Norman Adams / Nicola Baroni

In the concerts of the augmented cellos duo Norman Adams and Nicola Baroni, the score, the computer programming and the performance blur their traditional boundaries and the “virtual” sound emerges as an effective consequence of the actions that take place on the stage.

The programme includes pieces that, using different approaches and styles, develop the theme of electro-acoustic interaction and real-time musical creation, with the idea that the two cellos, the electro-acoustic sounds and the composition methods themselves are integrated into a single eco-system. The five composers in the project have developed conventional scores (Derek Charke), graphic scores (Lawrence Casserley), scores in fragments (Jérôme Blais), or scores hidden inside software processes (Nicola Baroni, Arne Eigenfeldt) to which the performers respond or on which they may produce variations by means of their own performing gestures. The interactive environment allows the digital and/or electro-acoustic system to absorb and use the qualities of the performance as “information”, and thereby to make them an active element in the musical composition: the result is a complex texture in which score, programming and performance lose their traditionally distinct identities.