UNYAZI 2005

• Festival Director
  Dimitri Voudouris
  
• Associate Director
  Christo Doherty
  
• Production Manager
  Carmen Jerrard
  
• Symposium Coordinator
  Jürgen Bräuninger
  

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Unyazi Electronic Music Symposium And Festival 2005

NewMusicSA is greatly pleased to present the Unyazi Electronic Music Symposium and Festival 2005, Africa's very first electronic music festival and conference. The groundbreaking four-day event aims to promote a valuable dialogue concerning "electroacoustic music in the southern hemisphere", between composers, performers, and musicologists from South Africa and the rest of the world.

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Sponsors

The Unyazi 2005 festival was made possible by funding provided by the following generous sponsors:

• Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• Coceil des arts et des lettres Quebec-Canada
• Embassy of Mexico in South Africa
• Gaudeamus: Deze Nederlandse stichting is een centrum voor eigentijdse muziek
• Goethe Institut
• INTEL Corporation
• MMINO: South African-Norwegian Education And Music Programme
• National Arts Council
• Royal Netherlands Embassy
• SAMRO Endowment For The National Arts
• Sanyo
• Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores - México
• Signature Audio
• TOMS
• U.S. Consulate General in Johannesburg, South Africa
• Wits School Of Arts

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Collaborators

The organisers thank the following collaborators for their kind assistance:

• The Drum Café
• NOTAM
• SoundHouse
• Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand

And the organisers are indebted to the institutions that provided composers' works for the Listening Room:

• EMS
• Fundación Encuentros Internacionales
• NOTAM

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Preamble

It may be hard to imagine, but electronic music is at least 100 years old! It is particularly well established in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.

Africa is generally not considered to have produced electronic music pioneers, however: an Egyptian composer, Halim El-Dabh, actually created one of the first electronic works ever in 1944. His earliest compositions predate the French musique concrète school by several years.

It is time to celebrate electronic music in Africa, and South Africa can play a leading role in doing so. South African society has a rich, multicultural heritage, and we can therefore strive to create electronic music that is uniquely African.

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Special Announcement: Halim El-Dabh

Halim El-Dabh, one of the pioneers of electronic music internationally, and the father of electronic music in Africa, will be attending the Unyazi festival in 2005. He will perform his works live, and will also be actively involved in the paper sessions, workshops and in creating an awareness of electronic and electroacoustic music amongst young composers.

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What Is Electronic Music?

Electronic music and some of it's main categories are described in Wikipedia's:

• Electronic music
• Electroacoustic music
• Musique concrète
• Electronic art music
• Noise music
• Computer music
• Sound installation

The history of electronic music is described in Obsolete's 120 Years Of Electronic Music

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Aims

Conference

The conference will facilitate the exchange of ideas between overseas and local composers, performers, and musicologists, on matters concerning electroacoustic music in the southern hemisphere. The proceedings will be published with the assistance of IPEM (Belgium).

Festival

The festival will measure the need of, and create an awareness of, the economic and practical importance of the computer and the role that it does and can play in music creation, performance, and education.

Workshops

The workshops will focus on the practical application of electronics in music. South African musicians will have the opportunity to work with their international counterparts.

Education

NewMusicSA is working with the following people on a programme to educate formerly disadvantaged children and young musicians:

• Theo Herbst, of Stellenbosch University
• Jürgen Bräuninger, of The University Of Kwazulu-Natal
• Professor Christo Doherty, of University Of The Witwatersrand
• Meryl Van Noie, of The Sound House in Cape Town

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Education Institutions Involved

• The Sound House
• Stellenbosch University
• University Of Kwa-Zulu Natal
• Wits School Of Arts

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Featured Artists

The symposium and festival features an incredible number and variety of composers and performers from across the world, including:

• Jürgen Bräuninger & Sazi Dlamini (DE/ZA) info
• Brendon Bussy (ZA)
• Halim El-Dabh (EG) info
• Theo Herbst & Kemus Ensemble (ZA)
  
  • (Mario Cronje, Gerhard Roux, Claire Nozaïc, Jan-Hendrik Harley, John Pringle, Benjamin Marnewick, Rhyno Jansen & Simon Lolliot)
• Luc Houtkamp & POW Ensemble (NL) info
• Reza Khota (ZA)
• Yannis Kyriakides (CY)
• George Lewis & Louis Moholo (US/ZA)
• Lukas Ligeti (AT) info
• Francisco López (ES) info
• Pops Mohamed (ZA)
• Carlo Mombeli (ZA) info
• My Kingdom For A Lullaby (AT) info
  
  • (Michaela Grill, Billie Roisz, Martin Siewert & Christof Kurzmann) with guest Burkhard Stangl
• Sandra Ndebele (ZW)
  • (Featuring Bhekilizwe Ndlovu & Bongani Nyoni)
• Zim Ngqawana (ZA) info
• Pauline Oliveros (US) info
• Toni Olivier (ZA) info
• João Orecchia (US)
• Matthew Ostrowski (US) info
• Maxime Rioux (CA) info
• Schnee (AT)
  
  • (Burkhard Stangl & Christof Kurzmann)
• James Sey (GB/ZA)
• Rodrigo Sigal (MX) info
• Skid (ZA)
• Warrick Sony (ZA) info
• Blake Tyson (US) info
• Dimitri Voudouris (GR/ZA) info
• James Webb (ZA) info
• Chris Wood (ZA)
  
  • (Featuring Belinda Blignaut, Albert Sapsford, Ziza, Shmerah Passchier & Jacklyn Havermahl)

In addition, the Listening Room features selected works for tape by the following composers:

• Mark Applebaum (US) info
• Natasha Barrett (GB)
• Paul Dolden (CA)
• Mariano A. Fernández (AR)
• Àke Hodell (SE)
• Alejandro Iglesias-Rossi (AR)
• Daniel Judkovski (AR)
• Gyrid Nordal Kaldestad (NO)
• Georg Katzer (DE)
• Bjarne Kvinnsland (NO)
• Eduardo Reck Miranda (BR) info
• Julieta Szewach (AR)
• Alicia Terzian (AR) info
• Anders Vinjars (NO)
• Darius Weinberg (ZA)

The Viewing Room features selected music-related films by the South African film-maker:

• Aryan Kaganof (ZA) info

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Artists' Recordings For Sale

The Unyazi 2005 audience will have an exciting and rare opportunity to buy choice electroacoustic music on compact disc, as recordings by most of the visiting composers will be for sale at the festival.

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Featured Electronic Music Genres

Festival performances encompass these electronic music categories:

• Electroacoustic performance — some of which will employ instruments built from junk, hardware, and found objects, and used both as compositional and improvisational tools
• Laptop and computer music
• Sound installations
• Computer-automation of acoustic instruments
• Microcomputers in live performance, including: "home-made" electronic circuitry, radio, found sound material, and transformed musical instruments
• Sound poetry
• Interactive audio-visual work in live performance
• DJ'ing / VJ'ing

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Attending University Music Students

A group of nominated, scholarship students from the University Of Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria, who are writing a research project work on Music And The Modern Technology will attend the festival and participate in the conferences:

• Ibironke Michael Sesan
• Innocent Richard
• Adebusoye Ayodele Rufus
• Akinwande Roland Ayomiposi
• Linus Ifeanyi Akaonye

Students from the University Of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria, who are writing a research project work on Advancement Of Music In Africa - Past, Today And Tomorrow, will attend and participate in the conferences:

• Adebusoye Ayodele Rufus
• Jegede Oluwagbenga Olaleye

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Festival Advertising

• Kineticus: Maxime Rioux
• Lukas Ligeti
• SouthAfrica.info
• UNESCO Knowledge Portal

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General Information

Venue

The Wits Theatre info

Parking

Secure covered parking will be available at Senate House (entrance on Jorrisen Street), and secure uncovered parking at The Wedge (Yale Road, corner of Jorrisen street).

Accommodation for visiting composers

Accommodation for visiting composers (only) is available at Highfield Clusters, Reith Hall. A relevant accommodation information brochure is available (to download this PDF, right-click the link and choose Save Target As).

Further information

For any further information you may require please contact the Festival Director Dimitri Voudouris at .

Map of the venue

(Click on the above map of the venue to open a larger version of it.)

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Film Of The festival

Aryan Kaganof's film Unyazi of the Bushveld, an artistic interpretation of the festival, is now available online, at:
http://kaganof.com/kagablog/2007/06/01/unyazi-of-the-bushveld-2/

Unyazi of the Bushveld

South Africa - 2007
Direction: Aryan Kaganof
Camera: Thembeka Laduma
Editing: C. R. Mandala
Sound design: Joel Assaizky
Sound recordist: JA Assagai
Music: Zim Ngqawana, Luc Houtkamp, Lucas Ligeti, Matthew Ostrowski etc
Cast: George Lewis, Pauline Oliveros, Halim El-Dabh, Francisco Lopez etc
Format: Video
Time: 45 min.
Original Version: Inglese
Production: African Noise Foundation
Sales:

Synopsis

The Electronic Music Symposium and the Unyazi Festival of 2005 observed through the visionary and techno eye of Aryan Kaganof (SMS Sugar Man). Vibrations and hypnotism collude to create sound and visual empathies in theatres or in the street, on a pavement. One more chapter in the exploration of African culture by the South African multimedia artist, in the inextricable relationship between memory and the present, traditional instruments and computer-generated sounds. The film has been described as "an important document of an historic occasion" by Dr. Michael Blake and "a very interesting record of a rather odd event" by Professor Christine Lucia. UNYAZI OF THE BUSHVELD is the first production of the AFRICAN NOISE FOUNDATION featuring the seamless sound design of Joel Assaizky (Hard Copy, Bunny Chow).

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Photographs Of The festival

See Prof Christo Doherty's superb photographs of the Unyazi 2005 festival at http://www.atjoburg.net/?p=69.

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PROGRAMME

For ticket prices and booking visit Computicket. Tickets will also be available from the Wits Theatre ticket office before the start of performances. All workshops and paper sessions are open to the public and free of charge.

A printed programme with detailed notes on performers, composers, works, paper sessions and workshops will be available at Unyazi festival venues. The detailed programme is also available to download: Unyazi 2005 Detailed Programme PDF (464KB).

Programmes and artists subject to change.

Programme navigation:

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Day 1
Thursday 1 September

DIRECTOR'S WELCOMING SPEECH

Thursday 1 September 09h00 | Seminar Room | 30 mins

WORKSHOPS

Thursday 1 September

10h00 | Substation | ALL DAY

Luc Houtkamp & POW
Development workshop

10h00 | Shakespeare Room | ALL DAY

Blake Tyson
Percussion workshop

INSTALLATION

Thursday 1 September 10h00 | The Convent, Digital Arts | ALL DAY

Toni Olivier

SYMPOSIUM: PAPER SESSIONS

Thursday 1 September | Seminar Room

10h00 | 30 mins

Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros in the Arms of Reynols: A collaboration

10h30 | 30 mins

Rodrigo Sigal
The borders of identity, a personal perspective

11h00 | 30 mins

Matthew Ostrowski
The anxiety of the client: the network as compositional tool

11h30 | 60 mins

Halim El-Dabh
"Unyazi" Born Within: The Advanced Sonic Sensitivity of the African Village

PERFORMANCES

Thursday 1 September

16h00 | Downstairs Theatre | 30 mins

James Webb
Tokyo Gothic ***

16h35 | Main Theatre | 18 mins

Stepán Rak
Tracy **

17h00 | The Amphitheatre | 30 mins

Maxime Rioux
Unyazi ***

17h35 | Downstairs Theatre | 30 mins

Carlo Mombeli & João Orecchia
Live improvisation

LISTENING ROOM

Thursday 1 September 19h00 | Digital Arts, The Convent | 70 mins

Ake Hodell
Mr Smith In Rhodesia **

Eduardo Reck Miranda
Robotapithecos **

Dimitri Voudouris
NPFAI. 3 **

Mark Applebaum
Narcissus ReMix **
Snagglepuss ReMix **
Plundergraphic **

Paul Dolden
Below The Walls Of Jericho **

PERFORMANCES

Thursday 1 September

20h30 | Main Theatre | 35 minutes

Matthew Ostrowski
Insomnia

21h10 | Downstairs Theatre | 25 minutes

Brendon Bussy
Tick
CMYK

21h40 | Main Theatre | 30 mins

Yannis Kyriakides
Wordless **

22h35 | Downstairs Theatre | 15 minutes

Warrick Sony
The Continental Drift

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Day 2
Friday 2 September

INSTALLATION

Friday 2 September 09h00 | The Convent, Digital Arts | ALL DAY

Toni Olivier

WORKSHOPS

Friday 2 September 09h00 | Substation | ALL DAY

Luc Houtkamp & POW
Development workshop

SYMPOSIUM: PAPER SESSIONS

Friday 2 September | Seminar Room

09h00 | 30 mins

Lukas Ligeti
Burkina Electric

09h30 | 30 mins

Maxime Rioux
Can music be at the same time nomadic and sedentary?

10h00 | 30 mins

Theo Herbst
Music technology at Stellenbosch University

10h30 | 60 mins

Christo Doherty
Discussion panel concerning models for teaching electronic music/sonic arts in a tertiary educational environment

WORKSHOPS

Friday 2 September 13h30 | The Amphitheatre | 120 mins

Pauline Oliveros
The Expanded Instrument System - EIS

PERFORMANCES

Friday 2 September

16h00 | Main Theatre | 45 minutes

Rodrigo Sigal
Oreja Digital (Digital Ear) **

17h00 | Downstairs Theatre | 35 minutes

Sandra Ndebele
Scream And Shake Your Waist

17h45 | Main Theatre | 50 mins

Chris Wood
Seeing Is Not As Simple As It Looks ***

18h45 | Downstairs Theatre | 28 minutes

Jürgen Bräuninger & Sazi Dlamini
Yinkosi Yeziziba

Ulrich Süsse & Jürgen Bräuninger
… anywhere far

VIEWING ROOM

Friday 2 September 20h00 | Digital Arts, The Convent | 63 minutes

Aryan Kaganof
Come To The Point
Reich Dance Redemption
Techno: Space And Flow In The Radical Frame

PERFORMANCES

Friday 2 September

21h30 | Main Theatre | 48 minutes

Halim El-Dabh
Wire Recorder Piece/Ta'abir al-Zaar **
Electronic Fanfare **
Signals/Connections **
Michael And The Dragon
Cowry Shells In The Sand
Elements, Being, And Primeval **
Leiyla And The Poet: Electronic Drama No.1 **

23h00 | Downstairs Theatre | 30 mins

Zim Ngqwana
Live interactive improvisation

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Day 3
Saturday 3 September

INSTALLATION

Saturday 3 September 09h00 | The Convent, Digital Arts | ALL DAY

Toni Olivier

WORKSHOPS

Saturday 3 September

09h00 | Substation | ALL DAY

Luc Houtkamp & POW
Development workshop

11h00 | The Amphitheatre | 60 mins

Brendon Bussy
Audiomulch (software)

13h00 | Digital Arts, The Convent | 60 mins

The SoundHouse
A project presented by Dimitri Voudouris is discussed by the panel

PERFORMANCES

Saturday 3 September

16h00 | Downstairs Theatre | 38 minutes

Theo Herbst & The Kemus Ensemble
Cassini-Huygens
Colours

17h00 | Main Theatre | 45 minutes

Pauline Oliveros
Sounding In The Sonosphere

18h00 | Downstairs Theatre | 30 mins

Pops Mohamed
The Journey

19h00 | Main Theatre | 42 minutes

Dimitri Voudouris
L22P08M02 (2002-2005)

LISTENING ROOM

Saturday 3 September 20h30 | Digital Arts, The Convent | 60 mins

Daniel Judkovski
The Infinite Exile

Alejandro Iglesias-Rossi
Angelus

Alicia Terzian
Buenos Aires You Are Killing Me

Mariano A. Fernández
Refugio Y Temblor

Julieta Szewach
Clamor, Silencio E Infinito (Clamour, Silence And Infinity)

PERFORMANCES

Saturday 3 September

22h00 | Main Theatre | 50 mins

Francisco López
Untitled

23h00 | Downstairs Theatre | 45 minutes

Schnee
Johannesburg 1 **

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Day 4
Sunday 4 September

INSTALLATION

Sunday 4 September 09h00 | The Convent, Digital Arts | ALL DAY

Toni Olivier

WORKSHOPS

Sunday 4 September

09h00 | Substation | ALL DAY

Luc Houtkamp & POW
Development workshop

10h30 | The Amphitheatre | 90 mins

Francisco López
The socialization of sound creation technology and the real world as an instrument (talk/discussion)

VIEWING ROOM

Sunday 4 September 14h00 | Digital Arts, The Convent | 90 mins

Aryan Kaganof
Two Heads Are Better Than One ***
Time Considered As A Helix Of Semi-Precious Stones
Signal To Noise
Merzbow Beyond Snuff
Virgins Live

PERFORMANCES

Sunday 4 September

16h00 | Main Theatre | 45 minutes

My Kingdom For A Lullaby
Johannesburg 2

17h00 | Downstairs Theatre | 40 mins

Lukas Ligeti
Live improvisation

LISTENING ROOM

Sunday 4 September 18h00 | Digital Arts, The Convent | 80 mins

Georg Katzer
Aide Memoire - Seven Nightmares From The 1000 Year Night **

Gyrid Nordal Kaldestad
Fragmentedvoice **

Natasha Barrett
Prince Prospero's Party **

Bjarne Kvinnsland
Fish To Be Danced By **

Anders Vinjar
Ups-Downs-Ins-Outs Vs. Popeyes **

Darius Weinberg
Crossway (2005) ***

PERFORMANCES

Sunday 4 September

20h00 | Main Theatre | 25 minutes

George Lewis & Louis Moholo
At Home In The World (2005) ***

20h45 | Downstairs Theatre | 30 mins

Skid
Lubombo
Improv 1
Furry Animals
Improv 2
The A-Team

21h30 | Main Theatre | 45 minutes

Luc Houtkamp & POW
Live improvisation ***

22h30 | Downstairs Theatre | 50 mins

James Webb & James Sey
The Utopia Travelogues ***

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Presented by NewMusicSA - The International Society for Contemporary Music, South African Section
www.iscm.org