,
psychology, and contemporary society. Unsettling, uncomfortable music with a rigorous
core of steely intellect; what with the alienised processed voices and the general
sense of malaise abiding here, I would guess that label boss Al Margolis recognises
a kindred spirit and some musical parallels akin to his own If, Bwana endeavours.
Very good! - Ed Pinset, The
Sound Projector
A South African of Hellenic descent, multi-talented Dimitri Voudouris creates
stimulating computer music soundscapes, paying special attention to the dismemberment
of the human voice within frameworks exploring "psycho-acoustic behavioral
patterns" in constantly mutating environments. This follow-up to the outstanding
NPFAI.1 / PALMOS / NPFAI.3 / PRAXIS on the same imprint pursues the same
distinctive sonic research, which the composer promotes by recurring to incredibly
complex formulas (partially "explicated" by equally intricate graphic
scores and meticulous liners). It requires some application on the part of the
listener, due to the lengthy duration of the disc at over 73 minutes, but the
rewards are compelling. AT=F is an "attempt to attach language to emotions"
through the construction of pre-linguistic expressions via TTS (Text To Speech
Synthesis) and an ensemble of 24 speaker interactive robots, an erratic hotchpotch
that connects with our perceptive system with a certain ease despite the profusion
of phonemic snippets and bizarre mutations thereof. Uvivi (Zulu for "daybreak")
is a piece for dance (!) based on a Helbing equation, a mathematical procedure
which takes into account "the linearity and infinite memory in the kinetic
flow of vehicular traffic". Who could imagine that cars stuck in traffic
jams in Mozambique (where the main data for this study was gathered) could produce
such evocative aural shades in terms of non-linear digital sonorities? While 1:Tf4
is a gorgeous paradigm of unearthly synthetic singing derived by disassembling
components from four different languages (Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian),
the 28-minute Onta (Greek for "beings") really tests the listener's
persistence with its ceaseless contrasts, implosions and explosions symbolizing
the energies animating life in a city or familiar environment. "Encounters,
events, architecture, weather, gesture, (mis)behaviors – all become means
of interaction". Voudouris is surely the first to realize that no words can
explain the fractal involvedness of the ensuing concoction.– Massimo Ricci,
Paris
Transatlantic
The second release for the label Pogue by the Greek-born South African composer
Dimitri Voudouris, an artist whose output is never predictable, focuses on the
psycho-acoustic nature of auditory phenomena and on the characterizations they
assume in different human relations, in macro-contexts, in daily events and in
less complex dynamics. It is precisely the morphological study of each sound source
that is the starting point from which Voudouris restores some degree of order,
organizing sensitive blocks of elements and frequencies - micro-environments that
make up the structure of the entire project. "All Tracks in this album to
be played loud" warns the author, confirming the chaosmotic nature of a work
with a thousand paths one that is both elusive and extremely dynamic. The
collage of sounds, arranged between voices and digital machinery, also draws on
more traditional techniques of electroacoustic improvisation, without ever relaxing
its tension, creating an imaginative landscape, multi-faceted, ever-changing and
reverberating. - Aurelio Cianciotta, Neural
This listener had very kind words for Voudouris' first record, and this one does
not disappoint expectations. Like the earlier release, this collects four novel
explorations of computer processing. Like Iannis Xenakis or John Cage, Voudouris
excels at transforming some data set from the world into material that is used
for his compositions. For example, the piece “UVIVI” uses data gathered
from traffic patterns around a pothole on a road in Mozambique to create a mass
of computer-generated sirens of various pitches and densities. One can't help
but to compare the sound to Xenakis' UPIC program, a complex synthetic sound,
rich but not at all harmonic. That is as easy to comprehend as it gets, the three
other pieces are based on more inexplicable and creative strategies. “??T=F”
uses speech synthesis to “attach a language to emotions, an area that normal
language fails, at the same time attempting to address an emergency in a world
where imperfection is becoming less tolerable to social pressure.” These
sounds, sometimes sounding like voices, sometimes like horns, sometimes like electronic
noise, are then routed through a sixty foot by sixty foot performance space in
which twenty-four “robot” loudspeakers listen to the other robots and
adjust their position/volume accordingly. Voudouris explains the situation in
much more theoretical and technical detail on his web site. What we hear, and
I don't know if it is the signal routed to the robot speakers, what the robot
speakers hear, or a stereo mix of what transpires in the performance space, is
a swarming mass of noises. I am reminded of Eric Cordier's masterpiece Stéllaire
Holostée in which sounds are sent to hundreds of wall-mounted speakers
and what we hear (on the CD) is the signal sent to the speakers, not the sound
of the speakers rattling against the walls. Complex, heterodox, scientific...
this is an amazing production of new sounds and ideas. - Josh Rosen, Monk
Mink Pink Punk |
