 |
| Ollie Bown and Ben Carey... listening |
Ollie Bown and Ben Carey are Sydney based experimental musicians working with a combination of improvisation and studio production techniques. They make innovative use of software, creating their own interactive performance systems and new techniques for generating sound textures and patterns. Their first collaborative album,
Ben+Zamyatin, is available to listen to on
SoundCloud.
 |
| Ben+Zamyatin album cover, listen online via SoundCloud |
While we're at Gunyah, we plan to make a new studio album based around a series of recorded improvisations of Ben playing saxophone with our bespoke software systems. These recorded improvisations will be further edited into fully orchestrated studio constructions. We are both interested in the use of ‘field recordings’ in our work — recordings of naturally occurring sound, used in a creative context. We plan to construct the record around the use of natural environmental sound. This will include recording and improvising in natural settings in and around the Post Stephens area. This new material will also form the basis for a major live work, in conjunction with visual artists and performers, that we aim to put on in Sydney later in the year. We are looking forward to our residency at Gunyah, it will be an inspiring setting away from our other requirements, allowing us the time and space to create this new collaborative work.
 |
Ollie Bown, Solstice LAMP, interactive installation, Vivid 2013, link
|
 |
| Ollie Bown with his new media work animos |
Ollie Bown is a researcher, programmer and electronic music maker. He creates and performs music as one half of the duo
Icarus, and performs regularly as a laptop improviser in electronic and electroacoustic ensembles. He has worked with musicians such as Tom Arthurs, Lothar Ohlmeier and Maurizio Ravalico of the Not Applicable Artists, and Brigid Burke and Adem Ilhan of Fridge. Icarus' 2012 album
Fake Fish Distribution was released in 1000 unique digital variations, presenting a new angle on ownership and uniqueness in digital media artefacts. The band have produced remixes for electronic music pioneers such as Four Tet, Murcof, Caribou and EclecticMethod/ChuckD and recently produced software for an experimental live performance by Aphex Twin, premiered at the Barbican Hall in London in 2012. Ollie has performed at international festivals such as
Sonic Acts Amsterdam, the
Sonic Arts Network Expo UK and
AudioVisiva Milan. He has designed interactive sound for installation projects by
Squidsoup and
Robococo, at venues such as the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, the Oslo Lux Festival, the Vivid Festival, Sydney, and the Kinetica Art Fair, London. He is also senior lecturer at the UNSW Faculty of Art & Design, in this research role he is local cochair of the
2013 International Conference on Computational Creativity and of the
Musical Metacreation Workshop and events series.
olliebown.com
 |
| Ben Carey, iambic, audiovisual composition, link |
 |
Ben Carey, laptopping
|
Ben Carey is a saxophonist, composer and technologist with interests in contemporary classical, interactive, improvised and electroacoustic music. His research and practice incorporates equal parts improvisation, interpretation, composition and the development of musical software systems. He has recently completed a PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney, where his research was concerned with the development and use of interactive performance systems for instrumentalists and computer. In 2013 his
_derivations interactive performance system was released online, and has since been used in performances throughout the world by numerous improvisers. The EP
_derivations:
humanmachine improvisations was released in 2014 on Integrated Records, documenting performances by Antoine Läng, Alana Blackburn, Joshua Hyde and Evan Dorrian with the software. As a performer Ben performs a wide range of chamber and mixed works for saxophone and live electronics. As a soloist he has premiered works by composers Daniel Blinkhorn, Mark Oliveiro, Tristan Coelho, François Rossé, Baptiste Boiron and Florent Colautti. As a chamber musician he has performed as part of the Nexas Quartet, Covalent Duo, and Ensemble Offsrping. Ben’s research and creative work has been presented at the dBâle festival of electronic music (Basel), IRCAM Live @ La Gaité Lyrique (Paris), International Conference of Computational Creativity (Sydney), Vivid @ Seymour (Sydney), the Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (London/Ann Arbor), the International Computer Music Conference (Perth), the Sound and Music Computing Conference (Copenhagen) and the Australasian Computer Music Conference (Auckland/Brisbane).
bencarey.net
 |
| Ben Carey, performing _derivations, with Ollie Bown, MuMe 2013, link |
