midnight in the capital
how many men
are growing old in this wind?

Hermit's dream of mountain ash

Live at BEASTiary -festival(Elgar Concert Hall, Bramall Music Building, Birmingham), 3 May 2014. It was a 24ch multi-loudspeaker solo laptop performance with a pre-prepared tape part and a semi-improvised live part. Loudspeaker playback recommended, this doesn't really work well on headphones I think. 

two states (live at BEASTiary)

An excerpt from a duo between Artur Vidal (saxophone) and Visa Kuoppala (electronics), recorded on 17.03.2014 in Forest Hill, London.

Artur Vidal & Visa Kuoppala - 17.03.2014 (excerpt)

Texto 28 is a collaborative project between composers Josué Moreno and Visa Kuoppala. The initial form of the project was a one hour fixed media piece done by overdubbing takes of electroacoustic improvisation restricted by a post-Cageian open score. It resulted in a subtle, fragile and enigmatic sound-environment where the aural image didn't reveal whether it was composed, improvised or something else. In this live version the score has been modified to be performed as a real-time performance, based on quiet electroacoustic improvisation but including indeterminate elements and ascetic restrictions on playing. 

Josue Moreno & Visa Kuoppala - Texto 18/11/2015 (excerpt)

Outspread sets out to explore two continuums during its course: the continuum from pitch to noise and the reality-abstraction –continuum. In the piece pitch is a subset of timbre and pitched material is used simply as one timbre among others – by making the chords static, discourse based on pitches or harmonies is not formed, but the pitches serve as a timbral counterweight to sharper granular material. The reality-abstraction –continuum is explored by juxtaposing and mediating between situations of different apparent realism. The material evolves from immersive real situations to entirely abstract sound masses and vice versa, with wave-like swells frequently acting as catalysts. However, more than a technical discourse, the piece attempts to provide an impressionistic voyage.

Outspread (2010)

When composing Torque I wanted to work with the lightness and speed of an abstract expressionist painter – throwing paint on the canvas, generating ideas on the fly, painting over previous ideas, maintaining a primitive intuition and avoiding over-craft. The starting point for the piece was generating a handful of free improvisations in a granular synthesis environment I had built in Max/MSP (Malegra). I then started to compose with these improvisations in a spontaneous way, encouraging happy accidents juxtaposing unrelated materials in unassuming ways. Frequently I zoomed in on the internal happenings of one layer of material and allowed them to run their natural course while crafting the other layers to follow their logic. Hence the material develops and a form ensues in an unpredictable but organic way. 

Torque (2010)

Anton Webern’s early pieces embody a certain laconic expression that has intrigued me. Even though they seem like moment forms consisting of disconnected, causally vague instants, they manage to create an enigmatic coherence, a microcosm. Restrained brevity and soft dynamics create an impression of a subtly observant poem – perhaps a haiku. All of these were features I set out to work with in my homage. The piece is intended to eventually be part of a suite exploring the theme.

Homage to Anton Webern (2011)

My main concerns with Nocturnal Debris were atmosphere and pacing. I was attempting to create a subtle and sensitive rhythm that, combined with the materials and their development, creates a gentle, impressionistic mood. The piece strives to be inconspicuous and enigmatic, but with a sense of meaningfulness that leaves something lingering in the air after it’s gone. 

Nocturnal Debris (2012)

Still Air is a mixed piece for 15 musicians (fl, ob, cl, bsn, hn, tpt, tb, 2 x perc, pno, vn, va, vc, cb, elec). The piece consists of 10 quiet and relatively static sound environments, between which there are areas of silence and brief percussive punctuations.  The sounding sections are thought of as silence made audible – as if room tones, ventilation hums and distant buzzes of electricity had been subtly amplified. This version has been performed by the BCMG.

Still Air (2012)

Original piece is 5.0, this is a stereo reduction. Contact me if you want to hear the original multichannel version.

Program notes: How can a work of art feel both incomprehensible and meaningful at the same time? Questions such as this have concerned me in my current preoccupation with trying to create poetry with subtle, enigmatic rhetoric. For my aims to materialise the work cannot fold on itself with a full intelligibility and conclusiveness, but at the same time a different kind of clarity and coherence is needed. My previous compositional tendencies of creating cinema for the ear and formal clarity nevertheless restrained the level of enigmaticism attained. Did they hold the poetry back? Something has taken shape that balances between dichotomies.

Failing to reproduce appearances (2012)

Objects that float on the surface was a semi-improvised solo laptop performance using the self-built Malegra-instrument in the BEAST: Encounters -festival on 15.2.2013 (Elgar Concert Hall, Bramall Music Building, Birmingham). During the day I did two “dress rehearsals” before the concert in addition to the concert itself -this is the second rehearsal. The original performance was 8ch, so this is a stereo reduction. If you want to hear the 8ch mix, message me and I'll send it to you. A recording of the gig itself can be found on my Wordpress-page.

Objects that float on the surface (rehearsal, 2013)

Visa Kuoppala is a Finnish composer, improviser and field recordist living in London. He is particularly active in the areas of acousmatic composition and electroacoustic improvisation, where he is fascinated with the poetic, emotional and atmospheric qualities of enigmatic or ambiguous sounds. For his improvisation practice he has developed a granular synthesis and feedback -based instrument called Malegra, which he plays both solo and in groups. At present he is working on a PhD in electroacoustic composition at the Music department of University of Birmingham under the supervision of Jonty Harrison, towards which he has received funding from the AHRC and the university. He has performed or his works have been performed in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, USA, China and Italy.

Visa Tapani Kuoppala

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