26. May 2026 19:30 o'clock
Campus Essen-Werden
Neue Aula
_Jonathan Impett
_Biografie:
Juan Parra Cancino studied Composition at theCatholic University of Chile and Sonology atThe Royal Conservatoire The Hague (NL),where he obtained his Masters degree withfocus on composition and performance ofelectronic music. In 2014, Juan obtained hisPhD degree from Leiden University with histhesis “Multiple Paths: Towards a Performancepractice in Computer Music”.
His work in the field of live electronic music hasmade him recipient of numerous grants suchas NFPK, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and theInternational Music Council.
Founder of The Electronic Hammer, aComputer and Percussion trio and Wiregriot(voice & electronics), he collaborates regularlywith Ensemble KLANG (NL) and Hermes (BE),among many others. Since 2009 Parra is afellow researcher at the Orpheus Institute(Ghent, BE), focused on performance practicein Computer Music. Juan has been recentlyappointed as Regional Director for Europe ofthe International Computer Music Associationfor the period 2022-2026.
Jonathan Impett is a composer, trumpet playerand writer. His work is concerned with thediscourses and practices of contemporarymusical creativity, particularly the nature of thetechnologically-situated musical artefact. His early development of the ‘metatrumpet’constituted one of the first projects to exploreinstrument, performer, interactiontechnologies and composer as a single creativespace, necessitating new conceptual models.As a performer he is active as an improviser, asa soloist and in historical performance. Hisrecent monograph on the music of Luigi Nonois the first comprehensive study of thecomposer’s work. Jonathan is currentlyworking on a project considering the nature ofthe contemporary musical object and thetechnicity of music. Activity in the spacebetween composition and improvisation hasled to continuous research in the areas ofinteractive systems, interfaces and modes ofcollaborative performance. Recent workscombine installation, live electronics andcomputational models with notated andimprovised performance, using fluid dynamicsas a unifying behavioural model based onwave phenomena. The new project Anamnesistakes a radical approach to AI, usingtransformer models to suggest creative pathsimplied but unnoticed. Jonathan is also alongstanding member of The Orchestra of theEighteenth Century and The AmsterdamBaroque Orchestra. He is currently Director ofResearch at The Orpheus Institute, Ghent,where he leads the research group “Music,Thought and Technology”.
Brice Soniano (FR) started to play the doublebass with Jean Ané before leaving to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in theNetherlands. After his studies, Brice spentsome time in Cameroon to live with a localethnic group. Since returning to Europe, hedevotes himself entirely to creative music. Hetours with several ensembles of new music inthe Netherlands and is part of the stringensemble Jargon of Maurice Horsthuis. He is asoloist with l’Orchestre de Montpellier for thecreation of the opera Jetzt of the Germancomposer Mathis Nitschke travels all around toplay improvised music and jazz. Today, BriceSoniano plays in several ensembles andfocuses principally on his collaborations withHarmen Fraanje, Toma Gouband, JoachimBadenhorst, and on the trio 3/4 Peace withBen Sluijs and Christian Mendoza. Brice hasabout 25 albums to his record, and takes careof the label ASTROPI. Brice has been a guestteacher in several conservatories of music,such as Copenhagen, Aarhus, Antwerp, Ghent.
_Programmtext:
Three States of Wax has origins in research atthe Orpheus Institute, Ghent. Hybrid contextsof computational, electronic and acousticperformance are now paradigmatic ofcontemporary music-making. With wideexperience in improvisation, composition andinteractive technologies, the trio investigatethe nature of musical material in such work.Three States of Wax takes its name andinspiration from the work of Frenchphilosopher of science Michel Serres. Inconsidering the nature of material in modernknowledge-production, Serres takes from Descartes the thought experiment of a piece ofwax: when its shape is changed, how can it beconsidered to be the same thing? Serres seesprevious modes of science description bygeometry and then properties. Now, he says,we should understand any object as a receiver,store, processor and conveyor of information.Material thus bears the traces of all ourinteractions with it – there is no singleobservable ‘objective’ state.
Three States of Wax approaches musicalmaterial in this light. A network of AI and Alifeprocesses interact to reconfigure theinteraction of live performance. The pastexperience of a system and its materialbecome agents in themselves. We adoptDerrida’s notion of ‘hauntology’ – used by MarkFisher in reflecting on electronic music – as thenonlinear memory and emergent reimaginingof previous states generate new artefacts.