Gravity's Self-Portrait (2009): for guitar and elecrtronic sounds; 8'
Orange Blossom Special (2009): arrangement for orchestra; 3'
The Slow Splintering (2008): for string quartet, percussion quartet, and elecrtronic sounds; 12'24
Verpum (2007): electronic music for performance art by Eduardo Velazquez; 5'30
Innerworkings/Sensed Presence (2007): electronic music for dance, with choreography by Jennifer Medina; 10'12
Tower of Babel (2007): 8-channel electronic music, 12'20
Peripheral Vision (2006): for 3 violas, 3 clarinets, 3 trombones, and tape; 10'
Embers (2006): 4-channel electronic music, 12'26
Asentaoisti (2006): for percussion and video, 15'
Tunneli (2005-06): for flute, violin, cello, piano, and electronics; 10'52
3 Yevtushenko Songs (2005): for mezzo-soprano, percussion, and electronics; 17'34
3x4 (2005): 4-channel electronic music with 3-channel video by Harry Gassel; 8'
You Enter a Small White Room, There are Two People, They say: (2005): for flute and harp; 9'
Filaments (2004): for flute and electronics; 9'14
We (2004): for piano and live processing; 2'
Gemini (2003): for cello and piano; 2'
Influences
Morton Feldman, John Cage, Luciano Berio, Kaija Saariaho, Edgard Varese, Veljo Tormis, Ake Parmerud, Alexander Scriabin, Robert Normandeau, Giles Gobbeil, Michel Chion, Morton Subotnick, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, Simon Bainbridge, Iancu Dumitrescu, Joao Pedro Oliveira, Tom Lopez, Mario Diaz de Leon, Ayin, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Blood Brothers, Lords, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Mr. Bungle, Balinese Gamelan, Siberian folk music, traditional Ainu music, Cecil Taylor, Sergei Kuryukhin, Luigi Nono, Stan Getz, and countless others.
Jacob Gotlib was born and raised in Louisville, KY, and has written music for instruments, electronics, dance, and multimedia. His music is regularly played at festivals around North America and Europe, most recently at the Small Music Theatre (Athens, Greece), SEAMUS 2009 (Ft. Wayne, IN), The New York City Electronic Music Festival, and SPARK 2009 (Minneapolis, MN).
In October 2007, Jacob worked with renowned Kansas City choreographer Jennifer Medina on Innerworkings, a piece for dance and electronic sounds, which was premiered at UMKC’s 2007 Choreofest. Earlier that year, his work Embers was a finalist in the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission. In 2009, his work "Filaments," for flute and tape, will be featured on flutist Rebecca Ashe's debut CD, Vortex Street (Centaur Records)
Jacob was a co-founder of the Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance (KcEMA), whose mission was to promote electronic and experimental music of all types and genres across the Kansas City area. The group continues to be a vital force in the Kansas City arts community, collaborating with such organizations as the Kansas City Art Institute and The Charlotte Street Foundation.
Jacob has studied at the Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and currently at the University of Buffalo.
About the Music:
Gravity's Self-Portrait (2009), for guitar and electronic sounds -- It is often easy and natural for us to live as if we’re at the center of our universe, or the lead actors in a film chronicling our daily lives. From this perspective, it seems that we are stationary objects; that forces, events, and people act upon us, orbit around us. As I was writing this piece, I was imagining this perspective inverted -- what if we are the active bodies, the supporting actors, reacting to and against a giant other force? The feeling of weight, of gravity pushing upon us, is a familiar one. But what is gravity feeling as we act upon it? Gravity’s Self-Portrait was written for Alexandros Drymonitis, and was premiered by him in Athens, Greece in 2009.
//
The Slow Splintering (2008), for string quartet, percussion quartet, and electronics, loosely follows the sonic and physical trajectory of glass shattering -- an initial explosion, a cracking and fissuring, a breaking apart into shards, and the settling of those shards -- in slow motion, taking place over 12 minutes and 24 seconds.
//
Sensed Presence (2007) is a phenomenon that often occurs in the state between waking and sleeping (“hypnagogia”), where one is still slightly conscious, but uncertain if a sensation is wakefulness disappearing or dreams beginning. In this state it is common to feel very strongly that you are not alone, that someone is there in the room, watching you or perhaps speaking to you, despite knowledge to the contrary. Sensed Presence was a collaboration with Kansas City choreographer Jennifer Medina, under the title Innerworkings. This piece is dedicated to her, and to all the dancers who performed at its premiere in November 2007.
All of the source sounds for this piece are copyright-free, Creative Commons-licensed samples downloaded from The FreeSound Project. Click here for a list of and links to the samples I used in this piece.
Tower of Babel (2007) -- The Ancient Greeks and Hebrews believed that human beings were motivated by ideals that they could never, ever reach. Though we know in our hearts that many of the goals and ideals that propel our lives are naive or impossible, they give us meaning, connection, and direction. Like Sisyphus, whose rock always escaped him right as he would reach the top of the mountain, we build and rebuild our Towers of Babel despite disappointments, shattered dreams, and unrealized potentials.
All of the source sounds for this piece are copyright-free, Creative Commons-licensed samples downloaded from The FreeSound Project. Click here for a list of and links to the samples I used in this piece.
//
Embers (2006) -- Our memories of happenings, people, places -- no matter how they may distort the original experiences -- are often much more significant for us than the events themselves. Through the recreation of events in our minds, we can extend experiences indefinitely, beyond their original time and place -- some lasting as long as our entire lives. Memories are the embers of experiences after they have burnt out.
//
Tunneli (2006) was originally written for the California EAR Unit, and premiered by them in the Arizona desert in August 2005. The present version is a complete revision of the work made in February-March 2006.
Like what you hear?
Send me a Myspace message or email me at jacob.gotlib[at]gmail.com and I'll send you a full-length CD-R for free.
Encuentro Internacional de Arte Sonoro TSONAMI Buenos Aires 2009 Una ola de diversidad sonora contemporánea llega a Buenos Aires nuevamente
Del 20 al 25 de octubre en el Centro Cultural Recoleta de la ciudad de Buenos Aires tendrá lugar una muestra de las más diversas expresiones sonoras de la escena contemporánea en la 2ª edición del Encuentro Internacional de Arte Sonoro Tsonami Buenos Aires 2009
8 conciertos, performances, obras multimedia y una exposición permanente de Instalaciones Sonoras, convergiendo así trabajos de artistas Nacionales e Internacionales de diversas estéticas y trayectorias que toman el trabajo del sonido como eje principal.
El Encuentro de Arte Sonoro TSONAMI es una plataforma Independiente, de difusión del trabajo de artistas Latinoamericanos y de intercambio con producciones del resto del mundo vinculadas a las Artes Sonoras. TSONAMI es además un punto de encuentro transdisciplinario en torno al arte contemporáneo y la temática del sonido.
The “Encuentro de Arte Sonoro Tsonami” calls for sound artists, composers, performers, instrumentists and ensembles, to submit Works to be performed at the Encuentro de Arte Sonoro Tsonami 2009 that will take place October 20th-25th 2009, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The “Encuentro de Arte Sonoro TSONAMI” its a showcase and exchange platform for the work of national and international artists that gather around sound in its many manifestations; Music, Performance, Multimedia, Sound Installations, and other manifestations that don..t have a place in mainstream or traditional communications media, and that does not pursue commercial or lucrative ends.
So myspace tells me you've put me in a category called "People". First of all, there is no category for me, you are intimately aware of this by now I'm sure. Secondly, if I were to be lumped into a category I would prefer something more like "Extraterrestrial" or "Inexplicable". Wouldn't you? :)
So I finally, per your recommendation, watched the original Nijinsky choreography to "Rite of Spring," and it was awesome. However, what made me want to tell you this is the comment below the video - gamewhiz117: "so they want to sacrifice the girl who messed up their little dance circle??"
Nice work!! And impressive these samples from the free sound project. Check another site that maybe you'll find interesting: http://www. soundsnap. com/ See u at electromediaworks in Athens. Best reagrds Ioannis
..
