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Monday, July 31, 2006

Maxime de la Rochefoucauld: Automates Ki

_Red Bird Studio, Montreal



July 29, 2006 the specially added third day due to the success of the previous two days, Maxime de la Rochefoucauld featured his Automates Ki for the release of his cd Orchestraki (made with his homemade automatons).

Maxime's Automates Ki are mini loudspeakers that are sent varying low frequencies that cause the speaker to vibrate. Springs, sticks, bells and things are attatched to the vibrating membrane that are adjusted to play various often homemade string and percussive instruments.

The sound is tribal, meditative and discordantly rhythmic, and often minimal and delicate. The Automates Ki are a coming together of digital and analog - Analog sounds through digital means. It is robotic in its playing, digitally controlled yet purely physical and mechanical.. it can be said to be hi-tech primitivism.

Recordings combine sounds of free jazz, world music/new age, but for this, the performance (seeing/hearing the automatons in action) is what matters over the music that can be produced. Compositions can be arranged live or pre-programmed. Performances are accompanied by live improv and instrumental collaborations.

Maxime will be travelling his Automates Ki that he has been working on for over 10 years to San Francisco next and has already been around to Africa and other parts of the world. He integrates his work in the environment by inviting people to bring their own country's instruments to be played by his automatons - creating noises that belong to the environmental context and culture.



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