The term “sound mass” is central to electroacoustic music. This edition of the sample&hold series explores the aesthetics of sound masses: Two historical works by Polish composer Elżbieta Sikora, a student of Pierre Schaeffer and François Bayle, are juxtaposed with a live electronic performance by Maximilian Marcoll. With his NUT | LAC series of works, he presents an extremely reduced and at the same time brute interpretation of sound masses.
Born in 1943 in Lwow, Poland, Elzbieta Sikora studied music composition with Tadeusz Baird and Zbigniew Rudziński in Warsaw, Poland, with Betsy Jolas in Paris and electro-acoustic music composition with Pierre Schaeffer and François Bayle in Paris. In 1973 she founded, with Wojciech Michniewski and Krzysztof Knittel the Group of Composers KEW. Scholarships from the French Government at IRCAM, Paris, the City of Mannheim, and the Kosciuszko Foundation at CCRMA (Computer Center for Research in Music and Acoustics), Stanford, have enriched the composer’s international outlook.
Elzbieta Sikora has received among others: II Prize for her opera Ariadna, at the Composers Competition in Dresden, Germany, Prix Magisterium for Aquamarina in Bourges, France. She has been awarded by SACEM, received the SACD Prize Nouveau Talent Musique, in Paris, France for her opera L’Arrache-coeur. She received the Cross of Merit from the Polish Government in 1997. In 2004 she was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. From 1985 to 2005 Elzbieta Sikora thought at the Music Conservatory and at the Fine Art School in Angoulême. In 2004 and 2007 she was visiting professor at the University of Chicago. For her last opera Madame Curie she received several prizes in Poland and in France. From 2011 to 2017 Elzbieta Sikora was artistic director of Musica Electronica Nova Festival, Wroclaw, Poland. Elzbieta Sikora lives and works in Paris, France. Her works, published by PWM, are performed around the world. Many are on CD’s.
Maximilian Marcoll, composer, sound artist and performer, was born in Lübeck, Germany in 1981. He studied percussion, instrumental and electronic composition in Lübeck and Essen. In his work he focusses on the political potential of music and sound. As of April 2021 he is working as Professor for Electroacoustic Composition and Sound Art at the University of Music and the Bauhaus University in Weimar. He lives in Weimar and Berlin.
