Black Box Project – Eastern Block – Montreal, Québec – 17/06/17

Rodrigo Constanzo – drums & electronics
Sylvain Pohu – guitar & electronics
Patrick Saint-Denis – robotics & electronics
Pierre Alexandre Tremblay – bass & electronics

What happens when you lock four improvisers in a black box with their instruments, microphones, cameras, projectors, curtains, and computers? Two 14-day sessions later: a performance/installation at the intersection of their four respective universes, exploring the grey areas between composition and improvisation, direct and deferred, opening and form, silence and noise…

Formed by musicians Sylvain Pohu (CA), Patrick Saint-Denis (CA), Rodrigo Constanzo (ES-US) and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (CA-UK), the group’s main area of research revolves around performing (with) technology. Each member brings a singular toolkit and a set of expertise, whose ramifications cover the whole computer music spectrum (live audio processing, musical interfaces, interactive video and audio, robotics).

The four improvisers face each other and the audience surrounding them. In the middle of this concentric setup, the musicians control four robotic accordions, 32 lights, and three video projectors, in real-time. Everything merges into a single interactive multilayered instrument in order to respond to a strong appetite for noise and saturation.

http://saturatedtherest.com