Jacob Kirkegaard performing Aion live at Simultan Festival, Timisoara, Romania, 2012
M O R G U E
World premiere at BLOOM - Festival for nature and science,
Copenhagen, Denmark, May 25th, 2019
New choir piece especially composed for BLOOM - Festival about Nature and Science, Copenhagen, Denmark.
MORGUE is a composition made from Kirkegaard's ambient sound recordings of a morgue; its ventilation and cooling systems that all
make the room subtly vibrate. The room tones from the morgue were transcribed and interpreted for voice.
Morgue is compsosed for- and performed by two choirs; ARS NOVA CPH and the choir for seniors; ALLEGRO KORET
World premiere on 25th of May 2019
Nyt korværk af Jacob Kirkegaard, fremført af ARS NOVA Copenhagen og Allegrokoret, 25 maj 2019. Lydoptagelser fra de dybe og høje toner fra lighusets endeløse nedkøling, blandet med ventilationens livløse åndedræt udfoldes af den menneskelige stemme.
Ars Nova Copenhagen har specialiseret sig i nyskabende fortolkninger af renæssancens polyfone kormusik og moderne vokalmusik, der vækker opsigt overalt i verden. Allegrokoret er et klassisk kor for seniorer med speciale i a cappella-kormusik.
This is an excerpt of Jacob Kirkegaard's choir piece MORGUE composed in May 2019 for BLOOM - Festival for Nature and Science in Copenhagen on May 25th, 2019. MORGUE was performed at the Cisterns by two choirs simultaneously; ARS NOVA Copenhagen and Allegrokoret and lead by Katinka Fogh Vindelev
THRUM Thrum is a 4-channel sound portrait of an industrial section within Africa’s largest outdoor market, Merkato, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While being an essential hub for trading, a significant part of Merkato is also based on recycling. This piece is composed of nearby field recordings, extracted from the thrumming ‘iron and metal section,’ where hundreds of men spend all day reshaping oil drums by hammering on them with all their might. Thrum is part of de Appel curatorial programme: Brace for Impact
Amsterdam, Holland, May 14th
S i g n a l s
4-channel sound work created for Code Art Fair in Copenhagen, that portrays the sound of early digital and coded communication.
The work utilizes recordings of military morse code used to transmit classified communication between warships and naval bases.
Morse code is a method of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones in sequences of short and long signals called "dots"
and "dashes. It was developed in 1837 and was used for early radio communication, before it was possible to transmit voice.
Live @ Art Bar, Papirøen, Copenhagen, Denmark, September
Eustachia for Voice
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is a new microtonal vocal work by Jacob Kirkegaard composed from tones generated in the inner ear. These tones, called spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (or SOAE), are produced - without external stimulation - in the ears of some people. Whereas the combinations of tones emitted from one ear can be dissonant, microtonal and complex, tones emitted from the other ear can be harmonious and 'in tune'. Each emitting ear produces something akin to an acoustic fingerprint; these are the basis of the composition.
The SOAEs used for this composition were recorded and collected by Kirkegaard from the ears of members of the Danish choir Aarhus Pigekor All 'ear chords' were recorded, filtered, analyzed, and then interpreted for voices. This choral work connects two intimate organs of our body: the ear and the voice. The ears are the composers, the voices perform the tones emitted by the ears.
Composed by Jacob Kirkegaard with voice arrangement and supervision by Katinka Fogh Vindelev. Eustachia for Voices will be performed live by the Aarhus Pigekor on August 11th and 12th in Aarhus, Denmark. Choir director: Helle Høyer Vedel. The event is part of SonicArk 2017, a project lead and curated by Swiss sound artist Andres Bosshard. Read more about the project HERE
ARC
Carl Th Dreyer: The Passion of Joan of Arc (silent film, 1928) Film screening with live soundtrack by Jacob Kirkegaard (Originally composed for Onasis Culture Center, Athens, Greece, 2014)
Also performing is Katinka Fogh Vindelev with her new work 'A Voice in a Voice in a Voice in a Voice' Koncertkirken, Copenhagen, Feb 3, 2017
SPOR - Jacob Kirkegaard
Med afsæt i feltoptagelser og fotos fra Jacob Kirkegaards mange rejser, dvæler spor ved et udvalg af råmateriale indsamlet mellem 2005 og 2015. Optagelserne var aldrig tiltænkt de værker, som rejserne tog udgangspunkt i, men i stedet intuitivt indsamlet.
STEMMEMØNSTRE - Katinka Fogh Vindelev
Med en forkærlighed for tritonus, også kaldet djævlens interval, og tilfældige elektronisk genererede arpeggiomønstre, har Katinka Fogh Vindelev skabt en håndfuld nye stemmestykker komponeret med samples af hendes egen stemme.
E U S T A C H I A - for Two Voices - a new otoacoustic work for voice composed by Katinka Fogh Vindelev & Jacob Kirkegaard
To be premiered live at Art Alive! at LOUISIANA - Museum of Modern Art, Denmark on the 7th of May, 2016
Check out the full program HERE
Jacob Kirkegaard as Sound Artist in Residence at Oxford University, 2016
St John’s College at the University of Oxford is delighted to announce that Jacob Kirkegaard will be our inaugural Sound-Artist-in-Residence for 10 weeks between 10 January and 19 March 2016. Kirkegaard—a sound artist who works in carefully selected environments to reveal unheard sonic phenomena—has presented his works at galleries, museums and concert spaces throughout the world, including at MoMA in New York, KW in Berlin, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark. His residency at St John’s College will find him involved in a range of activities, from presenting his otoacoustic installation “Earside Out” (18 January-24 January 2016) and lecturing on his work (Friday 22 January 2016), to collaborating with students on a brand-new sound-work slated to be heard in the St John’s Chapel on the 4th of March 2016.
Earchestra is a new vocal work built from tones generated in the inner ear. These tones, called spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (or SOAE), are produced--without external stimulation--in the ears of some people. Whereas the combinations of tones emitted from one ear can be dissonant, microtonal and complex, tones emitted from the other ear can be harmonious and 'in tune'. Each emitting ear produces something akin to an acoustic fingerprint; these are the basis of the composition.
As part of his residency as Sound Artist at St John's College (University of Oxford), Kirkegaard has recorded and collected tones generated inside the ears of students and staff from a wide number of differnet colleges at Oxford. These recorded 'ear chords' were filtered, analyzed, and then interpreted for voices. Earchestra connects two intimate organs of our body: the ear and the throat. The ears are the composers, the throat and mouth are the performers. Earchestra will be presented live by the very same 30 individuals whose ears produced the tones that are at the heart of the piece. The performance will take place in the Chapel at St. John's College, Oxford University at 7pm on Friday 4th March 2016.
Ondes Corti - Suzanne & Farrin & Jacob Kirkegaard playing live at the Gothenburg Biennial in Sweden, Sep 2015
Photos by Attila Urban
O N D E S C O R T I
For the opening of GIBCA Suzanne Farrin and Kirkegaard will premiere their composition, Ondes Corti!
The concert will take place at Folkteatern in Gothenburg on the 11th of September, 2015
Ondes Corti is a series for inner ear tones and ondes Martenot written by Jacob Kirkegaard and Suzanne Farrin. The musical materials are derived from tones produced by the ear itself projected through live electronics and in dialogue with one of the earliest electronic instruments: the ondes Martenot.
The ondes was first imagined at the top of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Martenot, an engineering student and amateur cellist who was drafted during the First World War to work on radio transmissions. Depressed over the destruction, he had a vision that these tools could be transformed from destructive to beautiful. He dreamed of creating an instrument that could communicate directly with an audience with no impediment other than "the imagination of the performer." He eventually believed that the performer would be able to "think" an interpretation and the audience could receive the music telepathically. The result is an instrument that is an expressive, other-worldy machine and also the most technically advanced musical instrument of its time (the 1920s).
These expressive tones also exist within the ear itself and appear remarkably similar timbrally to sine waves. This musical fingerprint is the result of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAE)s, which are sounds that are generated in the Organ of Corti without external stimulation. They are perceptible, though often go unnoticed, and can be recorded with sensitive microphones. Like human sound signatures, they are a window to the immense diversity and richness of the human identity.
Ondes Corti will explore these inner and other worlds: what we create and what we are capable of receiving. These pieces will unearth the tones hidden in nearly every individual's ears and create musical poetry that exposes and embraces the sounds that connect us.
Rehearsing Solámok with Scenatet for concert at Ribe Domkirke, Denmark, 2014
Jacob Kirkegaard - Isfald live at Issue Project Room, New York, 2014
Tone Poem for Richard Strauss - live with Katinka Fogh Vindelev, Socrates Sculpture Park, New York City, 2014
Jacob Kirkegaard live in Timisoara, Romania, 2012
Else Marie Pade & Jacob Kirkegaard playing Svævninger live at Radiohuset, Denmark, 2013
Labyrinthitis live at Eyebeam, New York, USA, August 2013
Jacob Kirkegaard - The Visitor live at The Rothko Chapel, Houston Texas, 2012
Playing Church II & Labyrinthitis II live with ensemble Gnarwhallaby in Los Angeles, USA, 2013 Photo by Ashley Wailes Wallace
Before Church II from Conversion (Touch), live at Vor Frue Kirke, Aarhus, Denmark, 2013
Experimental Fuktion playing Labyrinthitis II live at Cosmo Caixa, (Sónar Festival), Barcelona, 2013
Jacob Kirkegaard performing Thrum Ethiopia live at Kunsthal 44, Møn, Denmark, 2013
Live at Teatro Maria Matos, Lisboa, Portugal, 2011
Jacob Kirkegaard @ La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain, 2010
Tobias Kistein & Jacob Kirkegaard live in in Belgium, 2009
Labyrinthitis live at Museum of Jurassic Technology, Los Angeles, USA, Sep 2008,
Jacob Kirkegaard - Labyirinthitis live at Issue Project Room, New York, 2008
16-channel live version of Labyrinthitis during Tuned City in Berlin, Germany, 2008
Acoustic Diagnostic' at the National Centre for Contemporary Arts., Kaliningrad, Russia, 2007
Jacob Kirkegaard & Phill Niblock live in New York City, USA, Sep 2006
Jacob Kirkegaard - Aion live at Suzanne Fiol's Issue Project Room, New York, 2006
Jacob Kirkegaard live at the Old Operating Theatre, London, UK, 2006
Jacob Kirkegaard live at RIXC in Riga, Latvia, 2006
DJ'ing shellac records at Touch 25th anniversary event, London, UK, 2006
Live in Lisboa, Portugal, 2006
Jacob Kirkegaard live in Lisboa, Portugal, 2006
Labyrinthitis live at Museum of Freud's Dreams, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2006
Artyom Ostapchuk & Jacob Kirkegaard live in St Petersburg, Russia, 2006
Aeter, live, Denmark and Sweden, 2001
Jacob Kirkegaard live at Moers Jazz Festival alongside Gry Bagøien, Andres Bosshard, David Shea, Fran Schulte, 2001