Champ d' Action en Studenten Conservatorium Antwerpen

In this second 'Laboratory', a participation project organised for contemporary composition and performance practice for Conservatory students, Champ d'Action have sought to find new forms of sound together with composers and students. This young generation of composers is keen to explore today's technological possibilities. By the simple use of microphones, amplification and laptops with transformations in real time, they attempt to make the inaudible audible. The Austrian Karlheinz Essl has been a leading force in the use of computers in music. The use of interactive systems between musician and computer produce works with a poetic dimension. The young Argentine Claudio Baroni works with high levels of silence, subtle sounds that imperceptibly manage to penetrate the domain of the concert hall. Tim Vets, with the sculptor Erki Devries, has created a series of interactive installations where music is an important component. New Yorker Phill Niblock is clearly one of the most important pioneers of minimalist music and his films are of unprecedented beauty. From October 2008 each of these composers will work together with students from the Conservatory and musicians from Champ d'Action. In the final stage of Laboratory they will present all their compositions in their completed form - the final outcome of an intensive working process.