Kol bpm קול

Kol bpm קול is a concert for voice, clarinets and live electronics by Roberto Paci Dalò and Delilah Gutman. The sound performance is an adventurous exploration of Jewish tradition and innovation. Through live electronics, the voice is sampled and processed in real time. The repetition of a sound, a melody or a word amplifies and multiplies the acoustic effects, to create textures and meditative polyphonies where the perception of what you are listening gradually changes.

In Kol bpm קול, tradition becomes synonymous of contemporaneity.

In Kol bpm קול Jewish tradition meets electronic music.

The title of the project is an indication of this: the ancient word kol (“everything” in Hebrew), is followed by the modern abbreviation bmp (“beats per minute”, metronomic unit of measure). The patterns of bass clarinets and clarinets, played according to the techniques of the Jewish musical tradition, multiply and intertwine with the loops and rhythmic structures created by the voice. The fragments recompose a meditative story, where the state of trance and that of ecstasy constitute the meeting point between the two musical genres so distant in time.

The project is produced by Giardini Pensili and DGMA and was presented for the first time in Italy at the Verucchio Festival – artistic direction by Ludovico Einaudi – in July 2012.

Paci Dalò and Gutman

Both Paci Dalò and Gutman have been working for a long time on practices and materials that mix tradition, electronics, improvisation, composition and multimedia performance.

For RobertoPaci Dalò, Kol bpm קול is part of a study and work path that connects the Jewish world with contemporary music. In the 1980s the artist created the first ensemble of Jewish instrumental music, “Klezmer”. In Kol bpm קול Paci Dalò goes to the heart of the Jewish tradition, experimenting with the musical techniques for clarinet of ancient religious celebrations such as that of Lag Ba’omer in Tzafat in Galilee. Delilah Gutman,  musician and singer, emphasizes the meditative dimension of Jewish chant as a pure expression of the chorus of the people of Israel. Trance and ecstasy are essential components in Jewish music and become, for her, the meeting point with electronic music.

Kol bpm at PaRDes

On July 14th at the PaRDeS laboratory, Kol bpm קול the project Orologio del tempo, an interactive video projection by Nicola Evangelisti in collaboration with Gabriele Pesci and Fabio Bozzetto, realized for the exhibition of the ON group in 2012, is related.

Evangelisti’s video projection reacts to the sound frequencies of Kol bpm קול becoming a continuum between images, light and sounds.

And so, the Jewish melodies handed down for centuries, come across not only with contemporary acoustic fragments, but also meet the multimedia medium.

Credits

Kol Bpm  קול

Voice 
Delilah Gutman

Clarinets
Roberto Paci Dalò

 

 

Live electronics
Roberto Paci Dalò
Delilah Gutman

Produced by
Giardini Pensili
Associazione culturale DGMA

Premiere
Verucchio Festival 2012