Robert van Heumen Composer Improvisor Laptop-Instrumentalist Sound-Designer
Software Developer
play (music player)

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Two boys, compose, play and code, and how to combine these.

If it is true that nothing prepares you for the birth of your first child, it is equally true that nothing prepares you for the coming of the second. You think you know it all, but what you didn't take into account was the effect of the new baby on your oldest one, and the juggling of two kids (not literally ;), each their own desires and usually not in sync. So musically I feel I went into hybernation for a couple of months, now slowly emerging from it. Sure, I've been doing some things, presenting my work at Cineac Sonore during November Music, performing the Disklavier piece twice, performing two SKIF++ concerts in Germany. But I feel I need to catch up. The boys seem to be asleep for the moment.

With the funding system in NL going into stone age mode, I count myself lucky to have received a grant from the Performing Arts Fund to continue our (Anne LaBerge and myself) work on the Shackle Affair project. We've already started preliminary tests, and it is exciting to expand our system into new territory. We're also preparing a tour to Australia and New Zealand for Sept 2012.

Another (rather daunting) task I've set myself, is to rebuild my LiSa setup in SuperCollider. LiSa is the STEIM software that I grew up with as an improvising musician, but the chances are slim that it will be supported into the next (and actually current) Mac OS X release. This is not an easy task, as LiSa is very good at what it does, and although SuperCollider is infinitely more flexible, it will be hard to exactly duplicate the functionality of LiSa. But I guess it is also healthy to every now and then reconsider your working methods.

Aside from these research-type things, there are also quite some improv concerts coming up. I will be happy to play again. For a complete listing see the events page. These concerts include three performances of a derived version of the soundwalk Like Harry. With Simone de Jong I will present a version of this soundwalk in a cozy lounge atmosphere.

In composing mode, I will start to work on a big electronic composition for the Call and Response collective in London. It will be a multichannel composition of about 40 minutes based upon the theme 'Interpretations of Sacred Music'. This theme was proposed by myself, and together with C&R we're looking for other sound artists to invite to make a work around this theme. The details about when and where are as yet unclear, but this will happen sometime in 2012.

Now, how the f*** do I implement LiSa's patterns in SuperCollider?!?! Over and out.

O, and if from the title of this post you were expecting a solution, you'll have to get back to me in a couple of years ;)