Brett Sroka | Sine Qua Non

Sine Qua Non is an improvisational performance that transforms into a durational, self-generating sound installation. Here a live, improvisational dialogue with vocalist Alicia Hall Moran is sampled by Sroka and processed with a Max/MSP software instrument. Throughout the performance Moran’s voice becomes both her accompaniment and her foil as the process of electronic abstraction and acoustic response creates a Mobius strip of sonic ideas. The sampled fragments of Moran’s voice are automatically catalogued throughout the performance and gradually come to surpass her unmediated voice as the live portion of the work concludes. For the remainder of the installation, the audio of the performance continues to evolve through generative digital processing, projecting an ever-changing abstraction of the performance. Conceived as a modular work, this iteration of Sine Qua Non was performed live and then continued as a sound installation at the Fridman Gallery in New York City in 2015.

Brett Sroka is a composer, musician, and sound artist whose practice encompasses the spheres of improvisation, technology, and contemporary art. He has released six records of original music through such labels as Fresh Sound, Zeromoon, and Cuneiform, which feature performances by his electro-acoustic jazz trio Ergo and his melodronoise duo Cherubim. His installations and performances have been presented at Roulette in Brooklyn, Alfred University’s Institute of Electronic Arts, the New Museum in New York, Risonanze in Venice, Italy, and the Galway Jazz Festival in Ireland. As the Cultural Programming Curator at Lévy Gorvy he conceives and organizes aesthetic dialogues between the performing, audial, and visual arts for the gallery’s ongoing series of exhibition-related events.

 

Hear and view more of Brett’s work here.