Every artistic discipline is able to embrace and be inspired by elements of spontaneity, and music is no exception. In the “free improvisation” that evolved out of both the jazz and contemporary composition traditions, everything from the smallest details to the overall structure is potentially shaped by spontaneous actions and reactions. This was a crucial step not only in the evolution of improvisation and collaborative creation in music, but also in that of other forms of composition including notated scores and working with electronics and computers.
In his research, Richard Barrett, has been looking at how spontaneity is described and deployed in areas like dance, visual art, theatre and film, and how the findings might be expressed in music, involving improvisation itself but also notation and other possibilities. A central example of how these possibilities become real is the collaboration with Milana Zarić (acoustic/electric harps and electronics), which has encompassed scored compositions, free improvisation and collaborative composition both for live performance and in the studio (our duo album mirage - https://milanazaririchardbarrett.bandcamp.com/album/mirage). In this project we will be joined by the pianist Marina Džukljev in an electroacoustic trio.
Contemporary music collective Studio 6, represented here by Milana Zarić and Richard Barrett, have been exploring processes of collaborative creation in contemporary music since 2012. In this project, we would propose to extend our explorations to include creative artists in disciplines other than music, so as to develop new work alongside dancer/choreographers, theatre makers/performers, video artists and others. We would take the opportunity provided by Bitef Polifonija to establish organic lines of communication, leading to the creation of new work with a focus on spontaneity - to harness the “genius of the moment” which always has the potential to transcend the individual imaginations of participants.
The programme consists of two segments: from 15:00 a lecture and an open workshop “Genius of the Moment”, and at 17:00 concert by electroacoustic trio Studio 6 - Contemporary Music Collective