This flute duo consisting of Gabriela Irzyk and Małgorzata Mikulska began its activity in the production of the theatre play "Finnegans F/Wake" with music by a renowned Polish composer Wojciech Blecharz in 2021. Since October 2022, Mikulska and Irzyk have been implementing the Contemporary Ensemble postgraduate program in the class of Eva Furrer at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien. Together with Maciej Michaluk (live-electronics), the group performed, among others, during Wroclaw Flute Meetings, the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music and the International Audio Art Festival in Cracow. Their main assumption is to create common sound spaces in combination with new media elements.
Małgorzata Mikulska is also a member of Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble, one of the most active Polish new music ensembles. In 2021 they were awarded the Ensemble Prize, awarded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. Gabriela Irzyk co-created the Sound Factory Orchestra, an ensemble from Wroclaw performing new music and music from computer games. She is also a member of the Ostrava New Orchestra. Maciek Michaluk is a composer and music theorist specializing in new media, constantly looking for his own means of expression using new technologies. He is a 2022/2023 Erasmus+ student at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Visuals for the performance were done by Bartosz Radzikowski (@radzikows), an audiovisual artist based in Wroclaw, Poland.
Programme
Maciek Michaluk: f2f (for two amplified flutes and live electronics)
It is a form dealing with the (de)construction of the communication process – the performers are opposed to each other; they react to each other's gestures and phrases. They create a common sound space, which is amplified and transformed by electronic media along a parallel track. The work is based on segmented forms, within which there are elements of improvisation. Each segment is based on a different sound material, provoking a different behaviour among the musicians.
Wojciech Blecharz: No More Stories (for two flutes and electronic media)
The piece, based on Samuel Beckett's text Cascando, refers to its original form (radio play). In this case, instruments were used as sound transmitters – flutes through which Beckett's text is filtered. The words spoken inside the instruments form streams of sonoristic-linguistic particles, which in their sound reflect the more percussive than the commonly recognized melodic character of the instrument. The work consists of several contrasting parts, where the deconstruction of the text is combined with the deconstruction of the instruments. The composer, looking for new sound areas, forces performers to use flutes in an unconventional way. The whole has been enriched by electronics and visuals.
Participants
- Małgorzata Mikulska, Gabriela Irzyk (flutes)
- Maciek Michaluk (electronics)
- Bartosz Radzikowski (visuals)
