The Auditory Sense of Mr. Roderick Usher Based

The Auditory Sense of Mr. Roderick Usher
Based on The Fall Of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
TETSUO FURUDATE
with
Achim Wollscheid
Edwin van der Heide
AUG. 2002
The Auditory Sense of Mr. Roderick Usher
Based on The Fall Of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
A theatrical adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe`s `The Fall of the House of Usher` lends itself to sound and
begs to inhabit a auditory world. Soundscape is therefore vital to a performance based on the fictitious
novel. Mr. Roderick Asher, the protagonist, has very sensitive hearing; sensitive to the point of sheer
madness.
`He was startled by all sounds except those from stringed instruments.`
For Asher, all sounds, the human voice, a knock on the door, the wind, etc., were extremely strong and
antagonistic. Poe wrote that it was as if Asher suffered from some kind of illness. However, nobody
knows if the illness is real or feigned. The sound of his sickness is central to this production and is
conveyed through the course of the performance.
My music is very strong, aggressive and violent. I would like to play music in this style as it conveys
greater variety and movement than normal music, which is fairly static. I would like to work with the
parallels that exist between this style of music, my music, and the sounds that Asher can hear.
The primary speaker system shall be placed in the square-shaped room`s corners. `Edwin van der
Heide` will be the Sound Designer. Amplified sounds, such as the sounds of Lady Madeline`s haunting
footsteps, crying, and movement, the wind circling Asher`s room. Tetsuo Furudate will play those sounds
as music. The Lighting System will be designed by Achim Wollsheid;
"light and sound should transcend the architecture of the respective buiding.Sound and light should take
place also outside, on the stairs in the lobby and outside - also on the facade of the buiding. If it is about the
House of Usher we should really bring it down, shoudn't we? Let's rock the house."
This work is somewhere between an installation, music, and theatre. It will be open during the day as
an installation and will transform into a theatrical space for a performance.
TETSUO FURUDATE
Tetsuo Furudate
Born in Tokyo. Started his career in experimental firm and video art in 1981.From middle of 80's,he gradually turned into music through
performing art,contributing to the development of the Japanese noise music in its early period with other pioneers such as Merzbow. He
spreads his activities over Europe since 1998,with many concerts not only CD releases,corroborating with Zbigniew Karkowski,Kasper T.
Toeplitz and Leif Elggren. He achieved the premier show of his newest experimental noise opera,"Othello",at Podwil in Berlin in 2001.He
stayed in Berlin as a artist residence of Podewil in 2003. During them he had premieres of "Wozzeck" at Podewil in Berlin and "Auditory
Sence of Mr.Roderick Usher" at Dresdner Zentrums für zeditgenössische Musik (DZzM) in Dresden. "Auditory Senced...."won the BLAUE
BRÜCKE prize 2003. He has collaboration works with Achim Wollscheid, Lillevän, Akemi Takeya, Sigrid Schnückel and .....
2006
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[King Lear]=Ausland (Berlin) "m" / [The turn of the screw]=CRAZY Brick5 (Vienna) "d+m+v" / [The turn of the screw] radio
version = ORF Österreichischer Rundfunk "d+m" / [Motome-Zuka] radio version = DeutschlandRadio "d+m" / [Art's Birthday]
=Tesra (Berlin) "d+m"
[Noise with Silence]=Ausland (Berlin) "pr+d+m" / [Like a power, light and wave]=Trantart Festival (Boznerno) "d+m" / Lecture
and solo concert =Academy of Music (Krakow) "s"
[The Voice of Lady Madeline Usher]=Festspielhous Hellerau (Dresden) "pr+d+m" / [Greace and Gravity]=Tokyo Style in
Stockholm, Fylkingen (Stockholm) / Sound Art Festival Overgerden(Copenhagen) "m+d" / Perfomance Festival (Zamosc) "s"
[Auditory Sence of Mr.Roderick Usher]=Festspielhous Hellerau (Dresden) "pr+d+m" /[A Circle of Death]=Mak Museum
(Vienna) / 4+4 days Festival (Prague) "m" / Audio Art Festival (Krakow) "s" / [King Lear] = Podewil (Berlin) "v+s+d" /
[Wozzedck]=Podewil (Berlin) "v+m+d+pr" / [Auditory Sence of Mr.Roderick Usher] radio version = DeutschlandRadio "d+m" /
Solo concert in Szczecin "s"
[A Dream Prisoner]=Trantart Festival (Boznerno) "m" / [OTHELLO as a Noise Opera] concert version =Fylkingen
(Stockholm) "m" / Solo Concerts in Arhus and Copenhagen "s" / [Blood and Sand]=Kaizen (Tokyo)"pa"
[World as will]=Goteborg Audio Art Festival "m" / "World as will "=Fylkingen (Stockholm) "m" / [OTHELLO as a Noise
Opera] Podwil (Berlin) "pr+d+m" / Solo concert at Chemnitz. "s"
LEN festival (Barcelona) "m" / ICMC 2000=Podwil, Akademie der Kunste and Maria (Berlin) "pr+m" / J-Way=Lydmar Hotel
(Stockholm) "m"
[Meltdoun in Europe]=Podwell(Berlin), The Queen Elizabeth Hall (London) "s" / 158 Festival (Paris) "s" / Moderna Museet
(Stockholm) "s" / Solo concerts in Copenhagen, Aalborg, Berlin, Plauen and Lyon."s"
[Mertdowen of Control]=The Japan Foundation Hall (Tokyo) "pr+s"
[Autrement qu'étre]=P3 art and environments (Tokyo) "pr+d+m"
Neko mimi=East Gallery (Tokyo) "m"
Psychotronic Driving=Club citta (Kawasaki) "pr+s"
Solo concerts in Nijmegen and Frankfurt. "s"
Solo concert at "Diorama art center" (London) "s"
Underground Museum Festval at oya (Oya) "pr+s"
[Flagnets of Opera]=Parco (Tokyo) "pr+m+d"
[Prelude of the Post Modern musics]=Parco Part III (Tokyo) "pr+s"
Dokidoki Tokyo=Ebis Factory (Tokyo) "s+pe"
Video cocktail=Hara museum (Tokyo) "pr+v+pe"/ Japan Atr Festival in AU=Plan art college (Melboume) "v+s"
Performance Festival in Tokyo=The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Tokyo) "s+pe" / The Millelium Art Center (N.Y.) "f"
Contemporary Music Festival at Osaka=Tijin Hall (Osaka) "v+pe"
[context/contact]=The University of Tokyo (Tokyo) "f+pr"
[Oil painting one man show]=Kashiwa Citizens Gallery (Kashiwa) "pa"
[ ]=project title, m=composition & play music, pr=produce, s=solo concerts, d=direction, v=video, f=film, pa=painting, pe=performance
Discographie:
1992
"L'arrét de mort"(SSE communications 8005)
1994
"Macbeth"(SSE communications)
1995
"Autrement qu'étre" (Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier 54040)
1997
"World as Will"with Zbigniew Karkowski (Staalplat STCD 133)
1998
"Neon Green"with Kasper Toeplitz (Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier 54060)
2000
"(x).x is not a man or x is mortal"(God Factory)
"Autrement qu'étre II"(Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier 54064)
2001
"OTHELLO"(Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier 54077) with Leif Elggren
2002
"World as Will II" with Zbigniew Karkowski (23five Incorporated)
2004
"for the mother and the father" (simlog 018)
2006
"World as Will III" with Zbigniew Karkowski (Sub Rosa)
Achim Wollscheid
Achim Wollscheid is a media artist whose work over the past 20 years has been at the forefront of
experimental music. He has performed and presented installation projects internationally. His work in
sound has led to an interest in the relation between sound, light and architectural space, which he pursues
through public, interactive and electronic projects. He is a founding member of SELEKTION, an organisation
for the production and distribution of information systems. His book, The Terrorized Term, was published by
SELEKTION in 1999.
2001
-exhibitions
"Between sound and vision", Gallery 400, Chicago festivals
"Activating the medium", SF-MOMA radioworks
"Der gestˆrte Beobachter", HR2, Frankfurt/M
2000
-exhibitions
"why don't you do something for a weekend", Studio Five Beekman, New York
-installations
"nordpol-bruecke", computer-light installation, city-west, Bochum (permanent)
"Through the looking glass", installation, TU Innsbruck, Austria (permanent)
-seminars
"text", University of Karlsruhe
-discography
"shifts", ritornell/mille plateaux, RIT 17, 14867-2 EFA
-festivals
"Beyond Music III", at Beyond Baroque, LA
"futura 2000", Crest, France
VII. Sz¸netjel Festival, Budapest
-radioworks
"Der Gleichklang der Schritte", HR2, Frankfurt/M
1999
-exhibitions
"Living room", AA-Gallery (Architectural Association), London -installations
"light-net", Fachhochschule Frankfurt (permanent), collaboration with INDEX
"Connective memory", BNT, Trier (permanent)
-discography
"airs", ritornell/mille plateaux, RIT 04, 14854-2 EFA
-festivals
"Baustelle", ICC, Glasgow
"Beyond Music II", at Beyond Baroque, LA
1998
-exhibitions
"2 spaces", Studio Five Beekman, New York
-installations
"triple transformation", Gallery Insekt, Boston (temporary)
"10 transformers", sound-installation, Droege & Comp., D¸sseldorf (permanent)
-seminars
"Der Laden des Uhrmachers", (the clockmaker's shop), TU Innsbruck
"Beyond Music", Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles
"Paper & Plastic", Atlanta
-discography
Achim Wollscheid, Asmus Tietchens, "repetetive movement", Staalplaat, NL STCD 124 "acts",
Edwin van der Heide
Edwin van der Heide (1970) studied Sonologie at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He graduated in
1992. He is a composer and performer primary of electronic music and designer of sound installations. He is
working continuously on developing new musical instruments, new techniques for performance and new
methods of sound generation/production to develop his own new musical language.
films:
- '#11' 35mm, 22 min. Image: Joost Rekveld, Sound: Edwin van der Heide, jan. 1999. Premiere Film
Festival Rotterdam, Holland, 1999.
teacher:
- Since 1995 he is teaching at Interfaculty Sound & Image from the Royal Conservatory & Royal Arts
academy in the Hague, Holland.
guestteacher:
- Interaction Design, HKU, Hilversum, Holland ,1996
- IAMAS, Gifu, Japan, 1998
- KEIO University, SFC, Tokyo, Japan, 1998
- Music Technology, HKU, Hilversum, Holland, 1999
- Leiden University, Leiden, Holland, 2002
- San Fransisco Art Institute, CA, USA, 2002
lectures:
- Ferien Kursen f¸r Neue Musik, Darmstadt, Germany, 1992
- Royal Conservatory, The Hague, Holland, 1994, Symposium School For Soundmen
- V2, Rotterdam, Holland 1996, 1999, Wiretap
- NAI, Dutch Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, Holland, 1999, 'The Audible Space' together with Kas
Oosterhuis,Ilona LÈn·rd, Johan van Kreij and Richard Tolenaar
- Game Set Match, Architecture conference, Delft University, Delft, Holland, 2001
artist in recidences:
- Huis aan de Werf, Utrecht, Holland, 1998, 2000
- ICC, Tokyo, Japan, 1997, Sensorband & Granular Synthesis
- V2 LAB, Rotterdam, Holland, 1997
- Steim, Amsterdam, Holland, 1996, 1997
- Visa Festival, Maubeuge, France, 1996
- Lazy Marie, Utrecht, Holland, 1995
selection of collaborations:
- Theatergroep Hollandia, LOOS ensemble, Tetzepi, Dick Raaijmakers, Horst Rickels, Victor Wentink,
Kaffe Matthews, Eric Vredenburg, Kas Oosterhuis, Lars Spuybroek, Joost Rekveld, Granular Synthesis,
Merzbow, Jan Hoogstad, Aube etc.
long term collaborations:
- Trio Sensorband: Edwin van der Heide, Zbigniew Karkowski en Atau Tanaka
- Trio Florentijn Boddendijk, Edwin van der Heide, Anne Wellmer.
exeptional media:
- Teletext artproject, Initiator & contributor, Dutch National Television NPS/NOS teletekst 1-4-2000
till 1-6-2000
Reviews about Tetsuo Furudate
OTHELLO AS NOISE OPERA by Tetsuo Furudate
By STEPHEN ROBINSON
Emanuel Levinas once remarked that philosophy is a meditation on Shakespeare. A quick glance at the recorded
output of noise multiinstrmentalist Tetsuo Furudate suggest that for him music is a meditation, albeit a gnarled
and twisted one, on philosophy and Shakespeare: his 1998 recording World as Will (reference Schopenhauer) and
his 1994 rendition of Macbeth (with Merzbow and Ruins' Tatsuya Yoshida) are just two indications of these twin
obsessions. Never one to fight shy of largescale works driven by an ambition big enough to move Birnam Wood to
Dunsinane, Furudate's latest excursion finds him group Autrement qu'etre (named after Levinas's second major
work) advancing once again into the world of noise and Shakespeare: Othello As Noise Opera. But as Othello
himself asks, "What noise is this?" A prg rock excursion by other mean? Pictures At An exhibition for noise
aficionados? Well, perhaps not.
Its hugely promising opening shot suggests that the noise work to follow will appropriate the text of Othello as if
it were just another texture in the fray. Starting from Act V, Scene II, the raping metallic intensity of the savagely
overdriven opening lines, "It is cause, it is cause", neatly scrawl their way across your scalp like a scythe. But despite
the vocal treatments, the ensuing fidelity to the text, which in itself rapidly establishes its own insistent metre,
somehow subordinates the noise to its own poetic rhythm. It's a curious inversion where the relative frailty of the
voice establish precedence over the surrounding barrage, dictating the terms, pace and position of the music.
Although it's always sonically expansive, the noise, somehow becomes incidental. The brooding bass rumbling
throughout sets an ominous tone, albeit in an orthodox fashion. And for all their abrasiveness, the recurring
shotblast squalls, faux fanfares and chiming tonalities, the latter faintly recalling Hermann Nitsch's mammoth Tage
Spiel, soon come to take a supporting role punctuating the text. With some minor modifications this could even
be appropriated for a 'radical' theater production. And even then you would have to ask just how radical it
actually is. Not quite noise or opera, and lacking the unity of either, it somehow stalls just this side of convincing.
THE WIRE
Issue 216 February 2002
Revies ' Soundcheck'
--------------------------------------------------------------review of "(x).x is not a man or x is mortal."
Here is an album that can only be heard intensively, so much the power it contains is impressive, and I can't
imagine what would give the experience on a stage. Tetsuo Furudate is known for his furious and irritated
experimental music , he also collaborated with Zbigniew Karkowski on the album "World as Will".
"(x).x is a man or x is mortal" only includes three tracks for a length of more than fifty minutes. And in this time the
declines of the apocalypse are fully related. A myriad of insane sound, punctuated of exploding and metallic
percussions, so powerful that Einstürzende Neubauten must be jealous, from which appear lots of samples
influenced by industrial avant-gardist music. Then the silence appears strangely, ready to resist to all this noise,
but in vainÉm What a sound! It's only
when we get to the second track that it's getting quieter, on a long and dark atmospheric piece of music, filled
with discreet and deaf voices, full of icy violence. The last track presents itself as the twin brother of the first one,
with the return of these impressive and tough sounds. One would easely think that we are in a metallurgy in
decomposition, at the last stage before the explosion, like the ideal music for a nightmarish movie. And we ask for
more ! Notice the originality of the superb sleeve. Listeninh to this album is a fundamental experience, giving way
to the experimental chants of this unique album.
Stéphane Fivaz
July 2000