The ‘Scambi Workshop’

‘Scambi’ by the Belgian composer Henri Pousseur was composed in 1957 at the RAI studios, Milan. ‘Scambi’ is an ‘open’ electroacoustic composition. Pousseur provided ‘rules’ for the combination of his pre-composed 32 sections of white noise processed via Alfredo Lietti’s ‘amplitude selector’. New versions of ‘Scambi’ have already been realized as part of an AHRC-funded project (see: www.scambi.mdx.ac.uk). The ‘Scambi Workshop’ is part of an EACEA project, this time funded by the EU. The universities of Padua (I), Aalborg (Dk) and Middlesex (GB) are collaborating in the ‘DREAM’ project (Digital Re-working of ElectroAcoustic Music). Ultimately, the project will lead to a permanent exhibit at the Music Instrument Museum in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan in 2012. ‘Scambi’ is the work chosen to demonstrate how analogue compositions can be re-appropriated using digital technology.

The ‘Scambi Workshop’ is open to everyone. We will play versions of ‘Scambi’ and demonstrate how the composition can be re-interpreted by modern composers. Artists performing are: Scanner, Thor Magnusson and Aki Pasoulas. In the 1950s Pousseur imagined new versions of ‘Scambi’ mixed ‘live’. This is now possible by means of a reacTable built by Robin Fencott (Queen Mary College London). Thus, there will be a variety of events as well as live ‘Paraboles-mixes’ (mixes based on Pousseur’s ‘Huit Etudes Paraboliques’).

Programme (subject to modifications):
The historical background.
Henri Pousseur: Scambi (1957 version) 6:47
Henri Pousseur: Scambi (short version) 4:07
Luciano Berio: Scambi 3:30

New versions of Scambi I:
Aki Pasoulas: Scambi 6:24
Thor Magnusson: Scambi
Scanner: Scambi

Henri Pousseur: Etudes Paraboliques.
Hymne à Zeus Ornithologue (1972) 27:52
This study was played at Goldsmiths College after a talk by Pousseur in February 2005.

New versions of Scambi II.
Rudy Ceccato: Scambi 7:54
André Castro: Scambi 8:32
Robin Fencott & Simon Harris: Scambi 5:29
Matthew Ollivier: Scambi 4:15

The Huit Etudes Paraboliques – the Paraboles-mixes
Henri Pousseur: Paraboles-mixe (1990): 40:49
Aki Pasoulas: Paraboles-mixe 31:19

Robin Fencott’s reacTable will be on display throughout the day. Visitors will be invited to use this interface to create new versions of ‘Scambi’ – live!