Ear action is an exploration of the space between listening and feeling. In the one-on-one performance a composition is played on ear-protection headphones worn by the listener. These headphones, which are normally used to attenuate environmental noises, function here as a sound box directly on the listener’s ears. The headphones are played with various objects and the physical potential of sounds is made perceptible. Inspired by the sensory phenomenon “ASMR” (autonomous sensory meridian response), where soft sounds stimulate a pleasant tingling sensation on the skin, the two composer-performers Stellan Veloce and Neo Hülcker have developed their own practice of intimate ear play.
SETUP objects, table, chair, ear-protection headphones DETAILS YES001_EarAction.pdf Downloadstill | arriving is a performance installation for one pianist and electronics. Its open notation invites the performers to make — speaking with Donna Haraway — string figures with the compositional idea, the software framework and the context of the live performance. The heart of the piano part is a simple liveelectronic circuit: four delay lines à five seconds turn musical scales of different speed, range and direction into slowly changing chords — into the chambermusical simultaneity of different pasts.
SETUP piano, laptop, pickup microphone, stereo PA DETAILS YES002_StillArriving.pdf DownloadThe Cybernetic Gamelan Future Automaton is a network-based browser game for human laptop performers. Each performer controls its own future-gamelan instrument using text symbols while travelling inside a 3D universe of parametric architectures, visualizing how algorithms generate and represent knowledge. Based on a network which is prone to latency, and noisy gamelan- inspired synthesizer textures, the Automaton reflects the culture of computing which appears both alien in its clean and infinite shapes and rich of error, latency and noise of human input at the same time.
SETUP laptops, network, PA, projectors DETAILS YES003_CyberneticGamelanFutureAutomaton.pdf https://cgfa.andreasdzialocha.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc2i82y4oS0 Download451 proposes, among other things, an intuitive approach to music making, humbly inspired by the energy and approach to the guitar of improvisers such as Julia Reidy, Derek Bailey and Fred Frith. The notation aims to give the performer a certain rhythmic freedom, in search of an immediate and spontaneous flow, as opposed to being bound to a strict and unwavering timecode. As such - and furthermore - any one wishing to play the piece is encouraged to be creative with their interpretation.
SETUP guitar, computer, soundcard, MIDI footswitch, amplification DETAILS YES004_451.pdf Download“Es scheint recht einfach eine klangliche Form – sogar eine Vision – zu evozieren, unter welchen Bedingungen aber könnte man von einem visuellen Geräusch sprechen?” (Jean-Luc Nancy in: Zum Gehör, diaphanes 2010). crackles is a piece with movements, lights and sounds, composed in 2016 for MOCREP. It was premiered on Aug 11th 2016 at Darmstädter Ferienkurse für neue Musik. A trio version of crackles was first performed by Bastard Assignments on Nov 4th 2016. This publication contains both versions.
SETUP min 8 performers (ensemble) or 5 performers (trio), stage lights, microphones, speakers DETAILS YES005_crackles.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXzGPPaDG8A https://vimeo.com/194321563 DownloadChiara is a great listener, in fact I think she is the best listener I know. One summer day we engaged in a conversation about music and her relationship with it. Sparking from that conversation, this piece is a personal commission based on Chiara’s favorite sounds and wishes. It is a unique opportunity to be in contact with a truly committed listener. Anybody is very welcome to interpret the piece and either record it or perform live for Chiara, in return they will get listened to devotedly. Chiara is already looking forward to listening to your interpretation!
DETAILS YES006_ChiarasDreamPiece.pdf https://soundcloud.com/stellan-veloce/chatting-with-chiara-about-music Downloadlittle moments of invisible deaths (LMOID) is a modular environment designed for two pianos and electronics. It allows for compressions of both performed inter-activities and their piano-analogs into drained, striated sound surfaces whose flat ontological arrangements and meanings (musical, personal, or otherwise) can be re-combined, re-imagined, and interpenetrated in and out of time. LMOID is all that coagulated “hey nice to meet you!” mumbo-jumbo with all the nothing afterwards we were always dreaming about—that surface interactivity vibe, we always dreamed of because it was never and so probably always full of nothing else. LMOID is like water surfaces, but also it can move in other moving things with unreal depths/beneath-s: grey-hollow things, or wrapper things, plastic things from a stop-n-shop or the rest stop: those no-no after-alls, like something accumulating/consolidating over and over again. Like talking with someone who you keep thinking doesn’t matter: “hey that’s so great to hear!” but really does because their eyes and talk are full of pre-fab pre-consolidation interest mumbo. LMOID has a score that isn’t read straight or interested or settled or friendly at all. It’s all antago-tides in all the times we could remember. You just have to press a key and you’re already there.
SETUP 2 pianos, 2 pickup microphones, 2 laptops, 2 interfaces, PA DETAILS YES007_LMOID.pdf Download“23 stories on losing my breath” is a performance for voices, double bass and electronics. Using both pre-composed and improvised material, the performers interact with each other in different formations, presenting a succession of short moments that shape volatile ideas of narration through sound and image, like expanded shots from a stopmotion film.
SETUP double bass, laptops, projection and a variety of objects and instruments DETAILS YES008_23stories.pdf DownloadA nap is form of polyphasic sleep: during the nap state, the mind is “fluid and hyper-associative”, giving rise to images that can express layers of memories and sensations. This experimental participatory intervention is inspired by the interest in unconsciousness processes: whats going on in the brain while we sleep, why naps are so powerful, how sleep improves our memory but perhaps including things we would rather forget and how we benefit from napping. Special Nap sceneries will be provided in Agora and different scores will take place including a nap protocol: nano-, micro,- coffee, extended, Dali, TV, Lucid Dream or Disco nap.
SETUP coffee, cups, disco music, light, ball, old tv, armchairs, spoon, alarm clock, pillows, sofas, matresses, pencil, paper DETAILS YES009_Napscore.pdf DownloadThese are imaginary pieces of music. The imaginary can reflect the impossible back on itself and make it possible, imaginable. Music may also imply light, thought, premise - and encourages an active participation of the imagination and an extension of a mode of hearing. From this space we trace new extensions of a periphery of listening - noticing the boundaries separating the outside and inside of habit. Hearing and Feeling become one. In these three excerpts, we create different scenarios for your imagination to perform. A public audience is not necessary. Simply find a space where your imagination can wander, and use this music to begin a new path in your cognitive landscape.
SETUP a space where you feel well equipped to push your imagination out DETAILS YES010_ImaginaryMusicZine.pdf DownloadThe human body can easily bend its various limbs into 90-degree angles. Taking this as a basic premise, I wrote a “visual composition”, exploring the musicality of these movements as a live performance, combined together with different types of video as well as performance and voice. In this piece, 3 scales of body movement (hands, forearm, whole arm) are positioned in 3 levels of distance. They dialog with each other as polyphonically visual and compositional material.
SETUP video screen (1 big on the floor for projection and lighting of the live performance, 1 TV screen), stereo speakers with audio sample or live voice, performer DETAILS YES011_90DEGREES.pdf https://youtu.be/GX83MCeWMeo DownloadThis is a performance for people moving through a space, wearing sonorous suits of discarded materials. Human windchimes are nature spirits, of a nature that includes what we usually overlook and discard. Trash, in reconstituted form, returns to haunt its past homes. The feeling is of an alien world overlaying the everyday environment. This world is composed of mundane objects, but maintains a separate sensibility and internal discipline. Human windchimes neither avoid public contact, nor court an audience reaction like a ball team mascot. They are on an epic journey to seek out the sounding potential of the space they are in. Their movements respond to particularities of the space they traverse. They inhabit the space and resonate its hidden music – conversing with, but not bound by, its everyday use.
SETUP sonorous suits of discarded material DETAILS YES012_HumanWindchimes.pdf DownloadTo celebrate its first year of existence, the collective is organizing Y-E-S Fest at Agora, the art space located in the historical Kindl brewhouse in Berlin.
DETAILS https://2018.y-e-s.org/In performances of graphic scores, the visually interesting material is usually hidden from the view of the audience. The visual aspect of the score is only communicated via sound, so that the graphic score may as well be written in traditional musical notation or ignored completely. As someone interested in the theatrical and visual aspects of musical performance, I want this act of reading to be demonstrated to the audience directly, rather than communicated via an act of translation through music. Make each face a living note is an attempt to do this. It is an outline for a situation in which musical sounds may occur
SETUP white bouncy caste, 8 trombone players, stave made from 2 wooden poles, 5 pieces of rope, and treble clef cut out of cardboard, 2 assistants to hold the stave, people to bounce on the bouncy castle DETAILS YES013_MakeEachFaceALivingNote.pdf DownloadTo All Frequencies I Can Not Sense is a minimalist piece which deals with lingering spatiality - a meditation on the subtle frequencies which exist outside human perception, but nevertheless surround us, ever-present. Together, the performing musicians create a detailed timbral environment encompassing both complexity and simplicity, a contemplative evolution of dynamic sound-world that is characterised by a shifting emphasis between tones, chords and noise.
SETUP 2-6 speakers, computer, sound card, 4+ instruments DETAILS YES014_ToAllFrequenciesICanNotSense.pdf DownloadThe Bucolic Treasure Hunt sparks from the need of the sardinian anti-militarist movement to keep organizing actions related to the RWM Bomb Factory in the village of Domusnovas without being interrupted by the police forces. The treasure hunt is a way for the Collettivo anonimo segreto caccia al tesoro agreste to be involved and somehow fight with a dark horrible issue in a way that can also be playful. It is important to be active and, at the same time, to get more people informed about what is happening in their backyard.
SETUP people, objects, cameras/phones DETAILS YES015_ABucolicTreasureHunt.pdf DownloadWarm-Up is a “research based rehearsal-performance” that deals with the movements of street protests and anti-riot police from a choreographic perspective. It sets out a process by which participants and audience learn and embody how power and oppression organizes bodies and their flow through space.
SETUP real batons, fake batons, shields, upper body mannequins, lower body mannequins, plasitc bottles half filled with water, water for the performers, date palms for rest DETAILS YES016_WarmUp.pdf https://vimeo.com/590464254 https://vimeo.com/279010802 Download“Coreografia estudo #1” is a study about structure, control and the architectural capacities of choreography. In this study, geometric drawings based on numerical patterns define the trajectories of four dancers. There is a minimum amount of elements in the score, which are repeated and recombined. It is through interruptions of the unison and through desyncronisation that different paths and new relationships emerge between the dancers. This short choreography is mechanical and labyrinthine. It is a calculation that becomes vertigo. An optical puzzle.
SETUP four dancers DETAILS https://vimeo.com/505849875 DownloadOn December 5th, for the first time, we will perform a Y-E-S collective concert with our “musics”. Some of the sets are belated record releases, some other newly formed bands. Surely it is a chance to be in a room together listening to very different sounds.
DETAILS https://pas-berlin.org/Text scores describing how to create studio compositions. From simple studio techniques to more involved streaming-platform hacks, the 10 scores are simple recipes for electronic music pieces.
SETUP music studio DETAILS YES018_ScoresForStudios.pdf https://lcollective.bandcamp.com/album/scores-for-studios DownloadOn the 10th and 11th of September the Y-E-S collective invites to the second edition of the Y-E-S Fest, taking place in and around the Heizhaus of the Uferstudios in Berlin. The program includes interdisciplinary performances to be read freely as music, dance, performative acts or/and interventions in public space.
DETAILS https://2022.y-e-s.org/