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Boyse (Martin Nábělek / PV)

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THE MoND
Prague based, well seasoned improvisers Pasi Mäkelä (FIN), Ken Ganfield (USA) and Petr Vrba(CZ) unite forces. Electric trumpet improv madness, spacey modular synth squeaks and drones with tribal free percussion´s and vocals.

Ken Ganfield: serge synthesizer
Pasi Mäkelä: percussions, keyboards, vocal
Petr Vrba: electrified trumpet

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://stoned-to-death.bandcamp.com/album/ticha-invaze" data-mce-href="http://stoned-to-death.bandcamp.com/album/ticha-invaze"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Ticha Invaze by The Mond&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

&amp;lt;a href="http://stoned-to-death.bandcamp.com/album/the-mond" data-mce-href="http://stoned-to-death.bandcamp.com/album/the-mond"&amp;gt;The Mond by The Mond&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

A spontaneous open air jam session in the middle of Austria´s beautiful nowhere around Nickelsdorf was the starting point for the artistic collaboration of the composer and sound artist Veronika Mayer and the musician Petr Vrba. Experimenting with air, beat frequencies and the subtle meandering of combination tones and smooth changes in intonation, the duo junk & the beast creates a stirring atmosphere with their mixture of acoustic instruments and electronic sound generators. Concentrated on the essence, they reach a radical clarity in transitions of dense to porous episodes and tension to release.

Veronika Mayer is a freelance composer, musician and sound artist living in Vienna. Her works include instrumental and electroacoustic compositions, sound installations and performances with live electronics. She is active as electronic improviser, performing solo and in different collaborations, also with visual artists. Her works have been presented at various festivals for contemporary and experimental music and soundart in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark, Great Britain and Mexico. She received commissions by Wien Modern, Jeunesse Wien, ÖGZM, Ensemble Reconsil, Ensemble Platypus, The International Rosario Marciano Piano Competition, amongst others. Veronika Mayer studied electronic music, composition and classical piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and is a member of the Austrian network snim – spontaneous network for improvised music.

Michaela Antalová - drums, percussion
Georgij Bagdasarov – baritone saxophone
George Cremaschi – conducting, doublebass
David Danel - violin
Jiří Durman – bass clarinet, saxophones
Ken Ganfield – electronics
Peter Graham – piano
Veronika Hladká - violin
Jan Jirucha - trombone
Michal Matejka – guitar
Lucie Páchová - voice, alto saxophone
Ivan Palacký – amplified knitting machine, guitars, objects…
Patrik Pelikán – alto saxophone
Vojtěch Procházka - harmonium, piano, keyboards
Petr Vrba – trumpet, vibrating speakers
Zdeněk Závodný - reeds
Michal Zbořil – electronics
Pavel Zlámal - reeds

& guests: Didi Kern, Xavier Charles, Burkhard Stangl, Mazen Kerbaj, Agnes Hvizdalek, Birgit Ulher, Gregory Buttner, Thomas Lehn, Mats Gustafsson, Tiziana Bertoncini, Kyle Bruckmann, dieb13, Matthew Goodheart, Susanna Gartmayer, Tomás Gris, Chris Heenan, Matt Ingalls, John Ingle, Jan Kulka, Jan Klamm, Morgan O'Hara, Tim Perkis, Alexey Pliousnine, Gino Robair, Monica Scott, Marcel Bárta, Jan Jirucha, Tomáš Procházka, Elia Moretti, Lucie Vítková, Ig Henneman, Ab Baars, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Christof Kurzmann, Gianni Gebia, Hans Falb, Adrian Myhr, Tore Sandbaken ...

more sound and pictures

doppeltrio

2 Horses Too Many is brand-new project of two Prague-based improvisers Petr Vrba and Patrik Pelikan.
Patrik Pelikan is a musician focusing on woodwind instruments (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone and clarinet), electronics and objects. After years of playing with psychedelic-rock band Psychedelický flákač na odstřel he became a member of free-improvisational trio Ruinu in 2008. Since then he’s been a noticeable figure in the Prague improvisational scene, participating in variety of musical projects: Fuck It Duet (with k!amm), Pelikán/Vrba, Pelikán/Tóth/Vrba, Prague Improvisation Orchestra, Immer Samsa Usi 3000 (with Romano Krzych). He released his debut solo record Hortus Conclusus in 2012 (split with Ruinu – C50) on which he uses various saxophone and clarinet playing styles as well as assorted recording techniques (one of his favorites is using voice recorder as microphone). Woodwind instruments are accompanied by his manipulation with radio waves and inadvertent field recordings (e.g. sounds from the street randomly captured with instruments during recording).

TOTH & VRBA: lost songs in four chapters: part no.1 - 11:11:11 from Petr Vrba on Vimeo.

The duo of Petr Vrba and George Cremaschi is fixated on building up, layering, and breaking down detailed structures with an elaborate sonic vocabulary: mechanical clanking, grinding noises,
small feedbacks, electronic buzzes and hums, gurgles and shrieks, and occasional 'normal' tones from trumpet and contrabass create mysterious yet solid, at once both minimal and maximal electroacoustic constructions in sound.
After ten years of working as a duo with frequent guests, Los Amargados has grown to a quartet for Noche de Los Amargados. Original members Petr Vrba and George Cremaschi are joined by multi-instrumentalists Elia Moretti and Pasi Mäkelä on this wide-ranging collection of instant compositions and open improvisations.

iq+1

Since May 2010 we have been developing our sound - we let it arise from an aboriginal silence to enter a new silence to be recreated again. Each silence is different in quality influenced by situs, locus, temporality, audience and all other circumstances that are providing our common "here and now".
The line up of this sextet/quintet/quartet is changing according its members and potency of the space we perform in. Sounds are played live, samples are mixed in situ. Free improvisation in our intention means not only the communication between musicians but with the dancer likewise. The body is also an instrument. This is the way how the silence that does not exist, can be created.
Members: Georgij Bagdasarov (turntable, baryton sax), Veronika Hladká (violin), Jára Tarnovski (analogue synthesizers), Michal Zbořil (analogue synthesizers), PV (trumpet, clarinet)
Kateřina Bilejová (dance)
Exmembers: Jana Kneschke (e-violin), Miroslav Posejpal (cello)

&amp;lt;a href="http://mappa.bandcamp.com/album/conversaphone-plus" data-mce-href="http://mappa.bandcamp.com/album/conversaphone-plus"&amp;gt;Conversaphone Plus by IQ+1&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

kape: kateřina dietzová / petr vrba

Audiovisual, electroacoustic and mechanical exploration of improvisational relationships
SeEun Lee is using magnets, minerals, particles and other physical objects to interpret sounds into images. On the other hand Ganfield and Vrba convert electronic (synthesazors) and acoustic (wind instruments) streams into sound part of the magical dance of magnets. They can dance toward or away from each other. On a large scale, there's the Earth's gravitational attraction. On a smaller scale, iron filings draw out patterns shaped by magnets. Using the polarity of magnets, Lee draws out the relationships of everyday objects.

škvíry & spoje

Mr. Ryu and Mr. Vrba had incidentally found out during Ryu Hankil’s tour in the Czech Republic, that they share surname: in Japanese characters, both would be written 柳 - YANAGI, which means willow. And so they continued exploring affinities in a friend’s home studio, which resulted in founding YANAGI duo. Their common interest in musical structures hidden in various and variously vibrating objects enables a very natural communication through rolling typewriter or toothpicks bouncing along a plastic plate.

isabelle duthoit / franz hautzinger / matija schellander / petr vrba

george cremaschi / chris heenan / petr vrba

A trio working in the fertile areas suggested by the best elements of contemporary improvisation: non-heirarchical group interaction, static structures to quick changes, silence to noise, and sound to music. Cremaschi, Heenan and Vrba are keenly interested in all of the sonic potential of their various instruments, among them trumpet, contrabass clarinet, doublebass, and vibrating speakers, to build up and break down instantly composed structures built with intricate detail as well as broad gestures.

Dance-music-visual meeting in improvisation, where the instant happening on the stage materializes on three levels – by sound, movement and drawn line. This project was created in Czech-Netherland collaboration between two dancers, two graphic designers and two musicians. Together they focus on the research of how to capture “a moment” happening on the stage while shared with an audience.
The specialty of project Arthuur is a mechanical machine developed by the team of graphic designers in collaboration with the dancers. The machine is attached to different parts of the dancer’s body and in this way is able to write down all his movement by a pen on the paper. The machine can register the special extremities of the movements, speed and dynamicity. Each registration is however unique, since it depends on many other factors as position of the rest of the body, a slight inclination of the pen or elastic pulled too hard through a rough movement.

The new Dunkeltherapie comes in a completely different lineup with a new concept of music at an extremely slow pace, in extreme sound combinations, yet with a clear structure of the songs with no drums... “I wanted to slow down so we can see what’s underneath the bottom.” That is what Miroslav Tóth, the leader of the band, says of their new album. Tóth, the composer, vocalist, and saxophone player managed to put together a rare formation of international players and improvisers performing seven compositions or lessons from a suite …after the End in seven chapters. Each musician is characterized by an obsessive passion for his/her instrument. They are musical hitchhikers, explorers with an experience in the genre destined for new discoveries–the improvised music. There is a paradox, though: they got models, even melodies to perform. They were incorporated into a predefined form, into shredded sheets of music, sections of modulations, and different methods of melodic work. They are neither performers nor improvisers. The project concludes in contemporary music. The string section – Irene Kepl (violin) and Andrej Gál (cello) – is a skeleton of the project. Their melodic parts form the central scaffold to be directly commented by the electric guitar of always attentive and sensitive Michal Matejka. As for the instrumentation and also structurally, the pieces model the cello’s part. Pre-composed parts and respective work with the material make it an indicator of the process. Along with the violin, it cuts and sets asunder the pre-composed parts of the work. Gál’s work with the instrument is about contemplating about extreme exertion of the sound in all positions. It is all backed by his rich experience from concert work as a soloist or in ensembles for contemporary music, free improvisation projects or the interpretation of Baroque music. Often tuning down C string and creating always fresh parallelisms, you may ask whether he plays in unison with the bass (Chapter VI.). No, Gál does it all by himself. He is a true illusionist of the instrument playing with proper confidence, exploring the limits of the cello. The Austrian violinist Kepl not only responses convincingly; in some moments, she creates tension against Gál. The string section is enough to give rise to remarkable moments of concertante interaction. The very melodic unisons are, ultimately, the moments of mutual accord – in tunings the string players are used to from collective performance of classical music. In our case, both of the string players possess an open sonic palette. Kepl sets off to the upper register and gives centrifugal solos. Making use of flageolets and positions sul ponticello, she plays in unison with the cello. Having experience of multi-genre performance in different ensembles, she oscillates between harsh and delicate sound qualities, between post-romantic expressiveness and free jazz or even intuitive improvisation. The string section is a melodic sound timbre embracing in its centre bizarre vocals which make important part of the overall voicings. Extensive vocal techniques mixed with black metal commentaries of the process and sporadic extreme saxophone explosions (Tóth) make their claim for narration. The voice imparts transparency, narration to the compositions and soothes, yet deepens their ghastly expressiveness. The most important ‘black’ work, so to speak, is done by Petr Vrba. Bringing in the exceptionally crazy design of his piezo-speakers, feedback and trumpet solos (he also plays a trumpet prepared with pipe and clarinet mouthpiece), Vrba amalgamates the ensemble. He is a kind of player who cannot miss in the ensemble creating its very sound. Austrian pianist Ingrid Schmoliner is the only exception there. Her task is to make impromptu commentaries – cold and aloof – to the flow of the seven compositions in predefined sections without being acquainted with their actual sound. That is but a task. The reality is different. She is too good a fellow for that.

ingrid schmoliner / petr vrba duo

Ingrid Schmoliner – piano, voice

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NUN

NUN brings assured droning and harmonious melodies that form a cathedral of sound, sculpted by a variety of electronic impulses.

Michal Zbořil: electronics
Petr Vrba: trumpet, electronics

BANAUSOI

Banausoi is a Czechoslovak musical think thank which combines pioneering mentality of the European free improvisation with the traditional instruments used in nontraditional ways. Banausoi performs in pretty much whatever genre they want at the moment, always improvised and always with love.
Václav Šafka: drums
Petr Vrba: trumpet, clarinet, electronics
Ondrej Zajac: guitar, vocal

https://www.facebook.com/banausoi

Noetinger / Vrba
Jérôme Noetinger, Revox B77, tapes, electronics
Petr Vrba, trumpet, electronics.

In 2019, Jérôme Noetinger was invited to join the PIO (Prague Improvisation Orchestra) and there he met Petr Vrba. The chance of touring and musical excitement created this duo afterwards.
Jérôme Noetinger plays magnetic loops on his Revox B77 to metamorphose the sound captured in the moment of its creation. Petr Vrba works with the trumpet in a very electroacoustic approach with microphones and effects, transforming the instrument into a real generator. Together they reappropriate the keys to this eternal meeting of acoustics and electronics to project us - beyond the performance - into a plasticity of sound and space.

Schallschatten
Birgit Ulher: trumpet, radio, speaker, voice changer
Petr Vrba: trumpet, electronics
Two improvisers who relentlessly seek beyond the instrument limitations. Extended techniques, preparations, usage of electronics, that's common base for Birgit and Petr, a duo that came into being after a concert at The NOW now festival in Sydney, whose organisers had the superb idea to make them play together.
Schallschatten album on Inexhaustible Editions label

ErikM & vrrrbitch
ErikM: electronics
Petr Vrba: electronics & trumpet
Sound as a communication platform, music as a full-fledged language through which you can listen to the dialogue of a pair of improvisational talents. French composer and visual artist ErikM, and Czech multi-instrumentalist Petr Vrba aka vrrrbitch, together build detailed electronic compositions that set in motion dynamics close to the language's verbal means from diction, tonality to the extreme position of noise screams of synthesizers and effects.
New CD L’horizon des événements on Tour de bras