Ad Libitum

A key thread of this year’s anniver­sary edi­tion of Ad Libi­tum is the var­i­ous forms of pres­ence — of sound, musi­cians, mem­o­ry, and history.

One of these forms is linked to pres­ence through radio sig­nal. Dur­ing the sec­ond day of this year’s edi­tion, on 12 Sep­tem­ber, the Ad Libi­tum fes­ti­val will oscil­late at the bound­ary between impro­vi­sa­tion and radio art in the wel­com­ing space of Hash­tag Lab. The evening will open with Radio Noise Duo — Tomasz Misi­ak and Marcin Ole­jniczak — with the spe­cial par­tic­i­pa­tion of Artur Rumińs­ki. The gui­tarist known from Furia and Thaw, among oth­ers, has for sev­er­al years been con­sis­tent­ly explor­ing solo the bound­aries of exper­i­men­tal and impro­vised music. This time he will per­form with the ver­sa­tile duo of sound stud­ies the­o­rists and artists Radio Noise Duo, who have long been dis­cov­er­ing the many faces of radio art, ven­tur­ing will­ing­ly into the para­nor­mal fringes of radio culture.

Misi­ak and Ole­jniczak have for years run the excel­lent label Anten­na Non Gra­ta. One of its cat­a­logue items is an album by the duo that will close the Fri­day evening at ul. Bars­ka — Ton­ic Train (Knut Aufer­mann and Sarah Wash­ing­ton). These are among the most impor­tant fig­ures in con­tem­po­rary radio art — tire­less cham­pi­ons of com­mu­ni­ty radio (with their own Mobile Radio at the fore­front), exper­i­ments with the trans­mis­sion and mod­i­fi­ca­tion of radio sig­nals, micro­cast­ing, and new forms of radio. As Ton­ic Train, they have for years been redefin­ing the rela­tion­ship between radio art, impro­vi­sa­tion, field record­ing, and elec­tron­ic music in live concerts.

And in between… a solo per­for­mance by one of this year’s fes­ti­val stars. That is Lê Quan Ninh (b. 1961) — a French per­cus­sion­ist of Viet­namese her­itage. He began learn­ing the piano at the age of 5, but as a teenag­er turned to per­cus­sion. At 16 he entered the Nation­al Con­ser­va­toire in Ver­sailles. Dur­ing this peri­od he dis­cov­ered free jazz. In the 1980s he col­lab­o­rat­ed with Dau­nik Lazro, Michel Done­da, Peter Kowald and Butch Mor­ris. He per­forms both impro­vised music and con­tem­po­rary com­po­si­tions with equal distinction.

Przestrzeń Muzy­ki Współczes­nej Hash­tag Lab is co-financed by the City of War­saw.
The media patron of Przestrzeń Muzy­ki Współczes­nej Hash­tag Lab is POLMIC​.PL.

If you want to know more about the artists:

LÊ QUAN NINH
Born in 1961 in Paris to a Viet­namese-French fam­i­ly, an out­stand­ing per­cus­sion­ist active in both con­tem­po­rary music and free impro­vi­sa­tion. In the 1980s he col­lab­o­rat­ed with Peter Kowald in the ensem­ble Glob­al Vil­lage (impro­vis­ers from var­i­ous cul­tur­al tra­di­tions — Sainkho Namtchy­lak, Zeena Parkins, India Cooke), and also per­formed in con­tem­po­rary music ensem­bles includ­ing Musique Vivante, Alter­nance, and Entre-Temps. He was co-founder of the per­cus­sion ensem­ble Quatuor Hêlios (1986–2012) and the Toulouse-based col­lec­tive La Fli­buste, bring­ing togeth­er impro­vis­ers from var­i­ous art dis­ci­plines (music, dance, exper­i­men­tal film and video art, per­for­mance). He per­forms with artists such as Isabelle Duthoit, Michel Done­da, and Frédéric Blondy.

TONIC TRAIN — KNUT AUFERMANN and SARAH WASHINGTON are land­mark fig­ures in con­tem­po­rary radio art, engaged for years in devel­op­ing inde­pen­dent radio art in the era of radio’s migra­tion to the inter­net in the 21st cen­tu­ry. They spe­cialise in micro­cast­ing, using radio receivers as impro­vi­sa­tion tools, and a diverse range of — often col­lec­tive — games with sig­nal broad­cast­ing and streaming.

RADIO NOISE DUO & ARTUR RUMIŃSKI
A joint per­for­mance con­ceived espe­cial­ly for the anniver­sary edi­tion of the fes­ti­val, fea­tur­ing Radio Noise Duo and gui­tarist Artur Rumińs­ki. Tomasz Misi­ak and Marcin Ole­jniczak have been form­ing the radio-art duo Radio Noise Duo for years, trans­lat­ing their expe­ri­ence in sound stud­ies into prac­tice. Togeth­er they also found­ed the sig­nif­i­cant label Anten­na Non Gra­ta, which in recent years has become an impor­tant pub­lish­ing plat­form for Pol­ish impro­vised music. At Ad Libi­tum they will per­form togeth­er with Artur Rumińs­ki, a gui­tarist long asso­ci­at­ed with the Kraków black met­al scene (Furia, Gruz­ja, Thaw), who for some time has been chart­ing his own path in gui­tar improvisation.

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