This album presents the project Stahlstuhl in its typical line-up: a chair performer plus a laptop musician.
This was the first concert held by the duo, in December 2012.
Guitar player, singer and computer science enthusiast, Olavo Vianna acts here as a chairs’ guru. His performance is the result of a long study on the timbrical possibilities of school chairs. As shown in this recording, such an ordinary object has all the potential for becoming a full scale musical instrument.
The interaction of wood and metal creates a specific sonority, unique for each chair. The diversity of sound palette is assured by Vianna via an instrumental action combining multiple gestures, such as dragging and percussion. One has to start listening, in order to believe that 100% of the sounds here come from a chair…
Sound sources are processed in real time with a laptop, with an extremely cautious use of tape recordings of chairs. The laptop musician, Emanuele Battisti, receives the sound sources through a contact microphone, specifically used for the percussive sounds. Moreover, a condenser mic is positioned at the center of the room, allowing for a fuller reproduction of the granular sounds produced by the chair.
By the use of different delays and reverbs, the chair gestures merge into ever-changing rhythmical structures. The sound moves through the acoustic space. Note that the original recording for this live concert was in four channels: the public was literally enfolded in a dynamic system of sounds.
Although this performance is improvised, the two musicians follow a strict order of gestures and interactions.
The sonic result is quite mesmerizing, between gigantic reverberated scratches in the lows, metallic jingling and bruitist treatments, not to mention the very impressive silences filling the performance space. – Revue et corrigée
