Listening and Mediation: Composing with the Silent Sonic Environment
The research project "Listening and Mediation: Composing with the Silent Sonic Environment” aims to a metaphorical representation of sounds that in somehow are neglected. The sonic environment exists prior to its disclosure, ready and waiting to be perceived by. Like a photograph, sound is captured from a reality which doesn't exist anymore and is above all an intimate experience of immediacy and nostalgia. By collecting information through field recordings, one can incite for a new awareness of the sonic environment and reality we all live in. Thus, what one will encounter is a sonic metaphor, rather the sonic environment itself, projecting a horizon of intention, expectation and subjectivity. Then metaphor offers not one path but multiple choices. By listening, one must be aware enough to understand that it is not a representation of a sonic real “thing”, but rather a proposal of mediation.
Going further, by approaching the Silent Sonic Environment, this research considers the term as a complex agency that carries profound meanings and influences, not as absence of sound. Here, silent sounds can be loud, as much as noisy sounds can be quiet. Murray Schafer, as central figure throughout the era of soundscape studies, states that the soundscape also corresponds to any part of the sound environment that we do not perceive, in the specific place where we are. He argues that parts of the acoustic environment are thus segregated, but does not make them non-existent, as they are in fact an integral part of the sound environment.
Turning to the most recent post-phenomenological considerations proposed by Ari Kelman or Tim Ingold, who rethink the concept of soundscape, proclaim that a sound environment is not limited to just sound events, but always includes political, economic, social, aesthetic, ethical and many other relationships with that environment. With this research project I intend to reflect on the phenomenon of auditory attention, perception and sound memory, through listening and mediating silent sonic environments.
Hugo Vasco Reis
Composition
Hugo Vasco Reis (Lisbon, 1981) is a composer and researcher based in Zurich and Porto. His artistic practice extends to acoustic music, electroacoustic music and sound installations, making collaborations with musicians, fine and visual artists, who regularly perform his works throughout Europe.
His music is documented in seven monographic albums which have been nominated by SPA and GDA for best work of classical music. His pieces have been awarded or selected in several national and international competitions.
His recent compositions include an investigation into the sound and perception phenomena, approaching agencies of listening and mediation, with the aim of including apparently silent sounds from the sonic environment into the artistic practice.
He is currently a PhD candidate at the Kunstuniversität Graz (Austria). He studied composition with Isabel Mundry at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Zurich, Switzerland), as holder of Fondation Nicati-de Luze, with Mark André and Stefan Prins at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden (Dresden, Germany) and with António Pinho Vargas, Luís Tinoco and Sérgio Azevedo at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (Lisbon). He had private classes and masterclasses with composers Toshio Hosokawa, Chaya Czernowin, Hans Tutschku, Dieter Ammann, Franck Bedrossian, Barry Truax, Zigmunt Krauze, Åke Parmerud, Carola Bauckholt, Klaus Lang, Peter Ablinger, among others.
His works have been supported by the Ministry of Culture of Portugal, DGArtes, Antena 2, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, SPAutores, GDA, Coro Setúbal Voz, Síntese GMC, Musicamera, Borealis Ensemble, MPMP, Duo Sigma, Arte no Tempo, ZHdK Foundation, Momento Foundation, Graf-Fonds, Gaudeamus, KWDS, Trio Elogio, GMCL, Drumming, Vertixe Sonora, Collective Lovemusic, QCC String Quartet, Trio Piazzolla Lisboa, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Pedro Vaz, Duo Nada Contra, Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, Miso Music Portugal, Repercussion Trio and Portuguese Orchestra of Guitar and Bandolins.
His scores are edited by the MIC.PT – Portuguese Music Research & Information Center.
He also studied portuguese guitar at the Conservatory of Music in Porto and in the private class of Pedro Caldeira Cabral. He is a civil engineer, although he does not currently assume this profession.