19:00: Doors
19:30: Introduction about Maryanne Amacher's Work by Thomas Ankersmit (NDL/DE)
20:30: «Perceptual Geography» by Thomas Ankersmit, Site-specific Live-Set
21:30: Jessica Ekomane (FR/DE), Quadorphonic Live-Set

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Thomas Ankersmit (NDL/DE) – Perceptual Geography

Thomas Ankersmit is a musician and sound artist based in Berlin. He plays the Serge Modular synthesizer, both live and in the studio, and collaborates with artists like Phill Niblock and Valerio Tricoli.
His music is released on the Shelter Press, PAN, and Touch labels, and combines intricate sonic detail and raw electric power, with a very physical and spatial experience of sound. Acoustic phenomena such as infrasound and otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play an important role in his work, as does a deliberate, creative misuse of the equipment.
His music is released on the PAN, Touch, and Shelter Press labels. Ankersmit performs at venues ranging from Berghain to Tate Modern to experimental and electronic music festivals worldwide. He’s also lectured at universities like Harvard, Stanford, CalArts, and Goldsmiths.
His music combines intricate sonic detail and raw electric power, with an extremely physical and spatial experience of sound. Acoustic phenomena such as infrasound and otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play a central role in his work, as does a deliberate, creative misuse of the equipment.

19:30: Introduction:
Thomas Ankersmit will give a short and subjective introduction to Maryanne Amacher’s work, focussing on her electronic music based on «otoacoustic emissions» (sounds that are actively generated by the listener’s ears themselves) and her series of architecturally staged compositions called «Music for Sound-Joined Rooms», in which she used the architecture of performance/installation venues itself to bring the music to life.

Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009)
Maryanne Amacher is an iconic figure in the experimental music world. She studied with Stockhausen and collaborated with Cage, but is mostly known for a body of work that is uniquely her own. She was drawn to extremes; from a whisper to a hurricane of sound. Her work crossed boundaries between science, music, and art; she was a researcher at MIT and her shows ranged from Woodstock to the Whitney Museum. In 2005 she received Ars Electronica’s «Golden Nica», their highest honor.
Amacher’s research on perception, psychoacoustic phenomena, sound spatialization, and expanding the role of the listener, form the basis of Ankersmit’s new project. In a time when seemingly everything is consumed via screens and headphones, this is a performance that can only be experienced in the present moment and actual, physical space.

20:30: Thomas Ankersmit (NDL/DE) – Perceptual Geography (Quadrophonic Live-Set)
«Perceptual Geography» is a solo live project by Thomas Ankersmit for Serge Modular synthesizer, inspired by the pioneering research of - and dedicated to – American sound artist Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009). It’s all about different «modes» of listening: not just what and when sounds are heard, but also how and where sounds are experienced (in the room, in the body, inside the head, far away, nearby).

The project premiered at CTM in Berlin and a GRM night at Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, which The Wire called one of the festival's highlights: «Thomas Ankersmit’s tribute to Maryanne Amacher swims right through you. Dense thickets of sirens and penetrating waves of sub-bass activate the body of the listener, creating phantom tones seemingly from within my head and making my chest cavity feel like a speaker itself.»

«Perceptual Geography» is a concept of Amacher’s, referring to a three-dimensional choreography of sonic phenomena and their experience - it is also the starting point for this project. Exploring the architectural and acoustic personality of each performance space anew, the work never sounds the same twice.

Amacher and Ankersmit first met in New York in 2000 and spent time together in Berlin the following years.

With thanks to the Maryanne Amacher Archive for sharing her research.

Amacher and Ankersmit first met in New York in 2000 and became friends in her later years. He considers her one of his greatest influences.

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21:30: Jessica Ekomane (FR/DE) (Quadrophonic Live-Set)

Jessica Ekomane is a French-born and Berlin-based electronic musician and sound artist. Her
practice unfolds around live performances and installations. Her quadraphonic performances,
characterized by their physical affect, seek a cathartic effect through the interplay of
psychoacoustics, the perception of rhythmic structures and the interchange of noise and melody.
Her ever-changing and immersive sonic landscapes are grounded in questions such as the
relationship between individual perception and collective dynamics or the investigation of listening
expectations and their societal roots.
Jessica Ekomane is one the six composers chosen as collaborators by Natascha Süder
Happelman for her installation at the German pavilion of the Venice Biennale 2019. She’s also part
of the SHAPE Platform roaster of artists for 2019. Autumn 2019 will see the release of her first LP
Multivocal via Important Records. Her work has been presented in various institutions worldwide
such as CTM festival (Berlin), Ars Electronica (Linz), Dommune (Tokyo) and Bemis Center for
Contemporary Arts (Omaha).

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15.12.2019
Walcheturm Zürich

Maryanne Amacher Wiki
Thomas Ankersmit Web
Thomas Ankersmit Soundcloud
Jessica Ekomane Web
Jessica Ekomane Soundcloud
Jessicas New Album on Important Records!
Walcheturm Zürich
Thomas Ankersmit «Perceptual Geography» Excerpt (Please listen with speakers, not headphones!)