Phallophone to Ascension

Domdom would like to invite you to attend a talk and mini live set with composer Dirk Stromberg: “Phallophone to Ascension”.

Dirk Stromberg is a founder of the Contemporary Music Festival in Vietnam (Duong Dai Festival – 2007-2016) and is currently on faculty at LASALLE College of the Arts. He was formerly on faculty at Istanbul Bilgi University, Saigon Technology University and was head of music at School of the Arts (SOTA), Singapore.
Dirk Stromberg’s work on tactile interfaces have created a body of work that explores sonic possibilities and audience empathy through the intuitive nature of control. Phallophone to Ascension will demonstrate approaches to instrument design that allow for flexibility and platforms to explore musical material. The lecture demo will discuss the importance of editing as well as the development of material through alternations between talk and performance. The basis of demonstration and performance will be Dirk performing on his Phallophone musical excerpts from the film Images of Ascension (Dirk Stromberg/Clare Chong) as well as short solo improvisations based on Anthony Braxton’s Language Types.

The Phallophone was developed to be versatile with a diverse voice able to adapt to a variety of genres. In its application by its creator, the instrument tries to demystify avant-garde and experimental music by having a “clear transparent, intuitive control metamorphosis with a clear audio-visual link” (Cedric Spindler). The Phallophone is a sensor based instrument with pitch and amplitude manipulation via a pressure sensitive neck – built to a similar scale to that of a guitar. Timbre is controlled via two mini joysticks for the left index and ring fingers as well as an accelerometer. There is a microphone input that is processed by the same physical modelling and processing engine that processes the synthesis techniques resulting in a clear timbral characteristic despite its diverse capabilities.

The talk will be in English, with Vietnamese interpretation support.
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Time: 19.30 Monday 3rd June
Venue: 4th floor,Erato School 30 Đoàn Thị Điểm HN.