This year’s MONSTRA edition presents a fantastic concert program! Music, animation and fun filled nights are a guarantee at MONSTRA 2019: Vivaldi will come alive with “The 4 Seasons” – Music and Animation; Pierre Kwenders gifts us with a fabulous mix of sounds and genres, accompanied by António Jorge Gonçalves’ live animation; at the HOT CLUBE, jazz and animation will be the focus of the night – JAZZANIM; and finally we’ll have Pierre Hébert and his Direct Animation over Film, accompanied by Fernando Mota’s amazing music.
Next Performances:
23 March | 11:00 PM| Cinema São Jorge >PIERRE HÉBERT – SCRATCH FILM WITH FERNANDO MOTA – LIVE ANIMATION OVER FILM
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THE 4 SEASONS – MUSIC AND ANIMATION | CONCERT + MOVIE
March 22nd | 9:00 PM | Escola Superior de Música – Benfica
Camerata Gareguin Aroutiounian da Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa
Tokyo University of the Arts Center of Innovatio (COI)
Diretor Artístico | Artistic Director: Koji Yamamura
Equipa Media | Media Team: Noriko Koshida, Toshiyuki Kuwabara, Teruyo Uehira, Ryoya Usuha, Ann Yamamoto.
The Four Seasons” refers to the four concerti composed by Antonio Vivaldi and published in 1725 as part of “The Contest Between Harmony and Invention.” Bearing the names “Spring”, “Summer”, “Autumn”, and “Winter,” the works evoke rich imagery in the minds of listeners. In this project, four leading animation directors give visual form to Vivaldi’s musical world, some three centuries after Vivaldi presented his work to the world.
The artistic direction is of Koji Yamamura and counts on the participation of 4 other great masters: Anna Budanov (Spring); Priit Pärn & Olga Pärn (Summer); Atsushi Wada (Autumn) Theodore Ushev (Winter).
The animation in this concert will be projected in alliance with live music performance using a dedicated video playback system which communicates with a music AI program. This program detects the current position of play by comparing live performance against a prelearned reference. The music AI program cues to the music, whereas the video playback system allows the human operator to take over the playback of animation. Enjoy a glimpse into the future of artistic expression featuring AI and human collaboration.
PIERRE KWENDERS CONCERT WITH LIVE ANIMATION BY ANTÓNIO JORGE GONÇALVES
March 23rd | 11:00 PM | Cinema São Jorge
Afro-Canadian singer/songwriter Pierre Kwenders’ music is a response to a world that so often asks people who fit comfortably in multiple boxes to pick only one.
While Pierre’s music ranges from icy R&B to futuristic hip-hop, his style is rooted in Congolese rumba, the ubiquitous sound of The Democratic Republic of Congo.
MAKANDA carries the heritage of a modern Africa in which Congolese Rumba is at the forefront. The album, recorded in Seattle, was produced by Tendai Baba Maraire, one- half of the Seattle-based hip hop duo Shabazz Palaces (Sub pop records).
Pierre collaborated with many talented Seattle-based artists, including SassyBlack,Tanyaradzwa and Hussein Kalonji (a member of Chimurenga Renaissance) who played most of the guitar riffs on the album. He also collaborated with rapper Ish, AKA Ishmael Butler, the second-half of Shabazz Palaces. He is a Grammy-Award winner and former member of legendary group Digable Planets.
This Lisbon performance will work as a never before seen dialogue between Pierre Kwenders’ music and the magic of the artistry of cinema, with the brilliance of António Jorge Gonçalves’ live animation.
JAZZANIM – JAZZ CONCERT WITH ANIMATION
March 26th | 10:00 PM | HOT CLUBE de Portgal
JAZZ THAT NOBODY ASKED FOR, Rune Fisker & Esben Fisker, Denmark, 2013, 4’
“JAZZ FOO FOO” BY WINTERPLAY (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO), Emanuele Kabu, Italy, 2018, 4’
BEGONE DULL CARE, Evelyn Lambart & Norman McLaren, Canada, 1949, 8’
SHORT AND SUITE, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1959, 5’
BOOGIE DOODLE, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1941, 3’
“THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW DRESS” BY DAVID GILMOUR (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO), Danny Maden, United Kingdom, USA, 2015, 6’
DRUMS WEST, Jim Henson, USA, 1961, 2’
RUNAWAY, Cordell Barker, Canada, 2009, 9’
“ST. JAMES INFIRMARY (KING BRITT REMIX)” BY PRESERVATION HALL HOT 4’ (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO), James Tancill, USA, 2009, 4’
PIERRE HÉBERT – SCRATCH FILM | PIERRE HÉBERT PERFOMANCE WITH FERNANDO MOTA, DIRECT ANIMATION OVER FILM
March 28th | 11:00 PM | Cinema São Jorge
After a 16 year hiatus, Pierre Hébert returns to direct engraving over film, his favorite technique for a long time. To avoid repeating what he had already tried before, Pierre chose to initiate an evolutionary process to continue his previous work using said technique.
The performance he will be presenting in Lisbon is the directing of a live film with a device built from two 16mm movie projectors, each with a loop of black and white 16mm film of different lengths (51sec e 43sec), that are projected on to the same screen in order to produce an overlap of some sorts. The projectors work non-stop and Pierre Hébert alternately draws over the film that scrolls continuously through the projectors. The different lengths of the loops means that the loops are uneven and the images are combined in a way that is constantly renewed.
This Lisbon performance will gather Pierre Hébert’s art and Fernando Mota’s music, a portuguese musician very comfortable with live performances, not only at his shows but also at plays and other theater pieces he collaborates with often.