YSWN in partnership with Electric Spring, supported by the Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI)

Open to all women, female-identifying, non-binary and gender non-conforming people. Attendance is by ticket only, with limited places available.

Description: In this workshop, Austrian composer, music producer, and DJ Susanne Kirchmayr aka Electric Indigo will discuss her own artistic approach and show how recordings can be changed into a wide variety of sounds using granular synthesis. Granular synthesis is a method of sound production that involves dividing sounds into very short snippets (called grains, usually lasting between 10 and 100 milliseconds), and then playing the grains back layered on top of each other. By altering parameters such as playback speed, volume, and direction, rich textures can be created from almost any source sound.

Participants will receive a historical overview of the development of this method as well as hands-on examples. In particular, she will show how to use the MaxForLive device “Granulator II” to transform source material into increasingly abstract sounds on the basis of tracks from her album "5 1 1 5 9 3".

Workshop participants are invited to bring headphones and their laptops with Ableton Live 9 or 10 installed (which includes the Granulator II device) and to also prepare a sample that they would like to transform. We also have workstations and there will be a part of the workshop dedicated to experimenting with one's own material followed by a Q&A session.

Prior knowledge needed: Active participants should be at least slightly familiar with Ableton Live but they don’t need to have any knowledge of Max, granular synthesis or Granulator II. People without Ableton knowledge, who are still interested in learning about granular synthesis and Granulator II are welcome to observe.

Bio: Susanne Kirchmayr aka Electric Indigo, born 1965 in Vienna, Austria, works as musician, composer and DJ. She has performed in about 40 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas and her name stands for an intelligent and distinguished interpretation of techno and electronic music. Electric Indigo creates music for concert spaces, clubs, occasionally for stage plays, sound installations and short films. In her compositions and live performances, she emphasizes the spatial placement and precise structures of subtly elaborated sounds, often generated with granular synthesis. Her works premiered at festivals like Wien Modern, CTM and Heroines of Sound, and in March 2018, Imbalance Computer Music released her debut album 5 1 1 5 9 3. Electric Indigo shuttles between Vienna and Berlin.

Useful Links:

Electric Indigo - http://indigo-inc.at

Electric Spring Festival - http://www.electricspring.co.uk/

CMCI - https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci/

Yorkshire Sound Women Network - https://yorkshiresoundwomen.com/