BLO @ Vinfonies

El passat dissabte 10 de novembre, a les 19:00, l'Orquestra de Portàtils de l'ESMUC va actuar al festival Vinfonies, a Vilafranca del Penedès, combinant un concert-degustació de vins i caves amb diverses obres d'electroacústica i networking improvisades. Tota una experiència multisensorial en un marc imcomparable!

Us adjuntem el report que el nostre company Glen en va fer

Behold the bottle, where it lies

With neck elated toward the skies!

The god of winds and god of fire

Did to its wondrous birth conspire;

And Bacchus for the poet’s use

Pour’d in a strong inspiring juice.

- from A Great Bottle Of Wine, Long Buried, Being That Day Dug Up, by Jonathan Swift

Well…not only for the poet's use, but also for the musician's!  On Saturday evening, November 10, eight members of the Barcelona Laptop Orchestra journeyed to the wine capital, Vilafranca del Penedès, to perform a concert honouring the fermented grape.  It was our first concert of the 2012-2013 season, and a good chance to try out some new repertoire in a low-stress setting.  It also allowed us to sample some of the best "strong inspiring juice" the area has to offer. Finally, it was an opportunity to perform in an unusual and beautiful setting (the claustre de Sant Francesc, a 13th-century cloister).

Vinfonies is an annual event that brings together sonic experimentation and wine tasting. We were invited to perform three pieces, as sonic and textural "pairings" to go with three wines: a cava (Spanish sparkling wine), a white and finally a red.  We performed: a sparkling CliX ReduX, inspired by a Princeton Laptop Orchestra piece; our own (dry or fruity?) take on Terry Riley's In C; and finally scratched and thumped our way through a noisy, full-bodied Rimandi.  The eight of us set up our laptops at the bases of pillars, along two sides of the courtyard, looking out at the garden, its central fountain, and the milling imbibers.  The lights were dimmed, so the candles placed all around the cloister set the scene beautifully.  It could have been 500 years earlier, were it not for the mixing console, extension cords and patch cables, loudspeakers, glowing laptop screens…  The whole concert lasted a little more than an hour.

Three of us [to be corrected -- I'm not sure if Victor is also new this year, if so, then four of us!] are new to the group, so this was our first  performance with the ensemble.  I don't think we could have asked for a better introductory experience.  A local TV station filmed some of the performance and interviewed Josep and one of the festival's organizers, Jordi.

So -- where shall we turn to next, for inspiration?  I'm busy thinking up musical pieces to go with tapas, or sushi, or calçots, or...