Forests are natural acousmatic environments. The typical intricacy of their structure amplifies the conditions for multi-layered -and sometimes quite complex- sonic phenomena whose sources can hardly be seen. In many cases they also sonically manifest as three-dimensional constellations of small point sources generated by insects and birds, moving through the canopy and the undergrowth of the arboreal vegetation.

“Ghost Forest” is a compositional transposition of a multitude of original recordings, made in diverse forests all over the world. With the aim of creating an crisp three-dimensional, subtly immersive environment, the original captured “reality” has been evolved through extreme filtering. This process has been carried out to reveal a high frequency, ghostly spectrum of frequencies of the transposed forest environments.

The different “spectral” sonic layers are automatically mixed live in the space (in ever-changing combinations) through a special sound system specially designed for this installation, with an array of invisible small speakers spread out in the space. These sounds have been thoroughly worked in the studio as an automatic composition, both for the this specific speaker sound system used and for the actual exhibition space.

Original environmental sound matter recorded at multiple locations in Australia, Borneo, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Greece, Japan, Senegal, and the USA between 1990 and 2013. Created at “mobile messor” (Amsterdam, Besançon, The Hague, Barcelona, Madrid, Murcia) in 2011-14.

“Ghost Forest” is a sound piece-installation in constant evolution, with a character that is not only “site-specific” (relative to the actual presentation space) but also “media-specific” (relative to the specific fetures of the media for its presentation). The diverse mutations it has experienced are the outcome of the sensibility, adaptability and creative response to the marked (and crucial) differences and peculiarities of each space-media situation. In each manifestation of this piece, the number, type, organization and distribution of speakers, as well as the studio work on the sound materials, are relative (and adapted) to those space-media conditions. Since the piece operates, among other elements, with sound reflections and their mix in the actual space, it not only adapts to the different circumstances, but is also the intentional and explicit result of the characteristics of each one of the space-media.

Previous realizations of “Ghost Forest”:

(1) Ghost Forest - Besançon (France) 2011

Outdoos in a forest in Besançon (France) for the event “Back to the Trees”. http://www.backtothetrees.fr

(2) Ghost Forest - Barcelona (Spain) 2012

In the indoor main space of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona (Spain), for the Sónar Festival 2012.

http://www.sonar.es/en/2012/pg/sonarextra_92

(3) Ghost Forest - Amsterdam (Holland) 2013

In the GlazenHuis Pavilion of Amstel Park in Amsterdam.

http://zone2source.net

(4) Ghost Forest - Arlington (USA) 2014

At Artisphere’s Terrace Gallery in Arlington (VA, USA).

“Hyper-Rainforest”

[space-shifted portable version]

An immersive sound piece by Francisco López

5.1 Sound Installation running daily at The Sphaerae

for the A x S Festival in Pasadena, California

September 19th – October 5th, 2014

More info > http://axsfestival.org/2014/sphaerae/

francisco lópez

live immersive performance with custom-made surround pocket-speaker system LFHDPMVSSS:

“Low-Fi High Definition Portable Multi-Channel Surround Sound System”

@ The Spaherae, Gogbot Festival, Enschede (NL)

Sat 13th 2014 - 5:15PM

SPHAERAE is an inflatable multi-dome pavilion for immersive and syneasthetic experiences. SPHAERAE is a low-power portable performance and experimentation platfrom for the arts and sciences for an audience upto 100 guests. SPHAERAE can touch down on uncharted territories making temporary ecosystems with fragile and complex atmospheric conditions as an instrument to explore the phenomena of light, sound and movement. The design concept by COCKY EEK mimics the geometry of soap-bubble clusters.

live in SPHAERAE:

PAUL PRUDENCE • FRANCISCO LÓPEZ

DOMNITCH & GELFAND • BAS VAN KOOLWIJK

MARISKA DE GROOT & DIETER VANDOREN

More info > http://2014.gogbot.nl

Viseu, Portuga

francisco lópez 

live immersive performance – July 18th 18:30h

Claustro grande do Museu Grão Vasco

Masterclass – July 19th 18:00h

Sala de exposições temporárias do Museu Grão Vasco

More info: http://www.jardinsefemeros.pt

Ravello Festival

July 15th – 10:00PM / Niemeyer Auditorium

Ravello, Italy

More info: http://www.ravellofestival.com

with 1 battery-operated source

New commissioned piece with hydrophone recordings

Embalse del Pontón Alto water dam

July 5th, 2014

@

“La Rivière”

Sound exhibition within the frame of Géoculture

Bibliothèque Francophone Multimédia de Limoges (France)

June 28th to September 6th, 2014

“La Rivière” is a series of more than 20 sound pieces composed since 2010 from audio recordings made within the framework of the “k146 : cartographie sonore autour du Taurion” project (Sound map of the Taurion River) and published on CD by kaon.

This two thirty sound installation / sound projection is located in a specific listening room and offers sound extracts of the pieces composed by (in order of appearance):

    Jos Smolders (Esprit flottant)

    Marc Namblard (Gisements (1))

    Bruno Moreigne (Drop collisions near 45°47’12N / 2°02’07E)

    Frédéric Nogray (Vaccabons et Malfactours)

    Jacques Soddell (Frozen Moment)

    Francisco Lopez (untitled #271)

    Lasse-Marc Riek (Taurion concret)

    Simon Whetham (She floated away)

    Freiband [Frans De Waard] (Transition)

    Tarab (Acquiescence)

    Pierre Juillard (Aquifère)

    Artificial Memory Trace (n.RioTau)

    D’incise (Are fishes nihilist? (all this is not realistic))

    Dale Lloyd (Taurion, trou de lapin)

    Jay-Dea Lopez (Terraform)

    toy.bizarre (kdi dctb 146 [s])

    Robert Curgenven (Go Outside)

 You can also listen to extract on the  Géoculture –  Le Limousin vu par les artistes website.

Information: http://www.bm-limoges.fr/

‘I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise’ (George Gerswhin)

—Francisco López

Caramoor is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York 10536 in Westchester County, 40 miles northeast of New York City.

Wed, June 4, 2014 - 8:00pm

ISSUE Project Room: 22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn 11201

$10 / $8 members + students

ISSUE and Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts present performances by innovative experimental musicians Francisco López, Taylor Deupree and Stephen Vitiello, in advance of their participation in Caramoor’s sound art exhibition In the Garden of Sonic Delights. 

Acclaimed sound artist Francisco López makes a rare New York appearance— his first since two sold-out shows at ISSUE in 2012. He creates a distinctive immersive show: an intense and rich sonic experience in the dark, with a multi-channel sound system and blindfolds provided for the audience.

Taylor Deupree and Stephen Vitiello, label-mates and collaborators, perform a unique duo featuring modular synthesizers, field recordings and guitar. This set anticipates the release of a forthcoming LP, Captiva (12k) based on a shared residency at Robert Rauschenberg’s studio compound.

This concert serves as a preview for the summer 2014 large-scale open-air sound art exhibition In the Garden of Sonic Delights, presented at Caramoor and five other partner organizations throughout Westchester. Caramoor has commissioned sixteen established and emerging sound artists to create innovative and inventive site-specific artworks, opening Saturday, June 7, and continuing through fall 2014.

Taylor Deupree is an accomplished sound artist whose recordings, rich with abstract atmospherics, have appeared on numerous record labels, and well as in site-specific installations. He started out, in the 1990s, making new noises that edged outward toward the fringes of techno, and in time he found his own path to follow. His music today emphasizes a hybrid of natural sounds and technological mediation. Deupree dedicates as much time to other people’s music as he does to his own. In 1997 he founded the record label 12k, which since then has released over 100 recordings by some of the most accomplished musicians and modern sound artists of our time.

Stephen Vitiello is an electronic musician and media artist. His sound installations have been presented internationally including at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Cartier Foundation, Paris and the Sydney Biennial. His work is featured in the upcoming exhibition, In the Garden of Sonic Delights at Caramoor in Katonah, NY. Past collaborations have included Pauline Oliveros, Scanner, Steve Roden and Ryuichi Sakamoto. CDs have been published on various labels including 12k, Sub Rosa and New Albion.

Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than thirty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with field recordings, workshops and sound installations in over seventy countries of the five continents. His extensive catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with over 150 international artists) have been released by more than 300 record labels worldwide.

More info > http://issueprojectroom.org 

“Ghost Forest”

an installation by Francisco López

@

“FERMATA” sound exhibition

Artisphere / Terrace Gallery

April 24th – August 3rd, 2014

1101 Wilson Boulevard

Arlington, Virginia 22209

http://www.artisphere.com

Fermata is Artisphere’s first exhibition dedicated entirely to sound and the largest of its kind in the region to date. Featuring nearly 30 artists, Fermata takes an expansive approach and is a celebration of individuals using sound in a variety of disciplines, from composer Ryuichi Sakamoto to NASA Kepler scientist Lucianne Walkowicz.

Centered around a wall of speakers designed by sound artist John Henry Blatter that will be used by all participants in the show, Fermata will unfold in three parts, or movements, each featuring a different combination of six to 10 sound works that will cycle continuously for a month. Each Movement will play on a continuous loop with no two works playing simultaneously in the gallery; each piece will utilize every functioning speaker on the wall, allowing playback of multi-channel audio works. Fermata will conclude with Coda, a collaboration with Transformer as part of their annual Exercises program for emerging artists.

1st Movement (Apr 24-May 25)
Annea Lockwood
Brian McBride
CFCF
Jez riley French
John Henry Blatter + Nathan Tersteeg
Lawrence English
Richard Chartier
Salomè Voegelin + David Mollin
Scarfolk Council

2nd Movement (May 28-June 22)
Alberto Gaitán
Don Zientara + Ian MacKaye
Eddie Ruscha
Forest Swords
Markus Guentner
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Saåad
The London Sound Survey
Toni Dimitrov
Wool

3rd Movement (June 25-July 20)
Alvin Lucier
Beauty Pill
Francisco Lopèz
Jarboe
Kate Carr
Lucianne Walkowicz
Peals
Specta Ciera
The Books

CODA (July 23-Aug 10)
Alex Braden
E. Jane
Emily Francisco
Ian McDermott 

“LOST SPECTRES & ETHEREAL VOICES”

Störung Festival

“Hantu-Hilang”

Immersive sound performance by Francisco López

“untitled #91”

Screening [excerpt] audio-visual piece by Francisco López and Jorge Simonet 

“untitled #91” is an ethereal trip into extremes of visual and sonic subtlety in a small hyper-slow universe.

“A masterfully crafted journey to the threshold of audiability... A landmark in minimal art and sound... If not the most minimal film in history, this is certainly the most minimal music video ever!” [Soleilmoon, USA]

“The Other Voice”

A sound performance by Barbara Ellison 

“Vocal Phantoms” is part of a series of ‘vocal’ works that play with the phenomenon known as ‘semantic satiation’, a psychological effect in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener. This leads to the experience of processing the speech as repeated meaningless sounds or even other words not present in the acoustical signal.

“untitled #281”

Immersive sound performance by Francisco López 

“untitled #281” was created by extreme mutation and evolution of bird calls from original recordings carried out over a period of fifteen years (1995-2010) in multiple wilderness locations of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. The most dramatic antithesis of any “birdsong” piece you could imagine.

[Originally commissioned / curated by Arnau Horta].

Performance & talk by Francisco López

Based on the sound piece created with original environmental recordings from 

the 2010 boat expedition along the Paraná River (Argentina – Paraguay)

@ Casa de América Cataluña

Carrer Corsega, 299, Barcelona

April 10th, 2014 – 7:39pm

More info > http://www.americat.cat/es/parana-anya-el-espiritu-maligno-del-parana-concierto-audicion-de-francisco-lopez

Stimul Festival - Prague 

francisco lópez

live immersive performance 

for low-fi high definition portable multi-channel surround system

+ live performance by Artificial Memory Trace

March 29th, 2014

@ Kostel sv. Vavřince pod Petřínem

Hellichova 18, Praha 1 

http://www.stimul-festival.cz

francisco lópez

sound installation “untitled#314”

opening: March 29th, 2014

@ “The Hole”, Gallery Dira

Školská 28, Prague

http://galeriedira.cz/

Prague, Czech Republic

francisco lópez

lecture/presentation

28 March 11:00-13:00h

Institute of intermedia,

Fakulta elektrotechnická

Technická 1902/4,

ČVUT v Praze - Prague 6

http://www.iim.cz

http://www.infectingthecity.com/2014/cape-town/artworks/live-solo-sound-performance

Francisco López & Arturo Lanz

@ Hertz Festival, Athens

Feb 16th 2014

Votanikos Live Stage

Also performing:

Diamon Version (DE)

Demdike Stare (UK)

More info >

http://hertzfestival.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hertz-Festival/411013520575

francisco lópez

“untitled (fragment Borneo rainforest 2012)”

environmental sound matter composition

as part of the program of

Kinokophonography Night

February 6th, 2014 6:30 to 8:30 PM

The Bruno Walter Auditorium

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023

More info >

http://www.kinokophone.com

http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2014/02/06/kinokophonography-night