DADA BENDER (2023)

for six percussionists and six loudspeakers 

Comissioned by  Aiyun Huang and TaPIR Lab 

 

The music in DADA BENDER was created using noisy electronic sounds derived from raw data sonifications and improvisations on a no-input mixer. Raw data sonification is the process of mapping aspects of data to produce sound signals. Sonifying raw data often creates glitchy digital noise and is sometimes referred to as data bending. No-input mixing creates sounds by routing a mixer’s outputs back into its inputs to create feedback loops. Like raw data sonifications, no-input mixing creates sound through misuse. These noisy, skronky electronic sounds were chopped, arranged, and quantized, into rhythms and gestures that were then orchestrated for the percussionists.

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Noise music has always been strongly connected to Dadaism. Dadaism inherited the term anti-art from Marcel Duchamp who constantly challenged accepted definitions of art. Noise music too has constantly challenged the idea of what music is through relentless abstract forms, ugly sounds, and high amplitude. Today, the connections between noise music and Dadaism are exemplified through the godfather of noise music, Merzbow who derives his stage name from Dada artist Kurt Schwitters and his concept of Merz.