Sound Art

Possible Sounds
15.05.2020

POSSIBLE SOUNDS OF EARLY CINEMA is an audiovisual experiment aiming to revive interest for the niche areas of artistic production (silent film/ experimental music) as well as shifting the paradigm of sound accompaniment. The composition devised by each artist reflects his/ her sensibility towards the emotional, narrative, and cultural content of the film, according to his/ her own style and techniques. It is also the result of an internal process of adapting to the context thus created, which may draw unforeseen directions for the vocabulary of experimental music.

Simina Oprescu (n. 1993) is a sound, video and mixed media artist who lives in Bucharest. She graduated the Dynamic Image and Photography Department at the Bucharest National University of Arts and studied for one year in the department of acousmatic composition at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium. The artist focuses on several levels, from the manner in which the still image and the moving image enhance each other to the use of sound as a medium of expression. Simina Oprescu is an increasingly visible presence on Romanian electronic music scene, as well as abroad: SHAPE alumni artist – Platform for Innovative Music and Audiovisual Art from Europe, 2020; Grand Prix Nova – Short Forms Category, 2019 etc. Using various instruments, sound objects, and digital programs, she is interested in the ability of sound to radically change the understanding of the image.

Sillyconductor (Cătălin Matei, b. 1980) is a sound artist who performs under several monikers. He was an audio programmer for performances and audio installations at numerous festivals in Romania and abroad: Rokolectiv Festival (Bucharest), ICAS Suite by Club Transmediale (Germany), Insomnia Festival (Norway) etc. Under the alias Sillyconductor, he was involved in most all activities related to music production and recording (“Metaorganum” project), theater music, sound installations (“100 Catronomes”) or sound objects (“Pianosaurus”; “Ondiocytherium”; “Arrhenius Jingles”). Sometimes he performs on an iPad with the Hyperion International Ensemble, founded and conducted by Iancu Dumitrescu, or organizes workshops for children with hearing impairment, based on vibrations and visual stimulus, attempting to combine science, classical references and absurd humour in his creations.

Photo @Rokolectiv 2012.

Somnoroase Păsărele (Gili Mocanu, b. 1971) is a visual artist, poet, musician who lives in Bucharest. Since 2002, he exhibits in museums and art galleries throughout the country and from abroad: 2007 – Küppersmühle Museum (Duisburg, Germany) and Kunstraum NOE (Vienna, Austria); 2010 – the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania (MNAC Bucharest); 2011 – The Performance Art Institute (San Francisco, USA) etc. As a sound artist, Gili Mocanu alias Somnoroase Păsărele is focused on improvised sequences based on live instruments, as well as on sampling, approaching techniques and ideas underlying free jazz and avant-garde music. He was invited to several festivals and events of experimental music: SIMULTAN Festival (Timișoara, 2011), Dvorak Marathon at the Berlin Konzerthaus (2013), In Context Festival (Slănic Moldova, 2018), Mirage Festival (Lyon, 2019) etc.

Miron Ghiu (b. 1980), once in his youth a winner at International Philosophy Competition and a journalist specialized in music and new media, has been experimenting for almost 10 years in the field of sound art, both on his own and as a member of the ambient/ drone/ noise Nava Spațială duo. He finds his inspiration in Dada and deconstructivist techniques and he likes to play with chance and improvisation. In 2008 he started to DJ for various events and clubs. In 2010 he did the sound design for an art exhibition at the Brukhental Contemporary Art Museum. In 2011 he held an open studio using all kinds of media for Platforma Space in Bucharest. He has created the sound design for the “Reality Videograms”, a video installation by Cinty Ionescu (Aiurart Gallery, 2012), “Traces of Destruction on Mars”, a performative installation by Cinty Ionescu (Odeon Theatre, 2013).

Photo:  Michele Bressan @Minister.

Dragoș Mărgineanu (b.1988) is a sound artist, sound & light designer, with studies in Sound Arts & Design at the University of the Arts London and Film Sound Art at National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest. He holds extensive collaboration in the field of theatrical sound and light design such as “The Seagull”, directed by Andrei Șerban (unteatru, 2018) or “Eine Kleine NachtMusik”, directed by Gigi Căciuleanu (unteatru, 2017) etc. He composed the music for the silent films screened within the event “Retrospections. Cinema Between the Wars” (Union Cinema, 2018). The artist was selected for the first two editions of Re-GENERATOR. Performative arts micro-festival (FiX Theater, Iași, 2019). Constantly exploring the relationships between the level of sound and the visual one, he employs various techniques and instruments, from classical composition to electronic improvisation, photography and DIY.

Photo: Malina Moncea @Teatru Fix 2019.