Michal Seta

est compositeur/improvisateur, guitariste et artiste numérique. Il est co-fondateur du trio électroacoustique No One Receiving (étiquette Grain of Sound). Également membre du duo UniSecs «spoken word» et improvisation électroacoustique . Son travail, solo et en collaboration avec d’autres artistes a déjà été présenté en Europe, au Canada et aux États Unis. Récemment, il a exposé à la Biennale de Montréal version 2009. Son oeuvre d’envergure récente, [IR]Rationnel, un instrument audio-visuel, a été exposé dans le cadre du festival Eurêka!2010 par le Centre des sciences de Montréal. Il travaille comme assistant de recherche à matralab (à l’université Concordia), préconise l’utilisation des outils libres pour la création artistique, agit en tant que consultant pour des projets qui utilisent les technologies numériques tant artistiques que corporatifs. Il donne des ateliers sur utilisation des logiciels libres pour la création artistique en espérant de démystifier le médium numérique.

Michal Seta

is a composer/improviser and technologist who uses digital technologies. He is a co-founding member of the electroacoustic improvisation trio No One Receiving (Grain of Sound label), is the other half of the spoken word and electroacoustic improvisation duo UniSecs, and performs as a solo artist. His performances, collaborative work, and personal work have been exhibited in Europe, USA and Canada. His most recent large-scale work [IR]Rationnel, an interactive audio-visual instrument, was recently shown at the Montréal Centre des Sciences. Aside from his artistic and collaborative work, he is a research assistant at *matra*lab, software developer at SAT (Society for Arts and Technology), advocates the use of Open Source software for art, acts as a consultant for both art and corporate projects that use digital technologies, teaches the use of Open Software for artistic expression through various workshops addressed to elementary schools, high schools and established artists, in the hope of demystify the digital medium.

Seven bagatelles.

The seven pieces were improvised one evening, one after another with brief moments of reflextion. Reflexion periods are not necessary for listening but may be used nevertheless. The pieces were played in the order they are presented here but during playback that order needs not be preserved.

1. Magnetic. - Magnetic fields and objects. (and echoes)
2. Cycle me. - Play, as soon as you hear computer's playback stop playing. Resume playing when the computer fades out.
3. Stepping over. - Prepared guitar, ostinatos (and echoes)
4. Double trouble. - Juxtapositions of slow and fast passages (and echoes)
5. Whispering axe. - Cork and aligator clip (and echoes)
6. Beater, so playful. - Almost a song - Minimal Riffs (and echoes)
7. - While my guitar gently sizzles. Electromagnetic interference of an iPod Touch with electromagnetic pickups, accidental hits, granular echo (and echoes)

For the technically curious, the bounding factor is a single Pd patch which was actually written for UniSecs piece called Assoifée. I figured, that it might be interesting to try different possibilities of this patch rather than reserving it solely for that piece and so I forked it, musically only, really, because I have not made any modifications to the actual code. The only significant difference between the use of the patch here and in Assoiffée is the fact that the bagatelles use only one sound source rather than two, as is the case with Assoifée. Other than that, I was driven by whatever simple musical rules I could come up with on the spur of the moment.

these are some experiments I did after having read Curtis Roads' "Microsound" book (well, parts of it, anyways). Thanks to nullpointer for posting a pulsar patch (in Pd) which served as a basis for my pulsar sampler. In my pulsar grain system I am playing with sample lengths which are actually too long for a "pure" granular system but are hovering somewhere on the border between being a sample and a grain. The following pieces were simply improvised in real-time.

The pieces below were done in the years between 1997-2003. At the time, I've worked with a variety of tools (DAWs, Buzz, CSound) for "fixed" compositions, before improvisatoin took over...