Mark Fell & Rian Treanor (UK): "Crashing Into Bleaklow"
Performance at Spatial Sound evenings at KONTEJNER
As part of the Spatial Sound evenings at KONTEJNER, a performance of the multichannel work by Mark Fell and Rian Treanor was held. The piece, Crashing Into Bleaklow, was commissioned and produced by Paris-based INA GRM and is an intense and complex 47-minute spatial sound composition.
The multichannel composition 'Crashing Into Bleaklow' combines the artistic practices of Mark Fell and Rian Treanor and features electronic composition, Max/MSP patches, and modular synthesis. In a dynamic and exciting performance, they explore extended rhythmic techniques and algorithmic processes.
Unfortunately, the event had to be adapted due to the pandemic. Just a day before their trip to Zagreb, father and son Fell and Treanor developed COVID symptoms and had to cancel their appearance. What they had planned to perform live—diffusing the composition themselves—they prepared in their home studio the day before the scheduled performance. They sent multichannel audio files and detailed diffusion instructions, placing full trust in KONTEJNER’s long-time expert collaborator, spatial audio specialist Miodrag Gladović, who performed the piece for the Zagreb audience.
The work was commissioned by INA GRM as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project within Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. It was created during an artist residency at GRM and premiered at INA GRM’s PRÉSENCES électronique festival in Paris in March 2024.
Organizer: KONTEJNER | bureau for contemporary art praxis
Programme and production: Davorka Begović
Program associate: Sunčica Ostoić
Technical realization: Miodrag Gladović, Jakov Habjan, Filip Pacak
Marketing: Jadrana Ćurković
Public relations and social media: Inesa Antić
Visual identity: kuna zlatica
Photographer: Sanja Bistričić Srića
Info desk: Kristina Novosel, Maja Perak
Assistant in organization: Nina Maštruko
Local transport: Josip Kornet
The spatial sound evenings are part of the Performances in KONTEJNER program, co-financed by the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture and Media.
Miodrag Gladović (HR)
Miodrag Gladović (HR) is an engineer of electroacoustics, musician and multimedia artist. As an artist, he has been actively engaged on the contemporary arts scene for numerous years – either as a member of the artistic duo Lightune.G together with Bojan Gagić, or as a solo artist. His work, engineering expertise and immense creativity continuously contribute to the innovative aspects of all projects he is involved in. Combining a punk approach with DIY ethics, his twenty-year experience in a wide variety of musical styles and projects, using technology in artistic work and nurturing a specific sensibility for contemporary music and arts, makes him one of the most prominent names on the contemporary scene – primarily within the field of experimental and impro music, but also in the context of other innovative contemporary artistic practices. As an expert collaborator of KONTEJNER, engineer and artist Miodrag Gladović is involved in multichannel sound diffusion projects, both in terms of production and as an educator. Besides his engineering contribution to multichannel setups, his authorial contribution in that context is also extremely important. At Gibanja 2022, Gladović premiered his multichannel composition A Piece for a Small Accordion and Big Loudspeakers, and this year he will present an ambisonic DJ set in which he will play his favorite songs on the edge of ambient sound and dance rhythm, upmixed in ambisonic format.
Mark Fell (UK)
Mark Fell is a multidisciplinary artist based in Rotherham (UK). Fell’s work is influenced by his interest in the philosophy of technology, creative process, and the socio-political implications of digital systems. His approach often asserts a critique of normative structures in both art and society, seeking to explore alternative possibilities. He is also involved in education and has lectured on topics related to sound, performativity, digital culture, and technology at institutions around the world.
Over the past 30 years Fell’s output has grown into a significant body of work - from early electronic sound works and recorded pieces, to installation, critical texts, curatorial projects, educational systems, and choreographic performances. In 2022 Fell published “Structure and Synthesis, The Anatomy of Practice” with Urbanomic press, bringing together the various strands of his philosophical and political thinking into an analysis of creative practice. Fell continues to be a leading figure in contemporary art and music: challenging the boundaries between disciplines, and exploring the cultural impact of emergent technologies.
The diversity and importance of Fell's practice is reflected in the range and scale of institutions that have presented his works. Including: VAC Foundation Palazzo delle Zattere (Venice), Hong Kong National Film Archive, The Baltic (Gateshead), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Laboral (XIxon), The Institute of Contemporary Art (London), The Serpentine (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Whitechapel Gallery (London), The Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Barbican (London), Raven Row (London), Seville Biennale, The Australian Centre For Moving Image (Melbourne), Artists Space (NYC), Moma (NYC), Issue Project Room (NYC), Corcoran (DC), Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (NY), Lampo/Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (Chicago), Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Karlsruhe), Pirelli Hanger Biccoca (Milan) among others. Fell's work is in the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna) and has been recognised by ARS Electronica (Linz). He has worked with a number of artists including: Yasunao Tone, Laurie Spiegel, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Okkyung Lee, Luke Fowler, Will Guthrie, Peter Gidal, Terre Thaemlitz, John Chowning, Ernest Edmonds, Peter Rehberg, Oren Ambarchi, Carl Michael Von Hausswolff and Mat Steel (as SND).
Rian Treanor (GB)
Rian Treanor re-imagines club culture, experimental art and computer music, presenting an insightful and compelling musical world of fractured and interlocking components. Having left a vivid impression with a string of releases on The Death of Rave & Warp sub-label Arcola, his debut album “ATAXIA” for Planet Mu in 2019 established him as both a disruptive and essential new voice in British underground club music.
His latest album “File Under UK Metaplasm” takes inspiration from his residency at the Nyege Nyege collective's Boutique Studio in Kampala in 2018. Incorporating the high-def bass weight of his hometown Sheffield with the enigmatic energy of Tanzanian Singeli and Footwork.
Using the programming language Max/MSP he develops bespoke software to explore extended rhythmic techniques and algorithmic processes, building devices that enable spontaneous pattern modulation within various collaborations, workshops, live performances and installations.
With recent live shows at the Aphex Twin Curated Warehouse Project (UK), Nyege Nyege Festival (UG), WWW (JP), Unsound (PL), CTM (DE), Le Guess Who? (NL), Mira Festival (SP), Rewire (NL), GES-2 (RU), Serralves (PT), Berghain (DE), No Bounds (UK), Cafe Oto (UK), Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts (UK), Empty Gallery (HK), Irish Museum of Modern Art (IRL), Summerhall (UK). He has also taken part in artists residencies at yU+co[lab] in Hong Kong, Counterflows in India and Shape Platform 2020.
