VISEU RURAL 2.0 // SONIC EXPLORATIONS OF A RURAL ARCHIVE
Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art International Competition

This international competition invited electroacoustic musicians/composers and sound artists from around the world to produce sound works based on the Viseu Rural 2.0 archive, one that is being collected and archived by Binaural/Nodar with recordings of rural contexts from the Municipality of Viseu (Viseu Dão Lafões, Portugal), thus creating a sense of exploration and diffusion way beyond the borders of the specific location of the recordings.

Artists from around the world freely selected sound files from the archive in order to create sound works inspired by the rural context of Viseu, which were be submitted until September 30th, 2016 and were later evaluated by the selection panel, composed by the board of directors of Binaural/Nodar and associated experts.

From over 100 received works, the panel officially selected 39 sound pieces, the ones presented in this publication that were all considered as having high artistic quality.

The following were the awarded prizes:

1st Prize: Jeff Morris (Sobre a Electrodinâmica dos Corpos de Trabalho)
2nd Prize: Helene Hedsund	(Pastoral)
3rd Prize: Nikos Stavropoulos (Portrait V)
		
Jury Awards:

Boštjan Perovšek (Rails Past the Birds)
Diego Behncke ([-inf] -90.30900 -90.30900 [-inf] -80.76657 -84.28840)
Elsa Justel (Estampes de Viseu)
Fabián Avila Elizalde (Quebranto)
Jonathan Higgins	(Disinter)
Luigi Morleo (On Western Terror)
NUM (I Am Walking In The Woods Of Magic)
		
Honorable Mentions:

Adam Hulbert (Studies in Xbduction)
Bella (Ementa das Almas)
Deovides A. Reyes III (Superposition Phenomenon)
Fabrizio Gaggini (A Night on the Train)
John Tenney	(Over Viseu)
Massimo Avantaggiato	(Azul)
Sturqen	(Fabricação)
Moody Alien	(A Day in the Fields)
Vedran Mehinovic	(Dimensions in Viseu)
Virgílio Oliviera (Terra e Fé)

Viseu Rural 2.0: Sonic Explorations of a Rural Archive

The piece is inspired by my own childhood growing up in the District of Viseu, in Portugal. Having lived until my late teenage years in the sub-urban areas of Viseu, I was often taken to visit my grandparents village of Douro Calvo, in the region of Satão. Drawing from young memories I recall the close affinity of the population with the land, the hardship of work, the passionate religious faith and the tight social connections within the village. These cultural and social traits are clearly audible in the recordings provided by the Binaural/Nodar archive, from which I selected a handful of recordings that better suit the purpose behind this composition.

“Terra e Fé” is an electroacoustic composition on the hardships of work and faith in the divine. The composition is divided into two sections of intent, connected by free improvisation.

The first section depicts arduous work, achieved by implementing the sounds of farming (Couto de Cima), revolving earth, and mechanical factory sounds (Couto de Baixo), placed in the time frame through the use of aleatory techniques. The aleatory placement of the sound objects reflects the randomness of life whilst still keeping a continuous seemingness pattern. Limestone and granite stones recorded within a rural Portuguese granite wall initiate a transition between sections, a sound which I vividly recall from my childhood memories.

The second section is preceded by a segment of one of the archive recordings (093), a free improvisation with found objects which perfectly suits the layering of church bells and the introduction of a religious theme. Harmonic frequencies of several soundscapes, also provided in the audio files, are then enhanced and manipulated, creating an etherial and nostalgic texture which, layered by the procession chants in Ribafeita (Procissao de Ramos), and later accompanied by a live cello, sonically portraits a scene of worship, devotion and connection with the divine. The cello notes are purposely elongated at times, as to aid the sonic mantra of the section. By juxtaposing these sonic elements, my intention was to create an organic and ever changing aural drone which would not only reflect the continuity of life, but also celebrate it.

These religious processions not only emphasise community feelings and religious sentiment but, in my opinion, are also vehicles of hope and faith in the eternal. Passing down through multiple generations they acquire an undeniable culture significance of social cohesiveness and personal identity.
In order to reflect these ideas the piece ends with all elements filtered into a single continuous harmonic texture.

Biography:
Virgilio Oliveira Is an audio artist and sound recordist born in Viseu, Portugal (b.1979), currently based in London. His body of work is extensively linked with the field recording practise and the attentive listening of the acoustic environment. His audio work has been presented in such places has the SoundWaves and Popkatu Festivals, Resonance FM, Framework Radio, among many others. He is also a collaborator of the Naturesoundmap.com as a sound recordist, and the creator of the Douro river sound map; an ongoing acoustic documental project about one of the major rivers in the Iberian Peninsula. He holds a bachelors degree in Sound Arts and Design from the University of the Arts London, where he is also undertaking a Masters in Documentary Film.

Virgílio Oliveira: Terra e Fé

Dimensions in Viseu was created from sonic materials available on viseururalmedia.org, captured at three locations: entrance to the Ribafeita Cemetery, the Covelas Bridge, and the Anigraco granite factory in the village of Oliveira de Cima. The three recordings provide a rich reserve of complementary and contrasting timbres for electronic sculpting. I was inspired to compose the work due to the stimulating, high-quality clips on the site, my own interest in audio preservation, and the draw of creating a hyperreal environment from local recordings.  

Biography:
Vedran Mehinovic was born in 1981 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A gifted pianist from an early age, he and his musical family helped maintain the artistic life of the city during the Bosnian war. Mehinovic received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Composition from New England Conservatory, and a doctorate from University of California - Santa Cruz. In 2007, his piece RA was selected as one of just three orchestral works to be performed during the Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam, and had won an Honorable Mention at the week’s end. An enthusiast of world arts, Mehinovic has organized concerts of Korean, Hindustani, Uyghur, and Chinese musics in Boston. He participated in the Pacific Rim Music Festival 2010, which took place in multiple international locations and featured over thirty new compositions for Korean and Western instruments. Mehinovic’s works have been performed in Bosnia, Croatia, Switzerland, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, and the United States.

Vedran Mehinovic: DImensions In Viseu

A day in the fields of by moody alien is meant to loosely depict an imaginary visit to a rural area by combining a wide spectrum of the local sonic environment (nature, mechanical and other man-made noises, working sounds, folklore, etc…) with an electroacoustic music piece that extends the range from melodic to noisy and is heavily based on repetition (through looping) that in a way represents the daily circle of activities and, in a broader sense, the joys and hardships of life in the countryside.
Avoiding to create a more picturesque soundscape by eliminating the less inviting sounds found in the field recordings used was a conscious choice: the atmosphere created by these recordings served as a guide to what the piece should eventually be like as a whole, in an effort to convey as many sides as possible of what life in Viseu - and other similar areas - sounds and feels like. The different bell sounds throughout the piece, for instance, were given special weight, since they can have so many different meanings…

A day in the fields of was made using field recordings no. 22, 31, 32, 52, 56, 88, 89 & 91 from the Viseu Rural archive, alongside an original piece of music made with instrument (violin) samples, courtesy of the Electronic Music Studios, School of Music, University of Iowa (http://theremin.music.uiowa.edu/index.html).

Biography:
moody alien is an artist living in Thessaloniki, Greece. He started making music in 2001, without previously bothering to be instructed on how it’s supposed to be done and during this time he has actually insisted on not learning things any way other than experimenting and listening to the results. His approach could be summarized in if it sounds good, then it is good. 

Founder and curator of the experimental label Thirsty Leaves Music (since late 2014), he has released 6 personal albums to-date, as well as remixing and collaborative works, has contributed to various artists compilations and has done production work for others. His complete discography is available at his website and spans a wide range of musical genres, often in unexpected combinations. His future plans are to continue exploring sound and new directions through various –solo or collaborative projects.

Moody Alien: A Day In The Fields Of

The sound construction, when based on a free collage of various details, is made of mental images that only exist in the private space of the imagination. The basilar points can be stated without uncertainty because the premises are easy to understand, but what comes along with the exploration of ideas is a discovery of possibilities that only the act of doing allows, and this is how "Fabricação" is born and reveals itself; Between landscapes of a place that are real and another world revealed by the artificiality that is possible through the sound creation. The place ceases to be that place and a dubious environment inevitably arises, far from the neutrality of a static and predictable reality.

Biography:
STURQEN is a duo made by César Rodrigues and David Arantes, both born in Porto and active since 2009, with several albums and EPs released in various formats (CDs, vinyls, cassettes). They are a duo of sound explorers who have in analogue machines their starting point. Their hard-to-sort compositions show clues to songs that range from mechanical post-industrial to anarchic landscapes where improvisation fights any monotonous moment. STURQEN is a music project that lives on strong frequencies.

http://www.sturqen.com

Sturqen: Fabricação

“Azul” is a concrete music piece.  A microcosm of sounds becomes the hyletic universe of this work in which sounds are explored through various techniques (subtractive, granular)

Doppler and binaural effect are used in the piece to spatialize sound even in presence of a stereophonic file.

Heterogeneous sound materials are here combined in well-identifiable electronic gestures, each of one describe a scene: 

vr00116 perc
vr00118
vr00114 riverberato e percussivo
vr00091: dogs and bells
vr00065: ventos sobre sacos de plastico
vr00006:  fabrica de granito

There is the attempt to create a syntactic articulation using all the sounds listed above.

Biography:
Massimo Avantaggiato studies composition at Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. Since his mid-teens he has concentrated on expanding his musical landscape using electronics, unusual recording techniques and computer-based technology, all of which help him to develop his idea of sound and composition.

He took a degree  in Electroacoustic Composition with full marks at “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatoire in Milan and a degree as a Sound Engineer (Regione Lombardia). He has written music for short films and installations and also music for TV adverts; he has recorded several CDs for various Italian and foreign labels.

Recently his interest has moved towards Multimodal Interaction in Virtual Environments (selected for a stage @ Aalborg University, Denmark, 2011) and towards adaptive sound design and music (Music and Screen Media Conference 2014, Liverpool; ATMM2014, Ankara, Turkey).

Massimo Avantaggiato: Azul

A huge eagle flies through a clear blue sky over the small city of Viseu, and descends to the ground amid crows and goats with their bells gently ringing. We hear the sounds of nature and of humans at work in the country, then the city and its clamor, people at worship, water for washing and milling, trains transporting people here and there, reminders of the passage of time from the church bells… In short, sounds of everyday life, stitched together with fantasy segments of altered sound. At the end, our bird takes off, to fly away, who knows where?

I am a lifelong professional violinist, now retired. For many years I have been making field recordings and composing soundscapes. My album “American Places” was released by Portuguese netlabel Green Field Recordings.

John Tenney: Over Viseu

PART 1 (scene 1 and scene 2)

I imaged a short tale. Walking through an undiscovered path, just by following the train track and the desire of exploring the world around. It's the twilight in the countryside. I walk in the wood. I have to get the next town. I hear the sound of the bells from far. This sound becomes soon an inner sound to me. I walk in the wood. Dark is coming. I'm looking for a place to stay.

PART 2 (scene 3 and scene 4)
I found a source, and I decide to stop there. Only the sounds of the drops. I take a rest for a while. It's still dark. The rooster sings. The day dawns. I start to walk again.

Biography:
Fabrizio Gaggini (Rome 1975) is the son of a photographer, he started to take pictures when he was a child. He started to play when he was twelve years old. Music and photography are cardinal points of his research. In 2002 he received an M. Phil. in visual anthropology (Università degli Studi di Perugia, IT). From 2000 to 2006 he worked as musicologist at Everest-K2-CNR. In 2006 he recorded Gandharva musicians on the field (Himalaya). His instruments are trumpet and guitar. In the last fifteen years he played in several bands as sideman, leader and songwriter. In 2012 he moved to Berlin. Today he composes scores for silent movies, short films and exhibitions.

Fabrizio Gaggini: A Night On The Track

This stereo fixed media piece employs different numerous recorded sounds coming from the vast collection of field recordings of the Viseu collection. These sounds have been processed through sound synthesis, granular synthesis, time expansion, and other GRM processing tools. The results of these processes give the composer a collection of timbres and unique sounds, thus becoming the main compositional materials of the musique concrete composition. Since Viseu is known for its vast landscapes, the composer has decided to use space as one of the main sonic features of the piece. This is also reflected on the field recordings of the Viseu collection. Musical gestures that sound far, midway, and near are employed in the composition.
Being at different places at the same time is the main idea of the composition. The title, Superposition Phenomenon, is an idea in quantum physics that describes this idea. The sonic events of the musical composition mimics this idea. The different stratified musical gestures create the illusion of being at two places at once. The array of timbres, musical gestures, and spatialization, provide the listener a sonic experience of being at two places at one time.

Biography:
Grand prize winner of the 6th Sond-Ar’te composition competition and the recipient of the President’s Research in Diversity Award from the University of Illinois, Philippine composer Dennis Deovides Reyes III is one of the five composers from around the world to be invited by the University of London’s prestigious School of Oriental and Asian Studies to write a new electroacoustic piece for their annual Composers Conference and Festival. Dennis was selected by the University of Kent and the Vienna Acousmonium to diffuse his composition at the institution’s Sound-Image-Space Research Center. His piece Motions of Maria Makiling was featured at the La Fabbrica del Vederes Concert on Homage to Norman McLaren in Venice, Italy. Dennis is studying with Prof. Scott A. Wyatt at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Deovides A. Reyes III: Superposition Phenomenon

To begin with, my family of Portuguese origin has lived in a rural territory for many years. My great-grandfather was the first to venture into Brazilian lands and brought with him other relatives. Here he worked in agriculture, but soon he started working in other trades. He wrote part of his story in rhymed verses, thus leaving an account of his life to the future. He was illiterate and married an illiterate Portuguese woman. He learned to write on his own, and it is said that he did it using a match box.

When I came across the Viseu Rural 2.0 project, I was drawn to know unknown parts of my story. Immense roots that are lost in a geographic distance. I was listening to the interview of Maria Angelina Pontes when I learned about the Ementa das Almas ritual.

The Ementa das Almas is in itself a Portuguese tradition linked to the Catholic religion, which is based on songs to the dead. It is a periodic ritual that occurs from night to dawn and awakens the town, bringing to mind those who died. It is said that it was done in groups of four men, but later women also started to participate in it.

"Every thing has a touch," says Maria Angelina. I can imagine this ritual as a recollection, a sound that enters and leaves the homes, as well as landscapes seen from a train. Our ancestors are present despite not being here, thus revealing us parts of who we are. To sing for the dead is to remind us of the life we ​​have. It is to evoke the memory of what we once were. It is to bring closer the awakening of a new life.

Sound artist, musician, improviser and composer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She works with currently transitions between musical and artistic universes by developing performances, videos, field recordings, installations. She was an artist in residence at Lo Spazio Poschiavo (Switzerland) and Casa Comum (Brazil). She  is part of a collective called Meteoro. Meteoro was interacting with Tunga’s installation called “Delivered in Voices” at Festival Novas Frequências, 2015.

Biography:
Bella has two solo albums “Cantar sobre os Ossos” and “Facies” released by Seminal Records label as digital format and tape and has tracks taking part of some compilations, like Hy Brazil vol.10 and Feminoise Latinoamerica. She has collaborated with many artists, like Maya Dikstein, André Anastacio, Isabel Nogueira. She also works as sound educator and her productions are in contact with other expressions like theater, film, visual arts, dance.

Bella: Ementa das Almas

Extract from an unaddressed letter attributed to M. August Mountweazel

A colleague had passed on several gigs of field recordings from the Viseu Rural 2.0 archive, as well as the location 40.3921° N, 7.5445° W, which, as it later turned out, designated an area within Viseu Dão-Lafões, part of the Centro Region in Portugal. Field recordings have always fascinated me, as they offer a kind of second-order cybernetics, a ‘listening to listening’; albeit through the values of military and industry accreted into material technology. It made immediate sense to me to start by using these recordings, as after all, field recording is already inherently

I
schizophonic insofar as they open up plot holes by allowing two soundscapes to exist within a single space. This aside, the recordings proved somewhat immersive, and on playback I immediately experienced a promising wave of chronoportation.

II
and machines. It seemed as though these shared various patterns of movement, whereby abstract machines and techniques were distributed and utilised across biological and synthetic umwelten. I’ve since been referring to this experience as xbductive: an abduction without a subject.

I can now hypothesise that listening is a process that convolves enculturated
memory of meaningful relation onto sound events, and that this serves to occlude the operation of shared technologies. In this way, it is the interplay of surfaces to imply depth: a trompe l'oeil technique that is frequently used within cultural contexts for purposes of control. In cases of xbduction through acoustic processes, however, space expresses itself as distributed and schizophonic. My experience of Viseu perhaps failed to articulate a soundscape, but instead, it evoked a distributed sonosphere—or maybe something even less localised: the usually-occluded web of dreams and desires that a place produces by way of being in relation, the influence of a multiplicity of overlayed ontologies sounding into the plot holes of sonification. This was arguably why remote viewing was rejected as a method by the military after so many decades of research; it gave so much more and less than the subject in question.

The occult truth of Cage’s ‘let sounds be themselves’, perhaps, is concerned with the unfolding of the convolved listening subject, and the resultant xbduction of the listener.

Yours from the field, M.

Adam Hulbert: Studies In Xbduction (Loc. 40.3921° N, 7.5445° W)

Foggy snow-capped mountain peaks and thick dark green hills call me out to explore over and over. My forgotten sanctums, the vast lands which slowly crawls out of interwound voices inside me, gaze at my eyes. 
They dissolve me in , furtively and light. Everything has stopped here.

"I Am Walking In The Woods Of Magic" is an electroacoustic piece created by NUM. This piece is a combination of field recording ( downloaded from ViseuRural website ), electronics , vocals , flute and local rural cries. 
Every sonic material was processed by NUM in order to create a rural and also mysterious atmosphere to awaken the passion of return to the nature for spiritual restoration. 

Composed by : Milad Bagheri , Maryam Sirvan
Flute and vocals : Maryam Sirvan
Audio engineer : Milad Bagheri

Biography:
NUM is an Iranian electronic duo formed by Milad Bagheri and Maryam Rezazadeh ( aka Maryam Sirvan) in 2010, based in Rasht in northern Iran where the Alborz Mountains meet the Caspian sea.  The concentration of NUM is on experimental electroacoustic music where they can create unique atmospheres by combining natural sonic materials with electronic sounds .

Milad Bagheri (Composer , Electronic instruments , Audio Engineer)
Maryam Sirvan (Composer, Vocals, Flute)

NUM: I Am Walking In The Woods Of Magic

ON WESTERN TERROR 5 by Luigi Morleo is inspirated to audio file of the title “Paisagem audiovisual de fábrica de granito Anigraco em Oliveira de Cima #1”.

I have spatialized the sounds, I have modified the parameters of sounds and I have created the new audiovisual file. This my work will be a new look and a new soundscape regard the original soundscape.

Biography:
Luigi Morleo was born in Mesagne, Italy (BR) in 1970. Mr. Morleo is presently teaching Percussion at the N. Piccinni Conservatory in Bari. In 1992 he won the “Valerio Bucci” 1st prize for Percussionists organized by the percussionists of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. From 1987 to 1991 he was percussionist with the Teatro Petruzzelli Orchestra in Bari and from 1992 to 1994 was percussionist and timpanist with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Provincial Administration in Bari, now is timpanist of the Bari Society of Concert Orchestra while has played in Europe, Japan and China. He is very active as a soloist and conductor at International Festivals in Italy and throughout the world. In 1998 he made his American debut, before for the Forum Composers at the New York University in Manhattan, after for PASIC 2001 (Percussive Arts Society International Convention) in Nashville, TN. Prizes for composition have included third prize at the Percussive Arts Society Composition Competition in 2001; second prize for the Il Timponi d”Oro in 2002; and first prize from Tactus Figit for Musica e Ironia again in 2002, has been invitated to Conservatoire National Superior Ginevra (CH), Conservatoire National Regional Lyon (F), New York University in New York (USA), Associazione Percussionisti Italiani in Bolzano, Giornate della Percussione in Fermo, Audio Box - RAI in Matera with Alvin Curran, Orchestra Sinfonica RAI in Milan – conduct L.Berio, Time Zones in Bari with Steve Reich, Festival Futura Electronic – Francia, Festival Radiophonie Epsilonia – France, Fondazione Teatro Petruzzelli with Ann Crumb; PNEM Sound Art Festival in UDEN - Holland. In ensemble he played and conduct music of J.Cage, L.Berio, B.Maderna, G.Petrassi, E.Varese, I.Stravinsky, S.Reich and other composer. With the Myth Ensemble he created many multimedia extravaganzas including “The Voyages of Aeneas” in collaboration with New York University, the University of California/Ervine and the European Institute of Design of Rome. He appears in varied musical and artistic styles like rock-cross-over, folk-popular, Jazz and DJ; however actors, film directors, painters and architect: Steve Reich, Antonello Salis, Radiodervish, Nicola Pisani, Emanuele Arciuli, Francesco D’Orazio, Mario Caroli, Livio Minafra, Faraualla, R.Carlos Nakai, Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic, John H.Beck, Tarshito, Deposito dei Segni, Marcello Prayer, Vincenzo Gazzolo, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Riccardo Rossi, Enza Pagliara. His compositions include music for many films and CD Roms.

Luigi Morleo: On Western Terror 5

Disinter is composed from a recording of a granite quarry in the Viseu Dão Lafões region of Portugal. Inspired by the process of quarrying granite, the piece is structured around the concept of gradual unearthing. Throughout the duration of the piece individual layers rise out of the underlying texture to prominence. These are then forced back into the background by the next incoming layer of sound. 

Biography:
Jonathan Higgins is a composer from England who has recently completed an MA in Sonic Art at the University of Sheffield. His music is often densely gestural and noise based with influences from beat and glitch based music. He has presented works both in the UK and internationally, most recently at the ICMC (Athens 2014, Texas 2015, Uterecht 2016), iFIMPaC (Leeds), Metanast (Manchester), Sound Junction (Sheffield) and Noise Floor (Staffordshire). His electroacoustic remix of Gary Carpenter's piece "Neiderau" played by the Tempest Flute Trio was shortlisted for the Nonclassical 10 Remix Contest. Fragments, a piece based on Humpty Dumpty received a runners up prize in the USSS Nursery Rhymes competition.

Jonathan Higgins: Disinter

Beginning with a religious chant about death, voice fragmentations, a squeaking door, a cemetery gate, layers of voices, tapped objects and other textures, themes in Quebranto shows: brokeness, death, religion and nostalgia. A butterfly flutter, broken sticks, glitched sounds and bells are a prelude for the voice of portuguese and mexican birds, water and ghosts, all of them broken by different kind of sound textures. Mexican religious chants for the dead are mixed with sounds of portuguese procession and sheep bells. Then vendimia sounds, noise, high frequencies and machines are the prelude for sounds from the mexican sea, kids playing, plastic bags, crickets, granite, all of them selected because of their timbrical characteristics and, because this sounds were gifted, in gratitude I share some field recordings from Mexico related to the themes in the piece. Finally a chant: Oh Christ you will reign, and the sound of a machine erase everything. A spectre: when everything is disappearing and dying, only the sounds in our heart and memory will remain.

This piece plays with stereo field, creating spaces for different listening experiences, and treating each sound object from its own materiality as a sound file, placing them in different sites of the loudspeakers. With this idea, the audio processes are minimal: filters, compression, delays, reverbs, distortion, pitch-shifting and stretching. Quebranto is inspired by Hildegard Westerkamp, Luc Ferrari and Francisco Lopez works and thoughts on soundcape and listening; also by the protocols for listening by sound art collective Ultra-red. I want to thank Armstrong Liberado for the use of their loudspeakers in their studio.

Biography
Fabián Avila Elizalde «Neural Xólotl» (Mexico, 1980) is an artist, educator and researcher on experimental music, listening and sound art. He got a master's degree in music (Music Technology, UNAM) for linking soundscape composition and glitch aesthetics. Before, he got a bachelor's degree in psychology (UNAM), was formed in electric bass and jazz theory with Aaron Cruz and was self-taught in electronic music. Awarded with 1st. Place in IV National Videoart University Contest (MUAC, 2014) and 4th. Place in Music and Design Contest (Circo Volador, 2013), also has been granted with scholarships by Master Program in Music (UNAM), Salón Abierto (ArteHoy/ CONACULTA) and Visiones Sonoras (CMMAS); he got a special economical support by FONCA in 2013. His artistic and academic work has been shown in national and international museums, galleries, festivals, universities and venues. Today, he is part of Armstrong Liberado, a free music collective. 

https://neuralxolotl.wordpress.com/

Fabián Avila Elizalde: Quebranto

From the recorded sounds proposed, I wanted to re-design the rural landscape of Viseu, to shape an heterogeneous polyphony.
The flow of the water fountain in front of the church, the birdsong, and the clanking of ceramic scattered on the road, are confused in this sound texture. 
Seething boiler shells, screeching machines and tractors, cracking of granite cut by diamond disks, merge with the popping of tin sheets of experimental games.
The image tries to reflect some of these sound sources in a polymorph design.

Biography:
Elsa Justel (Argentine-France)holds a PhD in Aesthetics, Science and Technology of the Arts at the University of Paris, She currently works as an independent composer and video artist, having received commissions from the French government and different European production studies.

She has developed a pedagogical and research activity at the Universities of Marne La Vallée (France) and Pompeu Fabra (Spain) as well as in various conservatories and music schools in France, Holland, Germany, Argentina and Spain.

She received numerous composition awards such as : Prix Ton Bruynèl, Netherlands (2005), International electroacoustic competition of Bourges, France (1989/2002), Prix Phonurgia-Radiomix, France (2001), 5° International competition on Radiophonic music (La Muse en Circuit-WDR, between others. Her music has been recorded by Diffusion i Média, Canada and several compilations in EU, Canada, France, Argentine, Spain.

http://www.fundestellos.org/Bio.htm

Elsa Justel: Estampes de Viseu

How can I approach recordings of a place that is foreign, outsider, alien to me? Recordings that are so rooted in their sense of place, as in this case with Viseu, have, in my opinion, two ways of manifesting: they act as a definitive index of their own mechanism in articulating space and time in a fixed, linear temporality; but they also represent a ground in which they no longer exist: that is, a technical nature that can relate to a non-landscape, a landscape beyond itself, existing between a multiplicity of places. So, to approach these recordings I had to come up with a way to make them mine, but also to consider them as independent multiplicities that act as technical objects, no longer participating in a geographical sense.
With this in mind, I re-recorded the rural sounds of Viseu, playing through the speakers in my house. I moved the speakers throughout my house, placing different microphones in different places, and using various techniques for re- recording the sounds coming out of my speakers, evoking rural Viseu. Through this methodology, I can play with the acoustics of my own sense of place, interlacing with the geographic mechanics of the recorded topographies.

The chants, rivers, voices and abandoned buildings transform first through translating them technically, and then approaching the composition structure through analyzing narratives in the same recordings. I came up with a way to intertwine the mangling of sounds and spaces in time through the idea of "narrative interferences" and rhizome (Deleuze); this way, I can think about presenting, in one way, a possible outcome for representing Viseu in my own, quotidian approach.

Biography:
Diego Behncke (b. 1992, Santiago), is a composer and artist working in the field of media arts, installation, and electroacoustic composition. His work is aimed at approaching research about geography, technical objects, and organized representations of data appropriation through algorithms that relate to real and virtual spaces.

Studied Musical Composition in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2011- 2015) under Cristián Morales-Ossio, and Aesthetics in the same university (2015-2016), doing techno-aesthetics studies and film theory.

Since 2012 he is part of the multidisciplinary art collective Taller Ciclo, doing live performances in Santiago, Chile, in Teatro Oriente (2015) and Sala Isidora Zegers (2015), and also La Serena in festival MUSICAHORA (2014).
In july 2016 his debut full-lenght album "2082z 1952z 1948z" was released by Speculations Editions.

Diego Behncke: [ - Inf] -90.30900 -90.30900 [ - Inf] -80.76657 -84.28840

The composing procedure is based on the selection of sounds available from the recording titled “The Old Station – Paisagem audiovisual de antiga Estação Ferroviária de Bodiosa – 40.717147, -7.988202. , 13’13’'. The latter underwent sonic analysis to eliminate constant sonic background noise, using the basic principles of writing libretti. The birdsong and warble of the stream was freed from noise; it was limited to ten minutes and simultaneously defined as the base layer of sound. Further sonic layering of the recording involved cutting frequency fields of various lengths from the original recording and placing them in their original positions on the timeline of the initial recording. Concurrently, the cut-out clips became sound samples to be treated electro-acoustically in select locations within the frame of the ten-minute composition. Narration of the text during the electro-acoustic treatment was part of the creative process. Its non-documentation – the lack of recording of the narration was an essential part of the execution as it left behind nothing but the subconscious influence it had on the execution of the electro-acoustic treatment. It was also possible to replace the narration of the text with internalized repetition of the text in thought.
 
Execution on the recording (September 2016):
Boštjan Perovšek, live electronics, computer, mixing and production of the entire recording.

Biography:
Bostjan Perovsek (Ljubljana, 1956) is musician, composer and soundscape artist, composes experimental, electro acoustic music. He specialises in creating bio-acoustic music based on the sounds of animals, especially insects. He plays on his own or with the band SAETA, which performs experimental music. He also creates music for film, theatre, performances and multimedia installations, as well as soundscapes for museums and galleries. He works also as sound engineer for film and video. He has published a number of CD’s, some as a solo artist, some with the band SAETA. His first vinyl LP entitled „Bio, Industrial Acoustica (green)“ reveals compositions from his bio-acoustics and urban noise opus.
One of the most important parts of his work is how to connect art and science. One of the result of such work was his composition put in the selection of the 10 compositions from Europe and United States, proposed by the Association of the European Radio Stations (EBU) for the period 1995-96, and performed within the programme “Radio Ars Acustica”. His attention is also put in the field of “experiment for events”. That is why he works also in the field of entertainment as sound designer like soundscapes for casino, public places, museums, galleries. He got the honorary Valvasor Award for sound in museums. Valvasor Award is the highest award for achievements in the field of museology. It has been conferred annually since 1998 by the Slovene Museum Society.

Bostjan Perovsek: Rails Past the Birds

Portrait V is a sound portrait of the rural district of Viseu using the soundscape recordings collected during the Rural Viseu 2.0 project. The work moves through real, surreal and abstract representations of the aural landscape using keynote sounds to provide the context of each section and soundmarks to articulate the structural framework of the work. The three sections of the composition are developed around the ideas of biophony (section 1) - the sounds of vocalizing non-human animals, geophony (section 2) - the naturally occurring non-biological sounds and anthropophony (section 3) - all sounds produced my human agents. Although the sections are inspired by this soundscape taxonomy, the soundscape sound materials are framed by abstract sound objects which are used to direct the action and introduce references beyond the restrictions suggested by this structural idea. The piece aims to communicate a strong sense of place and is a tribute to the landscape and the people inhabiting it.

Biography:
Nikos Stavropoulos' (1975) works range from instrumental to tape and mixed media. He has composed for video and dance and his music has been widely performed and recognised at international level (Bourges, 2000, 2002, Metamorphose, Brussels 2002, SCRIME, Bordeaux 2003, Musica Miso, Potrugal, 2004, Metamorphose, Brussels 2008, Punto de Encuentro Canarias International Electroacoustic Composition Competition 2008, Destellos Foundation 2015, Open Circuit 2016). Other interests include the performance practice of electroacoustic music, diffusion systems and teaching music and music technology. He joined the Music, Sound & Performance Group at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2006 and is a founding member of the Echochroma New Music Research Group.

Nikos Stavropoulos: Portrait V

Parts of these sounds have been used:

0009 – Paisagem audiovisual da ponte de Covelas sobre o Rio Vouga
0021 – Paisagem Audiovisual de Alminha em São Cosmado 
0023 – Paisagem Audiovisual sob o habitat das Rãs em Mosteirinho
0060 – Escoamento de água de tanque junto à escola EB1 em Sanguinhedo de Côta
0072 – Ovelhas a pastar em terreno junto ao aeródromo de Viseu em Folgosa 
0080 – Pássaros em arbusto junto a laranjeiras, horta comunitária e galinheiro na Rua da Costa + Sino em Boa Aldeia
0088 – Paisagem sonora de vento na floresta em Vilar do Monte
0089 – Paisagem sonora ativada de ramos de pinheiro em Vilar do Monte
0090 – Paisagem sonora ativada de folhas de carvalho secas em Vilar do Monte
0093 – Improvisacão sonora em porta de canastro em Vilar do Monte
0103 – Escoamento de água junto ao Lugar da Fonte Santa em Calde 
0113 – Marcar passo frente a pinheiro no lugar de Azival em Cepões
0117 – Vento sobre eucaliptos e pinheiros em baldio junto àEstrada de Santo Amaro em Nelas-Cepões
0120 – Paisagem sonora de chuva sobre paragem de autocarro na Rua da Paz em Barreiros
  
They all appear in waves of differing lengths. The waves are filtered in various degrees, from very steep, which make the sounds bell-like, to wide where you hear almost the original sound.

Biography:
Helene Hedsund has been active at EMS (http://www.elektronmusikstudion.se) in Stockholm, Sweden since 1994. She is currently doing a PhD in Birmingham, UK. See http://helene.hedsund.se

Helene Hedsund: Pastoral

Inspired by Einstein's paper introducing the special theory of relativity titled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," "Sobre a eletrodinâmica dos corpos de trabalho" offers a time-distorted view of the concrete plant in Quarry Maljoga in Dade from the Viseu Rural archive (the only sound source). It portrays the work as it echoes off the landscape in compressed time, frozen time, and smeared timelines. It is a reflection on the efforts of man-made forces, the persistence of natural forces over time, and the interfaces between them.

Biography:
Jeff Morris engages audiences' minds with their surroundings. He has presented work at the Triennale Museum (Milan), Onassis Cultural Center (Athens), D-22 (home of Beijing'' avant-garde music scene), International Symposium on Electronic Art, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum (Austin), the NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, and the Chicago Architecture Foundation's "Open House Chicago." His genre-bending interdisciplinary work has won awards in the Concourse de Bourges, "Music in Architecture" International Symposium, the Un"Cage"d Toy Piano Competition (NYC), and the "Radio Killed the Video Star" Competition (NYC). His writings have been presented at the International Computer Music Conference, Generative Art International Conference, and Computer Art Congress and are published by Leonardo Music Journal, Springer, and IGI Global. He also curates the Fresh Minds Festival of audiovisual art from all over the world. 

http://morrismusic.org

Jeff Morris: Sobre a Eletrodinâmica dos Corpos de Trabalho

Binaural Nodar is a rural based sound and media arts organization located in the rural Viseu Dão Lafões region (Portugal), where since 2006 have been hosted over 180 sound and media arts projects developed in close connection with the local geographical and social contexts. Binaural Nodar is also a sound art collective that produces its own pieces, particularly those created by Luís Costa, Maile Colbert, Rui Costa, Ana Rodríguez and Manuela Barile.

Viseu Rural 2.0: Sonic Explorations of a Rural Archive

binauralmedia