YUVAL AVITAL

In 1516 Thomas More created the word "utopia" combining two Greek words οὐ "not" and τόπος "place", meaning : "a place that does not exist." An ideal and unattainable non lieu (non-place), that rests outside of the common daily reality.

Utopias is an artistic investigation focused on the reality of the European holiday houses - concrete example of human desire (wealthy humanity) to build their own utopia.

Buildings of private property, often linked to a family's private history or to renowned panoramic spots of great beauty. Temporary habitats In which families and individuals spend their free time looking for calmness , simplicity, intimacy, silence, slowness and nature, in a sharp contrast to their daily routine.

Observing these utopias reveals hidden and contrasting levels of identity both of these ambients as the human experience inside them: on the one hand the holiday houses barriers between the outside reality and the ideal location, on the other, they create a trap that attract to itself everything that you would want to exorcise: loneliness, suspended tension, restlessness.

The summer house in Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer, where my wife and I were guests of our friends Michael and Sara, is the first microcosm object of observation in the series of compositions Utopias, entitled Utopie N.1 - Rayol, for solo percussion, Video & tape.

The composition will be premiered by the young virtuoso Lorenzo Colombothat with his skill and artistic sensibility inspired the choice of using the extensive possibilities of the percussions as a poetic narrator of tones and gestures.

World Premiere : 04/09//2013, G.Verdi Conservatory, Milan at 20:30.

A preview to the work can be seen on youtube.

"...The music becomes a carrier of a positive energy flow, overcoming human hatred and mischief [...] becoming a stream of different ideas that move together, listen one another, knowing to alternate between themselves, never overlapping or interfering one over another..." ARTSLIFE (Magazine) 09/07/2012

Me and my friend, Palestinian composer and oud master Wisam Gibran are trying to create in our duo a new creative approach to the sonic world inspired by the middle east traditions and cultures. The Italian 2012 tour included performances at The Milan Museum of 20th century - Museo del Novecento, opening concert of Villa Faraldi Festival, Imperia and In the Mediaeval square of Biella Piazzo in Piedmont.

for more info go to Yuval & Wisam web site

Noise for Syd

Noise for Syd, dedicated to the memory of Syd Barrettt, is my tribute to freedom of sound & expression, to the noise of electric guitars shouting with feedbacks on stage, a tribute to an era of fantasy, ecstasy & creativity. Creating a new visual & sonic ensemble for this project, Noise for Syd is not a cover concert or an exploration of Barrett's music (on the contrary there won't be performed even one piece of him during the concert). It is a commemoration of the legacy of Barrett toward exploration, toward experimentation, and a sonic/visual tale of raise & fall of an extraordinary powerful yet extremely vulnerable human being, who marked the story of the 20th century music.

Syd Barrett, best remembered as the founder of Pink Floyd was a leading figure in the psychedelic underground of London in the sixties. He was true experimental musician, using extensively feedbacks, distortions and dissonances in extremely long concerts of the band in the UFO club, much before it gained its fame. The entry to the "star system" of the music industry with the addition of heavy use of hallucinative drugs had crushed him as an artist, and in the last 20 years of his life, Barrett lived in Cambridge in a chosen exile from the musical world.

In this concert I will perform my electric guitar, together with Riccardo Sinigaglia (vintage synths & keyboards + live electronics), Giovanni Cospito (electric bass + live electronics), Eros Sabbatani (Contrabass tuba), Paolo De Gaspari (bass clarinet), Simone Beneventi (percussions), Lorenzo Colombo (drums) & with the artist Matteo Guarnaccia (visuals, stage design, projections, body painting).

You can preview download the score of this work in this link. You can also watch a preview clip in youtube in this link.

Noise for SYD Sonic & Visual concert in tribute to Syd Barrett, in the 7th anniversary of his death. "Festival Aperto", Reggio Emila, Italy November 13, 2013. Read more in this link.

REKA by YUVAL AVITAL


MASSIVE SONIC WORK FOR SIX TRADITIONAL SINGERS, 
TWO PERCUSSIONS AND A CROWD OF HUNDREDS OF VOICES

Yuval Avital presents REKA, commissioned by Warsaw Autumn Festival and co-produced by MITO-SettembreMusica, a large sound experiment that intends to involve the local public inviting them to participate in the creation of a fresco made up of hundreds of voices, coordinated on scene by two conductors, two percussionists and six extraordinary singers who represent a selection of the most unusual ancient vocal traditions in the world.

Following his previous three massive sonic creations (KARAGATAN for 100 gongs & bamboo [Philippines 2013]; GARON for 45 tubas, 6 percussions, choir, live electronics & 3 conductors [Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner closing event, Milan 2012]; Mise en Abîme for 34 accordions, soloists & crowd of 100 voices [RAI, Milan 2011]), REKA is a rare sonic experience including numerous performers : 

Six extraordinary traditional singers from rare and ancient vocal traditions, two contemporary classic percussion soloists playing gongs, plates and metals, 
a huge vocal “Crowd” - an anti-choir formed by a heterogeneous group of participants with no need of previous musical knowledge - that will be composed of the residents of the city in which performances will take place, guided by coded gestures of the conductor and a “user friendly” graphic & verbal score.

The main component of this work is the VOICE - the most essential and ancient sonic tool of all.

In REKA the voice extends from techniques and aesthetics of millenary traditions, to shouts and whispers, from precise musical languages to complex sonic textures; uniting and overlapping parallel events until reaching an extreme weaved texture, a trembling background from which sonic messages are born in order to vanish again.

The vocal soloists of REKA are :

OMAR BANDINU (SARDINIA / ITALY) Canto bassu (guttural singing) of the Tenores tradition.
ENKHJARGAL ANDARVAANCHIG (MONGOLIA / GERMANY) Guttural and overtone singing of the nomadic Mongolian tradition.
SOFIA KKAIKOV (TAJIKISTAN / ISRAEL) Bukara Jewish tradition, Mugam epic singing.
YUSSUF JOE LEGWABE (SOUTH AFRICA / UK) Zulu tradition, guttural singing and click language.
SAINKHO NAMTCHYLAK (SIBERIA / AUSTRIA) Tuvan shamanic and popolar traditions - biphonic and throat singing.
LAMA SAMTEN YESHE RINPOCHE (TIBET / FRANCE) Tibetan Bön tradition.

21/02/2013 Philippines : 100 Southeast Asian musicians of gong and bamboo instruments recreate the sounds of the ocean in Avital's score KARAGATAN in the memory of the Bopha typhoon victims.




For the first time in the history of music, the town of Dipolog City, on the Island of Mindanao (in the Philippines) will host an extraordinary cultural event, this February - an international festival dedicated entirely to the millenary tradition of gong & Bamboo instruments.

It will host more than 150 traditional musicians from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South-Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam.

The uniqueness of the Tunog-Tugan ('sounds & playing' in Tagalog) festival is the blending of one of the most ancient musical heritages of the planet (gong & bamboo), with innovative contemporary creativity.

 Yuval Avital, has been commissioned to compose a contemporary score for all the participants. "A remarkable and exciting opportunity" according to Avital whose concert, “Karagatan” ('ocean', in Tagalog) will premiere on the closing day of the festival, i.e., February 21st 2013. 

It is a 40-minute musical journey in the memory of the Bopha Typhoon victims of Mindanao, where performers, led by 2 outstanding conductors - former IMC (international Music Council UNESCO) vice president Dr. Ramon Santos and composer & conductor Chino Toledo - surround the audience with an innovative soundscape.

Unfolding Space & Spaces Unfolded are two new compositions of Yuval Avital that bridges between science and art, translating astronomic objects and the energy in the cosmic space into sounds, compositional structure and music.

World premiere of the first version of these compositions are a commission of Bergamo Science Festival, and will be premiered in October 2012.

The compositions are different by nature : Spaces Unfolded is a sound installation based on an artificial intelligence system, while Unfolding Space is a multimedia concerto for electric & classic guitars, images and sound translations of the cosmic space.

Unfolding Space & Spaces Unfolded were created thanks to the unique collaboration of Avital with planetologist and NASA - ESA coordinator Marcello Corradini , astrophysicist Pilippe Zarka from the Observatory of Paris, astrophysicist Alexander G. Kosovichev from Stanford University (and collaborator of SOHO NASA/ESA & SDO NASA) and Giovanni Cospito, professor of live electronics from the Conservatoire of Milan.

Unfolding Space & Spaces Unfolded are a starting point of a wider work-in-progress, in which Avital and his collaborators intend to create a much larger multimedia project for an orchestral formation, based on latest cosmic research and astronomical observations.

For more info about this work go to Unfolding Space & Spaces Unfolded web page