Yanik Soland: MAGONOTE (2024)

Описание: Yanik Soland (1990* CH) – MAGONOTE*
for flute, percussion, self made instruments, playback and binaural recording

composed in collaboration with iipm project

Performed by iipm project: Phoebe Bognár (flutes) + Mikołaj Rytowski (percussion)

Composed with the kind support from UBS Culture Foundation

About the work:

MAGONOTE (Japanese for “backscratcher”; literal translation: “grandchild’s hand”) is a staged live recording featuring two performers. Soland, an artist working at the intersection of visual art and music, presents a custom-built binaural recording device called Soliloquy. This device, a portrait of the composer’s head with precise replicas of his ears containing the microphones, was crafted in collaboration with Meret Schulenburg and has also been displayed in visual art contexts. The audience witnesses a studio session where the performers focus not on those present, but on creating a captivating recording, with the Soliloquy device as the focal point.

Binaural recording is a technique using two strategically positioned microphones to simulate human hearing, producing a 3D stereo sound that immerses listeners as if they were physically in the space with the performers or instruments. In this composition, the performers use Soliloquy to record a binaural session guided by an open score and accompanied by a fixed media track that drives the acoustic narrative. This media track comprises manipulated fragments of improvisational sessions previously recorded by the duo in collaboration with the composer, combined with sounds from MIDI instruments and analog synthesizers. For MAGONOTE, Soland draws inspiration from traditional Japanese court music as well as bands like Melt-Banana and OOIOO.

The score primarily consists of text instructions, allowing the performers freedom to improvise with their setup, instruments, and additional self-made devices crafted by the composer and the performers. These instructions create a scenario in which the performers imagine entering their speculative grandmother’s home, engaging in small talk, arguing, and feeling bored as she eventually drifts off to sleep. After each public performance, the binaural recording is uploaded to a SoundCloud playlist, enabling the audience to revisit the experience from the unique auditory perspective of the recording device—in other words, from and through the composer’s head.

The binaural recording from each concert can be found on the composer’s Soundcloud:   / magonote-binaural-concert-recordings  

About the composer:
Yanik Soland (*1990) lives and works as a musician and artist in Basel. He studied Fine Arts at the Institute of Art HGK FHNW Basel (Bachelor) and at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (Master) and finished a second Master in Composition and Improvisation at the Music Academy Basel FHNW, Department of Classical Music in 2024. His work moves between visual art, composition, improvisation, curation and performance.

His visual works and performances were shown in museums and galleries such as Kunstmuseum Appenzell, Kunsthalle Basel or Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris. As a composer, he has written music for theater, film as well as for his own ensemble, band and solo projects and has developed video soundtracks, performance soundtracks and audio pieces (Schauspielhaus Zürich, Junges Theater Basel, Kaserne Basel, Ballhaus Ost Berlin).

An important part of his practice is the music-performance duo SOLAND ANGEL (with Marianna Angel) with whom he performs frequently around europe. 2023 they received the research grant for improvised music by kulturelles.bl (CH). From July – December 2024 they’ll be residents at Cité des arts, Paris hosted by Atelier Mondial (CH).

The radio play Going To Switzerland by Stefanie Müller-Frank, for which Soland contributed the music and production, was awarded the Overall Gold Award and the Gan Bearia Award at the HearSay – Audio Arts Festival (IRL). His first solo album YUKI was released in 2021 on the Futura Resistenza label (NL/BXL). In 2023 he received a work-grant by Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt and was LAB artist-in-residence at Kaserne Basel.

https://www.yaniksoland.ch/

Video recording and editing: Santiago Villar Martín
Assistant: Alexandre Talvares
Audio recording & sound engineering: Anton Kiefer

Website: https://iipmproject.com/
«figures & fixtures» https://iipmproject.com/ffinfo/

With thanks to our sponsors:
BL/BS Fachausschuss Musik, Stadt Zürich, Stadt Bern, Kultur Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, UBS Kulturstiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund 2023, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung, Fondation Oertli Stiftung, Kulturstiftung GVB, Stiftung Erna und Curt Burgauer, and anonymous sponsors.

Thank you to our partners:
Gare du Nord Basel, La Rasude Lausanne.