Transatlantic Transient 1 (2007)
Belfast, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamilton, Toronto
5 concerts with music by David Ogborn and friends
soundscape, acousmatic music and live electronics

Throughout November and December 2007 David Ogborn will be  presenting different aspects of his work in a series of 5 concerts in 4 countries.  A sound artist with roots in both acousmatic music and live electronic improvisation, Ogborn will collaborate in Amsterdam and Berlin with contemporary recorder virtuoso Terri Hron; in Hamilton and Toronto, he will be joined by long-time collaborator and soprano Kristin Mueller-Heaslip (known also as the captivating front-woman of the Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra); in the inaugural concert in Belfast, Ogborn will perform alongside students of the Sonic Arts Research Centre.

On the programme are new remixes and diffusions of 3 soundscape pieces composed by Ogborn in 2005, the year of his last trans-Atlantic sojourn: via Sammartini (based on recordings from Milan), Rio della croce (based on recordings from the island of Giudecca in Venice) and Second Nature (with recordings from Toronto's Tommy Thompson Park). On the menu at every stop of the Transatlantic Transient tour are selections from the Street Songs, flexible improvisatory works for live instrumentalists and electronics, each one a sonic reflection of the international protests against the invasion of Iraq.

In Hamilton and Toronto, Mueller-Heaslip will perform the fifth Street Song as well as In Memoriam STS-107, memorializing the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in early 2003.  Mueller-Heaslip will also inject Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag's stunning Josef-Attila Fragments for solo voice and selections from R. Murray Schafer's Princess of the Stars. Of the Kurtag work Mueller-Heaslip says: "With their lightning changes of mood, from the sweet and reflective A kerten (In the garden) to the passionate Nem! Nem! (No! No!) to the quietly creepy Nincs kozom senkihez (I'm a stranger and alone), Kurtag's settings of Jozsef Attila's fragmentary poems show the composer at his best. Now sweetly lyrical, now disturbingly raw, the astonishing range of vocal colours takes you inside the turbulent and vivid imagination of one Hungary's best-loved poets." Rounding out the programme is a series of live electronic improvisations on a physically distorted (missing the D string and the high E string) but electronically-augmented (via microphones and a laptop) classical guitar – a preview of some of the material Ogborn will be performing in the Opera On The Rocks project, a full-length ambient opera premiering January 6-7 2008 in Toronto.

Concert 1: Belfast, Fri 9 November 2007, 8 PM
Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast
Directions: http://www.sarc.qub.ac.uk/pages/travel.htm
Admission: Free
Appearing with students of the Sonic Arts Research Centre

Concert 2: Amsterdam, Tue 13 November 2007, 8:30 PM
Karnatic Lab - Muziekcentrum de Badcuyp, Eerste Sweelinckstraat 10
http://www.karnaticlab.com/
Admission: Free
Appearing with Terri Hron, recorders

Concert 3: Berlin, Wed 14 November 2007, 9 PM
Theaterkapelle, boxhagener strasse 99, 10245 berlin-friedrichshain
http://www.theaterkapelle.de/
Admission: 5/8 Euros
Appearing with Terri Hron, recorders

Concert 4: Hamilton, Fri 30 November 2007, 8 PM
126 James Street North (just above The Factory btw. Cannon and York)
Admission PWYC (Pay What You Can) at the door - sponsored by Hamilton Artists Inc.
Appearing with Kristin Mueller-Heaslip, soprano

Concert 5: Toronto, Sun 02 December 2007, 8 PM
The Ernest Balmer Studio at Tapestry, Distillery District
55 Mill St. Bldg. 58, The Cannery, Studio 315
416.537.6066 x 224  http://www.tapestrynewopera.com
Appearing with Kristin Mueller-Heaslip, soprano
Admission: $10.  Note:  Online purchase of advance tickets is highly recommended for the Toronto concert.  Click the PayPal button on the right to purchase one or more advance tickets online.  (You can securely use any major credit card and do not need to have a PayPal account.)