COMPOSITIONS (selection)

Extract from the premiere of "inhabit_inhibit" (2019-2021) for 4 spatialized quartets, 6 soloists and live-electronics, by ASKO|Schoenberg & Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, conducted by Baldur Brönnimann, with sound engineer Florian Bogner.
@Muziekgebouw aan 't Ij, Amsterdam, 24.2.2022.
Composition commissioned by Ammodo/Muziekgebouw aan 't Ij & Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
Edit: Stefan Prins

inhabit_inhibit (2019-2021) - extract

"inhabit_inhibit", for 4 spatialized quartets, 6 feedback soloists & live-electronics (2019-2021). World premiere at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (24.2.2022) by ASKO|Schönberg & soloists of Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, conductor: Baldur Brönnimann, sound: Florian Bogner. 
For a video recording of this performance, go to https://youtu.be/PkVCB_kq1Lc
Commissioned by Ammodo/Muziekgbouw aan 't IJ & Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.
Editing&Mastering: Stefan Prins

inhabit_inhibit (2019-2021) - LIVE

Live-recording of "Inhibition Space #2" for bass clarinet and live-electronics, by Georg Wettin (Ensemble Courage), at Hellerau, Dresden, on 6.11.2022.

Inhibition Space #2 (2021) - Live

"Mesh" (2022-2023) for ensemble and live-electronics, here live-performed by the Nadar Ensemble at the Concertgebouw Brugge on 26.3.2023 (Yves Goemaere, perc & live-electronics; Dries Tack, bass clarinet and live-electronics; Thomas Moore, trombone & euphonium; Nico Couck, e-guitar+FX; Pieter Matthynssens, cello; Stefan Prins, live-electronics, Wannes Gonnissen, sound engineer).

Additional samples from Rainforests in Borneo and the Amazon recorded by David Monacchi for "Fragments of Extinction".

Commissioned by Nadar Ensemble & Concertgebouw Brugge. Supported by the Flemish Community.

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Even though "Mesh" can be performed as a stand-alone composition, it was premiered as part of the evening-length project "Der Wanderer 2.0" which I developed together with the Nadar Ensemble in 2023. In the version presented in the context of this project, the audience is wearing headphones on which part of the soundtrack and amplification is played back, while other parts of the soundtrack and amplification are heard through the loud speakers on stage. This splitting allowed for an extensive manipulation of sonic depth, nearness, distance, foreground, background, blanketing and uncovering. The audience was encouraged to play with the headphones, taking them on and off freely, listening to only one ear, etc., creating their own listening experience.
Of course none of this can be replicatd on this live-recording, in which the soundtrack is rendered to stereo.

Mesh (Stefan Prins, 2022-2023) - LIVE

For soprano, ensemble, live-electronics & live-video; Live-recording of premiere by Sarah Defrise (soprano), Ensemble Ascolta, Niklas Werani (sound engineer) & Stefan Prins (live-electronics) + Warped Type (video + scenography) at Festival NOW! Essen, Philharmonie Essen, 29.10.2023.

"skin deep #1" was commissioned by Festival NOW! Essen & Ensemble Ascolta with funding from the Ministeriums für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Baden-Württenberg

Recording by Niklas Werani, mixing & mastering by Stefan Prins

skin deep #1 (Stefan Prins, 2023)

Ao Vivo No Brasil 2023

Ping Me Bjork - Dark Mode (Live at Casa Locomotiva, São Paulo 2023) [feat. ÆNDRONIC]

Wolldrapper Hankes_To remember: Wolldrappers Hymn (M+T:KR 2012)

made in Reaper 7.x

3 x Dawesome Kontrast (played MPE)

presets by sadà\exposadà
wavetables by sadà\exposadà

Post Production in Wavelab Pro 12

The Prey Of Prayers

Form

Ghosts of Sine and Vine [disquiet0326]

Several tracks of staked warbling sine waves produced in pure data. These use mutiple sine waves with the shifting volumes to give a warbling effect. Some of the bassier tracks had a side chained beat pumping them using an expander gate- this was in time with the end-of-vinyl click sample. some other added crackle  and click samples . Compiled in pro tools. Only two of the drone tracks had delay/reverb the rest of the tracks are dry.

Samples:

https://freesound.org/people/DanielsonIII/sounds/68400/
https://freesound.org/people/ludvique/sounds/71854/

More on this 326th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Wave Turntable: In collaboration with composer Danny Clay, make music for his exhibit with artist Jon Fischer using only sine waves and turntable surface noise) at:
https://disquiet.com/0326/ 5
More on Clay and Fischer at:
http://dclaymusic.com 8
http://feather2pixels.com 1
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/ 2
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co 3:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0326-wave-turntable/ 2

Ghost Of Sine And Vine

First 7 (of 42) minutes.  Klangforum Wien, cond. Bas Wiegers. Full recording released by KAIROS (https://www.kairos-music.com/cds/0015044kai), 27/3/2019

Third Space (2016-2018) - FRAGMENT

cuts of "der kleine freitag" - session (December 19)
every thursday roundabout 8pm
at pfund & dollar / stockmeyerstr 43, hamburg

you`re welcome to join us!

participants for these cuts:

- rita -
- fool -
- kskefk -
- loco motiva -
- caro -

recorded with TASCAM DR-40
released January 12, 2020

TASCAM_08XX

TASCAM_0829

Live recording of Klangforum Wien with Ilan Volkov at Helmut List Halle, Graz, 15 February 2019.

http://chrisswithinbank.net/2018/12/this-line-comes-from-the-past/

this line comes from the past (Klangforum Wien & Ilan Volkov)

From the latest self-release Starfish & the sonic tonalities
https://manjaristic.bandcamp.com/album/starfish-the-sonic-tonalities
The Absence started from listening to an old recording of the Wind Quintet by Serbian composer Ljubica Marić. After learning the composition well, I simply fell in love with the noise hidden in-between sounds produced by an old vinyl crackling and web compression. I made myself a little drone and soon realized the psycho-acoustic qualities of it. The narrative is wrapped around the noise pollution, from both below and above the Adriatic sea.

The Absence

Headphones are highly recommended. The most appropriate and natural listening levels would be somewhere between 45% to 55% of your sound equipment's volume levels. The quiet beginning gradually grows louder, and then slightly reduces again to a 'status quo'. The recording, as presented here, runs from approximately 05:30 to 07:25: from just before first light to after sunrise.

The first and second dawns of 2021 were very windy, here. But the third dawn was quite calm. I was able to make this uninterrupted recording at one of my favourite local listening places. It's a place I love to go walking; and, just as much, love to sit, to listen, and to look. A place for peace, inspiration, and healing. And, of course, also to record.

The recording begins very quietly, but very gradually increases in volume. I've omitted the first part of the recording, which is even quieter, although it contains a few interesting obscure episodes; and one very vocal nearby koala. I felt that most listeners would be impatient with nine or ten minutes of mainly 'silence', before the birds begin to sing.

Given the quietness of this beginning, there is some general background 'white noise'. In part, this noise is just natural environmental sound; no space with an atmosphere is ever 'absolutely silent'. But it also probably includes some self-noise of the microphones, given that the preamp gain levels were relatively high. Although 'denoising' does mitigate such noise, I find that I am very rarely ever comfortable with the results of 'denoising', even when gently applied.

In all listening, there is always also, necessarily, the presence of the listener. There is no such thing as an act of 'listening' without a 'listener'. There is no such thing as 'sound' without a 'hearer of sound'. Yes, there is something that we may describe as 'purely physical vibration', which can exist, in some sense, quite independently of any particular being that is capable of 'hearing' such 'purely physical vibration' as 'sound'. But, very strictly speaking, such 'purely physical vibration' is absolutely not 'sound', as such, because 'sound', very strictly speaking, is a special kind of perceptual experience, a perceptual phenomenon, that can only be perceived and experienced by a perceiver, an experiencer, who is perceptually and experientially conscious, in an appropriate form and way.

John Cage once sat in a very sophisticated soundproofed anechoic chamber, attempting 'to hear pure silence'. He realised that there can be no such thing as 'hearing pure silence' because, even in 'pure silence', the listener will hear the sound of his or her own listening organism and listening organs. The presence of the listener cannot but be heard by the listener. The presence of the listener means that 'pure silence' is, in principle, impossible.

For me, this applies also to the presence of the microphones and the sound recorder. Like the organic listener, these also produce their own internal physical electromagnetic vibrations, which they cannot but also record, since recording such vibrations is precisely what they have been designed to do. Some are quieter than others; but, in principle, none can ever be 'absolutely silent'. To my mind, microphones and sound recorders are, to recollect Marshall McLuhan, 'extensions of our nervous systems'; and, like our nervous systems, they contribute 'noise' to every act of 'listening' and 'hearing'. Of course, it's preferable that the difference between inevitable intrinsic 'self-noise' and significant 'signal' is high, rather than low. But the fact of the matter remains, that, by fundamental principle, 'noise' and 'signal' cannot be absolutely separated. Analogically, to recall Wittgenstein, there is no such thing as 'a rod without length'. That's a logical contradiction, and a physical contradiction. The same applies here.

Third Space (2016-2018) - FRAGMENT

Stefan Prins

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