On November 7, Reethaus and Soundwalk Collective present a live performance by Alva Noto.
Over the course of 40 minutes, Alva Noto will improvise a single continuous piece, filling the inner space of Reethaus with his characteristic electronic formalism and meditative subtlety. The performance is followed by a conversation with Soundwalk Collective.
Alva Noto has selected a specific set of instruments for his site-specific extemporization at Reethaus, including the early analog sequencer EMS Synthi A (a refurbished version he bought directly from the manufacturer in the seventies), oscillators originally conceived for physics experiments, a single-bit recorder he uses to manipulate playback and analog bells, which, unamplified, interact with the sounds being emitted through the 16-channel system of Reethaus.
This performance follows a lifetime spent in acoustic dialogue with architecture and space. In 2017, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto fixed contact microphones to the crystal walls of Philip Johnson’s Glass House. Intending to play the architecture itself as an instrument, heavy rain during the first half of the performance turned their participation into a kind of accompaniment. Here, the architecture offers a kind of inverse situation: rather than being transparently open to the landscape, the inner chamber of Reethaus is a thick, fortified preserve that invites an introverted listening experience. This and other features of the building will inform Alva Noto’s artistic response to Reethaus.
Promising the astute minimalism for which he is known, Alva Noto notes: “There will be a lot of space.”