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Born in 1973 in Kraków, she studied composition with
Bogus1aw Schaeffer at the city1s Music Academy (diploma in 1999) and
computer science at the Kraków Academy of Economics (diploma in 2000).
She has been a resident of Seattle since 2000. She is currently a doctoral
student of the University of Washington w Seattle, where he continues her
compositional studies with Richard Karpen, working at the same time as a
Graduate Staff Associate at the University1s Center for Digital Arts and
Experimental Media.
She held grants from the Ministry of Culture and Art (1997) and the City
of Kraków (1999). She was a co-founder of the Kraków-based OApeiron1
Artistic Association. The aim of this organisation, whose activity spanned
the years 19972000, was to promote new art and cooperation among young
artists from across Europe.
>From 1998 to 2000 she collaborated with the Animated Film Studio of
the Fine Arts Academy in Kraków. She composed music to several student
films, including two diploma works.
Her pieces have been performed in Poland, Germany, Austria, the
Netherlands and the United States.
OI consider music as a special tool designed by humans
to manipulate time or, rather, our imperfect perception of time. Being
totally bound by the axis of time, we cannot escape, but we can gain an
illusion of control, a substitute, Ersatz...1
Spinning Zone for computer-realised sound and
percussion trio is
a study of change (as a process), of motion, of metamorphosis, and at the
same time a study of that peculiar illusion. A listener can follow various
manifestations of motion and track them on many different layers, e.g.,
the inner motion of seemingly static masses of sound, or the circular
motion of several motives, with their oscillations and reflections. The
computer part is comprised of continuous sound with unstable pitch and
subtle changes of timbre. The role of the percussion part is either to
interrupt the continuity of electronic sound or to counterpoint some
distinguished events. A listener can consider all the percussive sounds as
potential reference points in time, although one may find those reference
points quite deceptive, as the development of each separate layer rarely
aligns with the others. The form of the piece consists of two symmetrical
intersections, evolving towards two climax points and an epilogue. If we
consider the first ten minutes as something Oreal1, a peculiar sound image,
the following ten minutes will appear as its surreal mirror (recalled in
human memory), with exaggerated contrasts and deformed shapes and colors.
Finally, my piece is a kind of a black hole, spinning around its pivot and
swallowing listeners1 time...1
The version of the piece performed tonight is 7 minutes
shorter than the original one which lasts 23 minutes. Spinning Zone was
realised at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (University
of Washington, Seattle, usa).
Ewa Tr´bacz
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