Juraj Kojs: Slovakia
Slovakia is a 45-minute program that combines Slovakian folk vocals, traditional instruments and experimental electronica. Dramatic on-stage rituals and powerful music will transport you to the mysterious world filled with ancient sonic secrets.
Juraj Kojs is an award winning composer, performer and multimedia artist from Slovakia who specializes on creating and performing experimental interactive music with conventional concert instruments, folk instruments, everyday objects and computer. Kojs has performed at festivals and conferences in Europe, the US and Latin America. Miami New Times described his muscle powered multimedia Neraissance as "striking and unforgettable."
At and Across for Slovak sheep bells and cyberbells was composed with cyberinstruments created with physical modeling synthesis.
"...the piece has an appealing, nonchalant quietude, rising to a tumultuous clamor now and then—a fascinating blurring of ancient sounds melded with 21st-century technology." (Music Web International's Worldwide Concert and Opera Reviews)
At and Across strives to preserve the Slovakian sheep bell through the performance and digital simulation. Cyberbell structures extend the parameters of the physical bells beyond the limitations of the physical world. The composition features virtual structures such as "air bells", plucked bells and "belled" bells among others.
Audio Example:
Pastoral Care for Slovakian fujara and electronic presents a communication between the antique Slovak bass overtone flute. The fujara has been traditionally designed by the mountain shepherds in the deep woods of central Slovakia.
In those woods maddening sap and algae erupting palpitations attuned under wet skins like belching thunder once conquered once loose
there and never after.
During the performance, the instrument is unveiled and constructed in a tantalizing ritual.
Audio Examples:
Invocations
Rooted in the tradition of vocal calls in the mountains especially during the harvest and hay raking, this segment presents a sonic encounter between the past and the presence. Two sung words "starky" and "starka" translate as gandpa and grandma. The perpetual calls accumulate into textures in which time and space converge into a sensation of deep nostalgia, a sentiment that often accompanies the rural life in the Slovakian highlands.
Audio Example:
Timbre Wheel Timber Tongue is a composition for the Slovakian wooden noise makers and electronics. Rapkac (the noise maker) is an early percussive signal instrument preceding the bells.
The work explores the percussive qualities of the noise makers, their perpetual patterns, the way how their raw wood finish sounds when intimately rubbed, scratched and twirled.
Intensely energetic live electronics!
Audio Examples:
