Matt has been accepted into the Advanced Post Diploma (APD) for compositional research at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (Cph) for 2020-2022.
Project Description
Can an acoustic grand piano be completely re-contextualized by re-tuning it with the pure harmonic series and ancient embodied musical tuning traditions? Can magnets and metallic preparations placed inside the piano evoke the stunning affects of Balinese Gamelan ensembles? And how can this instrument merge with spatialization, technology and post- production within the context of a chamber ensemble?
This project began in September 2020 and is well underway! Thanks to the Margarathe Axelson fund, Matt Choboter has collaborated with piano tuner Carsten Holmelund to create the microtonal prepared piano and the first solo recording (see audio).
An interdisciplinary project, my collaborators include programmer Domenico Villani, , electronic engineer Francesco Bigoni, producer Simon Mariegaard and experimental videographer Daniel Oxenhandler. Spatialization is explored for the purpose of audience interactiveness and embodied experience. Bigoni will assist in building a custom microphone system consisting of transducers, magnetic pickups, piezo’s and dynamic microphones. For instance, transducers placed on the piano’s sound board turn the board into a speaker. Magnetic guitar pickups isolate specific sound sources and dynamic microphones capture general room sound. Villani will then program these microphones using Max MSP so they can be harnessed compositionally and amplified through eight speakers.