Schreck ensemble
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The Schreck Ensemble was founded in 1989 by composers Arie van Schutterhoef and Hans van Eck. The name of the ensemble is a combination of the founders surnames (SCHutteRhoef; ECK) and a reference to the actor Max Schreck. The ensemble performs and commissions electroacoustic music and has a repertoire of works from composers such as Kaija Saariaho, John Cage, Jean-Claude Risset and Chiel Meyering. The Schreck Ensemble also programs its own software with the SuperCollider programming language, and they also develop their own hardware for the production and performance of electroacoustic music. Many of their works are examples of traditional avant-garde music. The foundation, of which the ensemble is part, has commissioned composers such as Arthur Sauer, Gene Carl, Gerda Geertens, Jeremy Arden, Michael Chocholak, and Makoto Shinohara to write electroacoustic compositions. Their repertoire includes a song called The Day, which is a collaboration between the Schreck Ensemble and the sound artist Hans van Koolwijk featuring his instrument called the Bambuso Sonore The ensemble also performs multi-media works.Aquae Supracoelestes for tape and video-projection and Nuctemeron for ensemble, tape, and video-projection are two examples.
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Software
Schreck develops software for the realization of sound effects that exist only in a composer's mind. For instance, if a composer imagines an addition to the sound of a traditional instrument such as the reverberation of a violin tone which rapidly changes its timbre but such an effect does not exist, the Shreck Ensemble can create a program which makes that particular effect possible.
Sometimes, composers require the recreation of equipment that no longer exists. In this way, the classical pieces of Luigi Nono's La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura and A Pierre, dell'azurro silentio, inqueitum could only be performed in the Netherlands by the Schreck Ensemble, because the Schreck Ensemble has the ability to emulate old electronic equipment with its own musical software.
Software is also written to make and expand the relationship between acoustic instruments and the computer. A prime example of this kind of software is a development by Schreck that follows scores called the ComParser. This program knows and recognizes music. It ascertains which part of the music is being played then it sends signals to computers and other necessary equipment. These signals initiate pre-programmed sequences of sound processors at the right moment. ComParser follows the tempo of the musician. Interest for ComParser has been shown by the French institute for music research IRCAM. ComParser is able to run on Mac OS, Irix, and Linux platforms. For the insiders, ComParser is not a "pitch-follower" but a "spectrum-follower".
Instruments
Until now three instruments have been designed by the Schreck-Ensemble: the Stratifier, the BasBox, and the Pulsor.
The Stratifier
The Stratifier is a small instrument (10 x 30 x 40 cm) with twelve touch sensitive control-surfaces that send signals to sound processing equipment.
The BassBox
The BassBox is an acoustic instrument. The sound of this instrument is created by the overblowing of two flutes that obtain their air from a large fast-moving bass speaker. This gives the BassBox its own distinctive sound with many overtones. It does not resemble the sound of a flute. Rather, it resembles a wooden percussion instrument. The advantage of this instrument is not only its unique sound but also the precision by which it can be controlled. The instrument can be heard in the composition The Day.
The Pulsor
The Pulsor is the third instrument and it is still under development. The Pulsor makes it possible to play the BassBox live allowing greater manipulation of the bass speaker than with the prerecorded sounds. The Pulsor also enables the BassBox to be played with the Stratifier. A composition that uses the Pulsor is still in progress.
Appearances
The Schreck Ensemble performed for the first time in 1989 at the then renowned art center Apollohuis in Eindhoven. Since that time, the Ensemble has performed in major venues for contemporary music in the Netherlands and abroad.
Venues
Since 1989, the ensemble has played in the Apollohuis in Eindhoven; the Music Centre Vredenburg in Utrech; the Grote Kerk, Groningen; Dodorama, Rotterdam; the Ruïne Kerk, Bergen; Theater Frascati, Amsterdam; Music Centre Frits Philips, Eindhoven; Theatre Kikker, Utrecht; Theatre Provadja in Alkmaar;the Music Centre in IJsbreker, Amsterdam; the Stedelijk Museum for Modern Art in Amsterdam; and the Music Centre at Hertogenbosch.
Festivals
The Schreck Ensemble has played at several festivals including the November Music Festival in Den Bosch and Gent; Distronics Festival in Eindhoven; at the festival Sounds Imagined, Images Sonified near Castle Eijsden at Limburg; and the Touch Festival Amsterdam organized by STEIM. Abroad, the ensemble was invited to be the 'ensemble in residence' during the Studienwoche fr Neue Musik in Lneburg, Germany to which it later returned to appear in the Festival für Neue Musik. Schreck also played at the MIX01 Festival in Aarhus, Denmark; at the Festival 'Musica Scienza, Teatro dell' Ascolto' in Rome, Italy; on invitation of the cultural board of the regional government of Andaluca. Schreck participated in the Contemporary Music Concert Series in Theatro Central in Sevilla; and in the XIV Contemporary Music Days in Teatro Alhambra in Granada, Spain.
Collaborations
The Schreck Ensemble has collaborated with many institutes and organizations inside and outside of the Netherlands including the European Network (Foundation Gaudeamus/Associazone Nuove Sincronie in Milan, Italy); studios for electronic music STEIM and CEM in Amsterdam; The Netherlands; tART (technology and art) -organization of the University Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands; Danish Institute for Electro-acoustic Music (DIEM) at Aarhus, Denmark, and the Centro Ricerche Musicali in Rome.
Abroad
Other countries where the Schreck Ensemble has appeared include:
- Germany, particularly in Essen (Kunsthaus Essen) and Lüneburg (Glockenhaus)
- Spain at the Granada Teatro Alhambra and the Sevilla Teatro Central
- Italy at the Goethe-Institute and the Sassari Teatro Il Ferroviario
- Belgium at the Logos Tetrahedron (Ghent)
- Denmark at the Aarhus Musikhuset.
Radio
Radio broadcasts about and with the Schreck Ensemble were transmitted by the Dutch broadcasting companies KRO, the VPRO, and the ConcertZender. Outside the Netherlands there were similar programs in Australia (Difficult Listening), Russia, and Denmark.
Videoworks
The video-work made by Schreck was shown during the 7th International Festival of New Film, Split-Croatia in the new media section; at the Sas International Award 2003 festival in Catania, Italy - organized by the United Nations - in the category Digital Wave for experimental movies and video-art; and selected for the Slowtime? .... Quicktime as an artistic medium as an example for streaming media. This appearance was organized by Agricola de Cologne experimental platform for Internet art.
Critical Reception
The performances of the Schreck Ensemble have always been well received by the audiences who always show great interest and listen with great concentration, by the editors and programmers of concert-venues and makers of radio-programs, many of whom asked the Ensemble to appear more than once.
The Schreck Ensemble has also been well received by the press: none of their concerts have ever received any negative reviews. Quite the opposite, praise was given, for instance, by Emile Wennekes –now professor of Musicology University of Utrecht- in NRC Handelsblad: ...When this composition was performed during the Holland Festival '92 in the Beurs van Berlage by Kremer himself, it made a huge impression. In a small intimate space like the Synagogue in Den Bosch nothing of the intense suspense is lost... ...The music of Nono demands the utmost concentration of the musicians and a good sense of timing in a slow dramatic rhythm. The members of the Schreck Ensemble are handling this very well... ...also because of the exemplary way the technicians of the Schreck -ensemble play along with the music behind their mixing desks...
Or reviewer and new music connoisseur Rene van Peer in Brabants Dagblad: ...an impressive concert by the Schreck Ensemble...dedicated to Nono...
The enthusiastic reaction Serge Tikhanoff, the editior and producer of Radio Penguin in Novosibirsk, Russia: ...We were glad and proud for such splendid, exceptional interesting works! For us and for our audience it was only one chance to discover creation of such bright artists as Schreck, touch such highest culture and mastery. Thank You for joy of dealings with Music and Creation! ...
For More Information
Visit the Schreck Ensemble home (http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eschreck/) page.