Concert / documental recordings of selected compositions.

selected compositions (documental recordings)

“Language​ ​learning​ ​as​ ​field​ ​recording,​ ​body​ ​as​ ​media​ ​-​ ​Between​ ​Flanders​ ​and​ ​Wallonia,​ ​the effort​ ​to​ ​be​ ​​modified​ ​by​ ​the​ ​field”​ is the title of this residency.
This​ ​project / performance​ gravitates around ​an​ ​expanded​ ​idea​ ​of​ ​field​ ​recording,​ ​in​ ​order​ ​to​ ​partially​ ​document language​ ​variety​ ​in​ ​the​ ​City​ ​of​ ​Brussels.​ ​The aim is not only to have ​a​ ​first​ ​contact with​ ​the​ ​city​ ​and​ ​its​ ​inner​ ​workings​ ​through​ ​its​ ​linguistic​ ​variety. But tthis​ ​project​ ​is​ ​also​ ​an​ ​attempt​ ​at having​ ​one’s ​own​ ​body​ ​modified​ ​by​ ​a​ ​city,​ ​somehow​ ​recording​ ​aspects​ ​of​ ​it​ ​in​ ​one’s body.​ ​In​ ​order​ ​to pursue​ ​that,​ ​the ​following​ ​set​ ​of​ ​rules / methodology is initially imposed:
 
1. Spend​ ​at​ ​least​ ​90%​ ​of​ ​the​ ​residency’s​ ​period​ ​trying​ ​to​ ​communicate​ i​​n​ ​the local​ ​idioms,​ ​only​;
 
a. Pas​ ​d’Anglais​ ​/​ ​Geen​ ​Engels / لا الإنجلیزیة.
 
According​ ​to​ ​BRIO’s​ ​most​ ​recent​ ​​public research​ ​entries​,​ ​besides​ ​the​ ​prevalence​ ​of​ ​the official​ ​Dutch​ ​(Flemish)​ ​and​ ​French​ ​languages,​ ​there​ ​has​ ​been​ ​a​ ​noticeable​ ​rise in​ ​the​ use​ ​of​ ​English​ ​and​ ​Arabic​ ​in​ ​recent​ ​years. However, as a fundamental rule​ of the project, one has to discard​ ​English​ ​as​ ​an​ ​option​ and dedicate ​learning​ ​time​ ​(2-3​ ​hours​ ​of​ ​study per​ ​day)​ ​to​ ​the​ ​city’s​ ​official​ ​languages.​ ​Dedicate​ also ​some​ ​of​ ​the​ ​learning time​ to ​a​ ​first​ ​contact​ ​with​ Modern Standard ​Arabic and the related specific language (probably Darija) spoken in the city of Brussels.​
 
b. Dictionaries​ ​are​ ​also​ ​restricted​ ​to​ ​local​ ​idioms,​ ​so,​ ​for​ ​example,​ one should ​consult a​ ​French​ ​dictionary​ ​in​ ​order​ ​to​ ​find​ ​the​ ​meaning​ ​of​ ​a​ ​word​ ​in​ ​Dutch​ ​or​ ​in​ ​Arabic, and​ ​vice​ ​versa.
 
c. One’s access​ ​to​ ​texts​ ​and​ ​news​ ​are​ ​also​ ​restricted​ ​to​ ​local​ ​idioms​ ​and​ ​news vehicles​ ​(newspapers,​ ​local​ ​tv,​ ​etc.).​ ​This​ ​is​ ​also​ ​valid​ ​for​ ​internet​ ​access.
 
2. Study​ ​and​ ​map​ ​regions​ ​of​ ​the​ ​city​ ​according​ ​to​ ​language​ ​diversity.​ ​Spend​ ​most​ ​of​ the time​ ​out​ ​there,​ ​in​ ​this​ ​regions;
 
3. Document​ ​the​ ​whole​ ​process,​ ​through​ ​phonography​ ​(binaural​ ​recordings​ ​when​ ​possible: prioritize​ ​“subjective​ ​perspective”,​ ​admit​ ​and​ ​expose​ ​your​ ​presence),​ ​photography​ ​and chronicling​ ​/​ ​diary​ ​maintaining;
 
4. Organize​ ​a​ ​public​ ​presentation​ ​of​​ ​results;​ ​while​ ​presenting,​ ​mix​ ​languages​ ​if possible.
 
5. Accept​ ​confusion.

https://interfacesresidents.tumblr.com/post/179121944334/paulo-dantas-interview-with-caroline-profanter

The effort to be modified by the field

Momento Zero - solo piano version (documental recording)

Bb Clarinet - Batista Junior
Bassoon - Marcio Zen
Live electronics - Marcos Campello
Multiple percussion - Leo Sousa
Piano - Marina Spoladore
Conducted by Paulo Dantas

2007

Contos Inacabados (documental recording)

Recording of live performance, at Praça 6. Recorded by Henrique Iwao

tplgy.1: our rituals, not as brutal as theirs (live at Praça 6)

tplgy.1: our rituals, not as brutal as theirs (live at Audio Rebel)

Recorded by @ryutakwbt.
Performance by Paulo.
Be very still (or listen with headphones).

mono.4

Vaso, improv quartet:

Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov: Tenor sax; 
Cadu Tenório: Violin, amplified objects, cassetes, contact mics and samples; 
Felipe Zenícola: Double bass, electric bass 
Paulo Dantas: Soprano sax, electric guitar, amplified metal table, screams

Full album at link: https://quintavant.bandcamp.com/album/qtv-009-vaso

QTV 009 – Vaso

Vaso - I

tenor saxophone and electronics: Paulo Dantas

in Host, fragmentos

documental recording of Ab.'s premiere

music: paulo dantas
texts: gabriela nobre (b-aluria), pablo neruda and bowie

Musicians from the Abstrai Ensemble

voice: Doriana Mendes
piccolo / flute: Pauxy Gentil Nunes
baritone / alto sax: Pedro Bittencourt
piano: Katia Baloussier
percussion: Pedro Sá and Daniel Serale
double bass: Larissa Coutrim
electric guitar: Marcos Campello
live electronics: Magno Caliman
conducting: Paulo Dantas

Dantas Radio02 Conversations

Infinito Menos interpreta "i--" (2015), de Paulo Dantas. Concerto na Fundação Educação Artística, Belo Horizonte, 26 de agosto de 2017.

Paulo Dantas: i--

[bʁy.sɛl] | [ˈbrʏ.səl] - Live at Le Lac, Oscillation Festival

"3.
The set of words that I used to feed the first conversations came from a text from Wittgenstein, the aphorism 18 of the Philosophical Investigations. In this aphorism he proposes a parallel between an ancient city and the completude or incompletude of language. I used this text not because I’m especially fond of or a specialist on Wittgenstein and Philosophy, but because I felt this text would be an adequate source, linked with more personal aspects of the whole process of the residence, so to speak. I felt in my skin, literally, the effects of gradually learning languages ‘through life’, while getting to know the city of Brussels. So I found in one same text a vocabulary with which I could describe certain areas of a city, for instance ‘peripheries’ or ‘streets’ or ‘houses’, and at the same time this text would reflect on language, through a language game. I chose to diffuse these conversations, which had their source in this text of Wittgenstein, in certain points of the city. Points which were some of my favourite, in which I searched for tranquility, let’s say; they were sort of refuges.

4.
I decided to diffuse these conversations in public space also because I felt it to be the most adequate way to present the results of my research. The process of learning the languages during my residence was running in parallel with the process of learning the city. And I could only learn the languages the way I did because at some point I decided that the methodology of learning these languages would involve confronting people in the city, instead of studying alone and only then probing my studies on the streets. I guess the whole process became easier when I noticed that this should be the methodology of it. If I wanted to record aspects of the city in my own body I would have to give up studying alone and try to find ways to ‘study while life went on’. So, when I decided to invest more and more time in the quotidienne, in day-to-day life, trying to learn the languages as I went on through the day, I guess this was the moment in which things started to work out. And I guess there is a good analogy in diffusing the conversations exploring acoustic properties of certain points in the city with the process of learning the languages through day-to-day life in the same city.

5.
Also, I wanted to give back the ‘dictionary’ that resulted from the conversations with citizens of Brussels to the city of Brussels. And some people told me that they could not understand the whole of the conversations. In those we were navigating something like four to five different languages, most of the time with really weird pronunciation and lots of mistakes… and yes, I understand that this would be confusing for most people. But, at the same time, I feel this is what happens on a daily basis in Brussels. And this summarised a major part of my relationship with the city: I was confused most of my time there, trying to understand what people were saying, trying to be able to navigate this bunch of languages. And I guess it’s interesting that, at the last performance, people of the audience could not understand the whole of what was being said, also for other reasons. For instance, the sound quality of the megaphone was not good, there is also the interference of the echoes, the reverberations and the different equalisations produced by the interactions with the specific places in which I diffused the conversations. But this was what I experienced through my period in the residence and I guess it’s ironic - I mean, it was not something I could predict because at that point I was understanding most of what the conversations were about - that most of the audience could not understand what was being said. In a certain way, I was giving back to the city a part of my experience there: an experience of lots of difficulties in understanding my daily life through Brussels"

Conversations - megaphone (excerpt), Oscillation Festival

"1.
There is a general idea of feedback which was important for all the works I developed during the residence. For my first performance at the Q-O2 concert, I explored an instance of this idea: I had microphones outside of the building, with the windows closed and, because of these microphones, we could hear in the room what was sounding outside. When I opened those windows I could then generate some feedback in the room. This feedback was controlled by the acoustic properties of the room, which were excited by the sound of the outside space. I guess this is something I transformed in the idea of interacting with the architectonics and the acoustic properties of buildings and constructs through the city in my last performance, using a megaphone, at places such as the Ring at north and south, the Docks area, a park at Anderlecht and also the aforementioned window at Q-O2. I tried to interact with the acoustic properties of these constructs with the megaphone in order to explore echoes, reverberations and equalisations, which could all be the first step to feedback; ‘signal re-injection’, but without gain reinforcement.  

2.
Another idea present at the first performance was inspired by my use of the Google Translate tool, something which would sometimes give me very wrong translations. There is this button in Google Translate which inverts the translation, it is symbolised by two arrows, crossing in opposite directions. When you press this button it ‘inverts the translations’: for instance the translation in Dutch of a given word in French becomes the new ‘original word’, to be translated in French. But when the proposal of a translation was given as a new original, it would not always convert to the same original word. As an example, the French word transducteur would give as a result the Dutch word omzetter; but when I pressed the ‘invert button’, asking what omzetter would be in French, Google Translate would give me the word ‘convertisseur’, which is not the same as the original, ‘transducteur’. I was inspired by that and wrote a text narrating this specific research with these words, and used it in my first performance at Q-O2. This ‘Google Translate idea’ involves this movement of going and then coming back, and I consider it to be another instance of the ‘feedback idea’. Besides that, it also generated a whole new performance, in which I basically replicated this procedure but with people. I presented words in French and they would give me a correspondence or a translation in Dutch or Flemish and this generated a new set of words because there were lots of mistakes in the translations proposed. And this would be the set of words which I would use for the next people I would interview, asking them for translations in French. I recorded some of this conversations and those audio takes generated the material which I would use to feed the megaphone in my last performance. So basically I was diffusing conversations, confusing conversations inspired by ‘google translating’, in some spots of the city"

http://www.q-o2.be/en/event/manuel-lima-paulo-dantas-isabelle-stragliati-pom-bouvier/

Banal / Alledaags (1.)

Track list:

Bella: 'prei prei', track 8 of 'HADRON' - https://qtvlabel.bandcamp.com/album/qtv036-hadron

Agla Aëón: 'Indigo Burn', track 7 of 'It's A Decopunk Retrofuturistic Untime Machine' - https://musicainsolita.bandcamp.com/album/its-a-decopunk-retrofuturistic-untime-machine

Matthias Koole: '5:00', track 4 of '34:46' - https://seminalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/34-46

Thomas Rohrer/Ute Wassermann - excerpt of track of their forthcoming album on Estranhas Ocupações netlabel

Fantasma (Bernardo Girauta/Gabriela Nobre) - 'Fantasma', track 3 of homonymous album - https://qtvlabel.bandcamp.com/album/qtv038-fantasma

atnll2019(20)_Bella, Agla Aëón, Matthias Koole, Thomas Rohrer/Ute Wassermann, Fantasma

A performance of one of Lucie Vítková's makeup scores, by Vítková and Paulo Dantas. Megaphones, rubbing, resonances, metal cans and voices in a room. A different world: Brussels, August 7th, 2018 [around 19:30]

Our hands in black oil

6 electric guitars:

Carlos Eduardo Soares - https://soundcloud.com/carloseduardosoares
Cláudio Cabral - https://soundcloud.com/claudiocabral
Felipe Pacheco - https://soundcloud.com/papachepecopo
Marcos Campello - https://soundcloud.com/chinesecookiepoets
Paulo Dantas
Rafael Sarpa - https://soundcloud.com/notyesus

mono.1

Teacher;
Musician / Composer / Sound Artist; 
Sound technician / Mastering (atnll);

Paulo Dantas (atnll)

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks