SONICA Festival x MENT 2023
MENT is joining forces with Ljubljana-based electronic music and sound art festival SONICA and SHAPE+ platform with an exclusively curated SONICA & SHAPE+ Stage. Dedicated to adventurous electronic music from Eastern Europe, the stage will host Polish composer and producer Wojciech Rusin, Ukranina composer and singer Katarina Gryvul and Slovenian audiovisual duo Nexus. At the MENT conference, artistic director of SONICA Martin Bricelj Baraga will present the festival’s history and its collaboration with the platform for innovative music and audiovisual art SHAPE+, while MENT’s Specials will include two music-making workshops by Wojciech Rusin and Katarina Gryvul.
Co-production by MoTA - Muzej transitornih umetnosti, SONICA, SHAPE+ and MENT Ljubljana.
SONICA & SHAPE+ Stage @ MENT 2023
Thursday, 30 March, 20:30 @ Stara mestna elektrarna / The Old Power Plant
MENT is joining forces with Ljubljana-based electronic music and sound art festival SONICA and SHAPE+ platform. The SONICA & SHAPE+ stage will showcase three adventurous and unorthodox contemporary electronic music acts from Eastern Europe. Polish composer and AD93-affiliate Wojciech Rusin will present his speculative mediaeval and renaissance music, the Ukrainian multi-instrumentalist and singer Katarina Gryvul her Björk-esque deconstructions of classical and club music and the Slovenian audiovisual duo Nexus their experiments with feedback loops.
20:30 - GMB & jesusonecstasy: NEXUS A/V (SI)
21:30 - Katarina Gryvul (UA)
22:30 - Wojciech Rusin (PL)
Interview with Artistic Director of SONICA Festival Martin Bricelj Baraga
Thursday, 30 March, 16:00 @ M Hotel HJ
The MENT conference we will host a conversation with Martin Briclelj Baraga, a media artist and the founder of SONICA, an international Ljubljana-based music festival focusing on contemporary electronic music and sound art. Since 2009, it has championed contemporary trends in avant-garde dance, electroacoustic, experimental and contemporary classical music and sound art practices in Ljubljana. He will also present the ongoing collaboration SHAPE+, a European platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art.
MENT x SONICA Workshops
How to Stand Out From the Crowd With Your Music
Lecture workshop by composer, producer and educator Katarina Gryvul
Friday, 31 March, 13:00 @ MoTA Lab
The Ukrainian composer, producer, educator and owner of the Gryvul School, who studies computer music and sound art in Graz and is active mainly in the classical world, will introduce you to her approach to music making and her main principles of music production. She will present her understanding of the different stages of the creative process and highlight the most important ones. The lecture workshop will also include different timbre and FX examples. Only Ableton Live plugins will be used so that each participant of the workshop will be able to reproduce the presented examples. The lecture is aimed at experienced music makers and beginners alike, but familiarity with the Ableton Live music programme is recommended, as all the examples included will be presented in this software.
"In this lecture and workshop, I want to show my understanding of the different stages of music making and highlight which are in my opinion the most important. I want to share my perspective on the music industry and how to stand out from the crowd. I will show you different ways to achieve this goal – clear and accessible to everyone."
Katarina Gryvul
The workshop is open to 20 people, Ableton proficiency recommended.
Katarina Gryvul is supported by SHAPE+ which is funded by the European Union.
Animated Graphic Scores and 3D Printed Instruments
A workshop for animated graphic score, electronics, acoustic instruments and voices with composer and instrument maker Wojciech Rusin
Friday, 31 March, 15:00 @ MoTA Lab
In 2022, the London-based audiovisual artist and instrument maker released the critically acclaimed album Syphon, an example of speculative mediaeval and renaissance music, on which he used his self-designed 3D-printed reed instruments. In this workshop, you will interpret an animated graphic score, which uses images, shapes and pictures instead of notes. Composers use graphic scores because they allow them to express musical ideas that could not be described by traditional notation. Participants should have some experience with playing their acoustic instrument and should bring their instrument along. The score will feature instrumental parts and sections for singing, whistling and other extended voice techniques. Ten 3D printed ocarinas will be provided for the participants. The duration of the workshop is around 90 minutes.
The workshop is limited to 10 people. We are looking for instrumentalists with acoustic instruments (strings, wind instruments, brass instruments) with experience in classical and contemporary classical music, early music, experimental music and improvisation.
Wojciech Rusin is supported by SHAPE+ which is funded by the European Union.
SONICA Festival
SONICA is a Ljubljana-based music festival that champions diverse niche trajectories in contemporary music — experimental, electronic, modern classical, avantgarde and transgenre — and sound art. Established in 2009 by MoTA – Museum of Transitory Art, it is the Slovenian festival with the longest tradition in the fields of niche electronic music and transdisciplinary art practices, collaborating with musicians, composers, DJs, visual and intermedia artists, VJs, designers, sculptors, curators and theoreticians.
SHAPE+ Platform
SHAPE+ is a new European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art co-financed by the Creative Europe programme. Running for the next three years, SHAPE+ will foster exceptional emerging talent, connecting them to local communities and audiences through collaborative residencies with multiple artistic outcomes, commissioned artworks, as well as one-off presentations and performances. SHAPE+ currently consists of 13 partners in 13 countries like Unsound, CTM, Terraforma, SONICA and others.