Untitled by CMKK

Text by Zlata Zhidkova, review by Antuum, Lars Tuchel

CMKK isn’t an organization — it’s a synchronization.
CMKK, stands for ComputerMusik und KlangKunst, - a rhizomatic autonomous sound art community.

In 2023, we founded a headless, decentralized community brought together by a shared interest and motivation to investigate the aesthetics and development of electronic, digital and analog music, as well as sound art in Graz - second largest city in Austria, with huge student population and vibrant music scene.

CMKK grew out of necessity. We wanted to extend our artistic practice outside of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM Graz), as well as strengthen and broaden our community with anyone interested in sound art and electronic music. At first, it was a gathering of like-minded people, students mostly. We met in the beginning of the university year, introduced ourselves and shared our music. Soon after it mutated into something bigger, with students sharing the stage with professors and friends, and people outside IEM joining our concerts. Furthermore, the format even encouraged several artists to form collectives, duos, trios, that prolonged their activities outside of the CMKK events.

Poly_structure (multidisciplinary duo of Cornelius Grömminger and Joris Kindler)

Performed at CMKK ::

Cornelius: I already had an idea of playing live somewhere in mind. And that was something that we [with Joris] discussed very early and I think CMKK was also the first thing we discussed. It was easy to say: ok, let’s meet and let’s rehearse together and play. Let’s make CMKK the first one where we want to play.

Joris: …CMKK gave and gives a room to experiment between the genres. And thats also what we wanted to do from the beginning. In that sense we knew we could be free to explore different musical ideas that doesn’t match to a standard listening habits, genres.

Cornelius: … it’s like a safe space. It’s also pressure-less, you know? We were performing in front of <…> our friends. That was comforting…

The idea was also to really allow ourselves to do things that don’t usually survive under the pressure of academia. And CMKK offers a space to experiment and try new genres with the members of the community. The format welcomes diverse genres and modes of performing (focusing on live performances and installations - see our constitution). Every event happens in a new, previously unexplored space with different speaker layouts and a specific concept. At the CMKK :: (the 4th iteration of the event series), for example, it was a quadrophonic set-up that played with the reflections from 4 pillars located in the center of the room. Or as n the previous concert, CMKK III - a 12 channel set up spread between 3 rooms.

the last three numbers, f.k.a. “CUMBIA REFERS TO A NUMBER” (a trio of Carmen Pomet (No Input Mixer), Lars Tuchel (Live Electronics), Michele Bernabei (Trumpet and Turntables))

Performed at CMKK III
…[when the open call for the next CMKK event was announced] we decided to quickly develop a concept that would fit both our individual aesthetics as well as the spatial and thematic conditions of CMKK III. Our trio was set up in three distinct rooms within the concert venue, interconnected via the transmission of audio signals utilizing spatialization algorithms. Concurrently, Michele engaged in the performance of the trumpet, which created what was quite a complex acoustic space. Carmen focused on a two-layered instrument based on feedback signals from a no-input mixer and an analog video mixer. The formal structure was based on deconstructing, processing and reconstructing a cumbia song “La chica Boniquetrica” by Poder Vallenato from 2013 in various ways which emerged from our four different

instruments. Having access to a very non-homogeneous space and enough time to experiment in-situ allowed us to engage with both the people and the location in a way that goes beyond each of our individual practices. We have since continued working as a trio…

CMKK lives on the philosophy of communal effort and exists on a non-profit basis. Organization, design, tech, concept, documentation - all is done by the members of the community - by the artists, for the artists. We share tasks and responsibilities, hoping that this headless meshwork will continue living regardless of who is making the knots between the lines.

ANTUUM (solo artist)

Performed at **CMKK :: **

I also want to add that this isn’t just a bubble community creating for itself. One of my goals as a member of CMKK community (it may differ from others) is to transcend the bubble and open new aesthetics to those who never encountered them. I believe what we’re doing is something new, something without a firmly established ground yet. It’s still evolving, growing—and even accelerating. We’re simply part of this process, and I’m enjoying being involved in it.
At times, I feel like our emergence into the world is akin to an escape from a laboratory. We find safety in our flasks, surrounded by academic sterility, yet the atmosphere of the broader world—where current events are impossible to ignore—keeps drawing us in.

Overall, CMKK runs not only on interaction amongst its members, but also with the Grazer people, the audience, other artistic collectives and institutions. It’s the cooperation between communities that helps to create new happenings and new connections - to synchronize individuals in their chase for sound.

CMKK ::

:: means 4

Place: empty exhibition hall with 4 columns in the center and peculiar acoustics - esc medien kunst labor. Time: 31.01.2025 last Friday of the semester. Start at 18:30. End at 00:00.

Line up: out of 4 blocks

LEON ERDÖDY | LINO LEUM | PARSA RIAHI I

KAJKYT | MARKO CICILIANI | ZLATA ZHIDKOVA I

ANTUUM | ARDA SARAÇOĞLU | POLY_STRUCTURE// |

JOSEPH BÖHM

Concept: number 4 - 4th cmkk night, 4 speakers, 4 blocks, 4 columns

Organization: divided between 6-10 people.

Short description of the acts (audio examples can found in the cloud):

LEON ERDÖDY - improvised live set for field recordings, virtual instruments and a synthesizer LINO LEUM - excerpt from a 4-hour performance, quadrophonic ambient with elements of field recordings PARSA RIAHI - electronic live performance, dark ambient

KAJKYT - quadrophonic live performance for voice and 4 record players

MARKO CICILIANI - live electronics and multidirectional loudspeaker

ZLATA ZHIDKOVA - quadrophonic performance with water feedback

ANTUUM - quadrophonic optosonic live coding performance
ARDA SARAÇOGLU - quadrophonic live performance for supercollider

POLY_STRUCTURE// - audio visual duet

JOSEPH BÖHM - experimental vinyl set

Reflections: short interviews taken by Lina Campanella for her radio show “Sendereihe: Soundnockerl – Lokale Szene, globale Klänge” at Radio Helsinki

Emily*(a member from the audience):
Lina: Emily, what are you doing this evening?

Emily: I’m mainly here for my boyfriend who studies computer music. <…> I don’t study computer music.

Lina: Ok! And how do you find today’s evening?

Emily: It’s very varied. I like that a lot. Yes, some of it is very experimental, but I think it’s very cool. <…> I would definitely recommend it, because it gives you a completely different perspective on music and electronic music and sound design or everything in that direction, which is perhaps not normally played on the radio or something like that. And that, I think, is a completely different side [of music] and everyone should definitely listen to it. Because you might not even expect that you can find it very cool.

Marko Ciciliani (artist):
Marko: Hello, my name is Marko Ciciliani. I am a composer and audiovisual artist. And I am also teaching computer music composition at the IEM, the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics in Graz.<…> [for today’s performance*] I am using a sort of special loudspeaker, an omnidirectional loudspeaker, which has a total of fifteen membranes. It has been developed by a colleague of mine, Franz Zotter, also at the IEM. And it was actually the first time I used it in this particular context. <…> But it’s always interesting to see how it eventually behaves in a particular performance space. It’s a specially critical for this loudspeaker because it’s designed to use particular reflections in the space. And therefore it’s really very different every time you use it, what it sounds like. And in that respect, I was definitely happy with how it worked in that space.

Lina: Yeah, I mean, obviously there’s a lot of Pillars. And that really helps probably for the different sounds and the different reflections.

Marko: Yeah, since this loudspeaker is capable of projecting sound in very different directions, it’s very helpful if there are many surfaces from where the sound can bounce of. It just creates this very complex spatial experience when you play with it and when you hear it. And this space was quite perfect for that. Also because of these extra pillars, which were everywhere and just provided extra reflective surfaces.
* “Circles” by Marko Ciciliani
The cooing of pigeons and the purring sounds of one of the earliest pieces of additive electronic music are forming the basis of this structured improvisation. As different as these sounds seem, both embody ideals of purity: the pigeon, a universal symbol of peace, and additive synthesis, an attempt to construct perfectly controlled sound from sine waves. Yet, in an unexpected way, the timbres converge. While the performance with this digital instrument is rooted in these sounds of purity, the performance itself spirals into a noisy, partly complex and erratic sound world. The sounds are emitted through a single multi-directional loudspeaker – placed in between the audience – that stimulates complex reflections in the space.

Lars* (participant):
Lars: Hi, I’m Lars. I’m studying computer music and I helped out a bit with the set-up. Not quite as much as I should have, but it still turned out quite nicely. Wonderful. <…> I pushed tables around, answered messages. I did some projection mapping with the program and to display and assist the course of the evening.

Lina: That’s great that you did it. (laughs) And you make music yourself, don’t you?

Lars: Um, music is a broad term. My grandparents would call it noise. I think people here would call it music. Yes.

Lina: Okay, yes, that does sound familiar. (laughs) <…> And, yes, do you have anything else to say or anything special you’d like to say about the evening? Or maybe somehow tell people why they should come to CMKK?

Lars: I think it is for those who are in the mood for the strange, the unexpected, sometimes beautiful, sometimes a bit annoying, and are generally interested in sound and community. That’s the other part of it. It’s not just about the music, but also about coming together and sharing the art that you make. Because it can only exist as a community.

*originally interviews were taken in German and translated to English.