Npfai.1/Palmos/Npfai.3/Praxis

Dimitri Voudouris (Artist, Composer, Performer), none (Conductor)

Product Details

• Performer: Dimitri Voudouris
• Conductor: none
• Composer: Dimitri Voudouris
• Audio CD (December 18, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Pogus
• ASIN: B000M3438A
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #956,293 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

South African composer Dimitri Voudouris (b.1961 Athens, Greece) began composing in the 90 s. He composes for acoustic instruments, electronic sound sources, multimedia, including dance and theatre. He bases his technical and theoretical compositional approach in research of cognitive psycho-acoustic behavioral patterns in humans and the behavior of sound in relationship to continued environmental changes. His socio-cultural interests have led him to research the survival of music in the 21st century and the impact that media and technology have on the composer. NPFAI. 1 (New Possibilities for African Instrument) is an electro-acoustic composition for kundi and m'bira with computer assisted processing. Kalimba or m'bira is a finger piano made of wood and metal strips used in ceremonial music. In Western Africa this instrument is known as m'bira and in Eastern Africa it is called a kalimba. The kundi a bowed harp is a ceremonial instrument originating from the Mangbetu tribe of the Congo. In NPFAI.1, working with each individual layer gave Voudouris better control in the change of sound characteristics as some sound phenomena changed, disappeared and new sound phenomena surfaced creating new possibilities. In Palmos, Voudoris chose three Western instruments - the Hammond organ, oboe, and the bandoneon - whose overtone and harmonic capabilities allowed for interlocking moments to take place, a phenomenon that is ever present in African traditional music. Spectrographic analysis of sounds produced by each individual instrument was carefully monitored which allowed for a deeper understanding of timbre [harmonic content], attack, decay and vibrato. Subtractive synthesis further allowed for the isolation of certain inaudible frequencies to be enhanced to an audible level and the elimination of others. These compositional elements allow the listener to perceive the sound as stable individual tone and noise spectra, frequently of surprising purity. NPFAI. 3, third in a ser

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Four magnificent examples of electroacoustic music, March 8, 2007

By	Massimo Ricci "Massimo" (Italy) - See all my reviews

A South African composer of Greek birth, Voudouris is interested in the "research of cognitive psycho-acoustic behavioral patterns in humans and the behavior of sound in relationship to continued environmental changes". Don't let the composer's difficult description fool you into thinking about some kind of cerebral pretentiousness, though, as this album contains instead four magnificent examples of his approach, music that's always challenging and, in many of its expressions, of extraordinary beauty. "NPFAI" stands for "New Possibilities For African Instrument"; the two namesake pieces are electroacoustic studies, one for kundi and m'bira, the other for African marimba. In both cases, Voudouris processes the instrumental sources via computer to originate soundscapes that mix the "percussive and organic" sonic environments generated by these fascinating textures. An extremely individual character comes out of these experiments, which produce hundreds of separated aural events that nevertheless find their unique place in the air once they're out of the speakers, finally spreading like an indivisible whole; the properties of the main instruments are soon forgotten in favour of a multidirectional modification of our sense of belonging to the very music. "Palmos", for Hammond organ, oboe and bandoneon, is a wonderful pseudo-static, ever-morphing halo of interacting overtones; Voudouris states that "consciousness itself is a vibration pattern" and I take my hat off to him for two reasons: one, he's the first artist who confirms what I've always believed and two, the awesome radiance of this piece, which really throws us into an ocean of doubts without a clue about the relationships between safe mental harbors and the perennial fear of the unknown. "Praxis" makes great use of a Christian Orthodox Greek male choir (computer processed, too), ending the disc with the most heterogeneous offer, a cross of mournful recollections and radical experimentation that will put many contemporary acousmatic composers under the threat of sounding surpassed. Sepulchral lamentations and modified pitches, obtained from a damaged recording of the memorial services for the Croatian genocides held in 1999 in Sofiatown, Johannesburg, work much better as a means of protest than a million words.