Robert van Heumen

electronics

Robert van Heumen is working with electronic, experimental, improvised and composed music, music-theater and sound art. Recent works include 5.1 surround compositions '12 Bullets' and 'Fury (after anger)', music for the choreography Drink Me by Anouk van Dijk, and the audio-visual sound art piece Solitude (with multi-media artist Arnoud Noordegraaf) based on a book by Paul Auster. As a musician he uses STEIM's live sampling software LiSa and real-time audio-synthesis and algorithmic composition software SuperCollider. He is active as a member of the electro-acoustic sextet OfficeR (with Koen Nutters cs.), electronic audio-visual trio SKIF++ (with Jeff Carey & Bas van Koolwijk), scratchband RKS (with Keir Neuringer & dj sniff), Shackle (working with Anne LaBerge on restriction), founding member of the N Collective, and has shared the stage with Tom Tlalim, dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit), Michel Waisvisz, Richard Barrett, Oguz Buyukberber, Luc Houtkamp, Guy Harries, Morten J. Olsen, Daniel Schorno, Roddy Schrock, Audrey Chen and Nate Wooley. His soundworld is a mixture of digital crackles, environmental sounds, voices, sounds from kitchen appliances, half of the time smashed beyond repair. Next to all of this he is Managing Director of the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam, curator of the Local Stop concert series and member of STEIM's Artistic Committee. In a previous life he was a mathematician, trumpet player and software programmer. He still reads L.E.J. Brouwer.

Selected Works.

--- Solo semi-improvised piece 'They Would Get Angry Sometimes' performed at <>Tag, The Hague, NL and Brown University, Providence, RI, USA (2007)
--- Ambient CD Silent on the Fridgesound label (2007) - based upon a specific synthesis process used by James Tenney
--- 5.1 Surround composition 'Fury (after anger)' - commision for the Sonic Circuits festival in Washington DC (2006)
--- 5.1 Surround composition '12 Bullets' - commision for STEIM's Noiseroom (2006) - also played at the 5 days off festival in Melkweg Amsterdam (2006)
--- Headphone composition for the audiovisual production 'Solitude' (2005) with Arnoud Noordegraaf (video) - premiere at the November Music Festival (Den Bosch NL, Gent BE 2005), further performances: Festival a/d Werf (Utrecht NL 2006), Effenaar (Eindhoven NL 2006), Junge Hunde Festival (Arhus DK 2006), Facelifters Lab (Maastricht NL 2006), Korzo Theater (Den Haag NL 2007)
--- CD 'Office-R(6) / Mundane Occurrences and Presentations' with the electro-acoustic sextet OfficeR - released in 2006 on Lampse
--- CD 'N - Live at STEIM' - with various groups of the N Collective - released in 2005 on the Alternative Version label (London)
--- CD 'N Collective - News from Holland' CD - with various groups of the N Collective - released in 2004 on the X-OR label (The Netherlands)
--- Compositions for choreographies 'am i out?' (2000), 'Alien' (2001), 'Diva' (2002), 'Amour Fou' (2003), 'Drink me' (2004), 'STAU' (2004), 'Derivatives' (2005) by Anouk van Dijk

Selected Bands.

--- SKIF++ (with Bas van Koolwijk on interactive video and Jeff Carey on laptop) - performances in Providence (Pixileration festival & AS220 2007), New York City (Issue Project Room & Galapagos/NIME 2007), Princeton (ffmup 2007), Birmingham UK (Modulate 2007), Amsterdam NL (SuperCollider symposium @ STEIM 2007, Sonic Acts XI festival 2006), Washington DC (Warehouse Theater 2007 & Sonic Circuits festival 2006), Haarlem NL (toon festival 2006)
--- Shackle (with Anne LaBerge on flute and electronics - focussing on restriction in material and structure - pieces are semi-randomly suggested by the computer - Shackle's aim is to explicity and subtly exploit shackling in both concept and material) - commissioned by the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst NL - performances in Amsterdam NL (OT301 2008, DNK concert series 2008 & 2007, STEIM's Micro Jamboree 2006)
--- OfficeR (electro-acoustic sextet bringing structured improvisation in a very unique way - with Koen Nutters, Jeff Carey, Morten Olsen, Dirk Bruinsma, Oguz Buyukberber) - performances in Trondheim, Norway (2007), Washington DC (Sonic Circuits festival 2006), Berlin (Ausland 2005, Transmediale festival 2003), Geneva (Cave12 2006), Norway (Borealis & Numusic festivals 2005), The Netherlands (Gaudeamus Live Electronics festival 2006, Sonic Acts XI festival 2006, Bimhuis Amsterdam 2005)
--- Buyukberber/VanHeumen (duo with Sakir Oguz Buyukberber on bassclarinet & electronics - exclusively using the sound of the bassclarinet, processing it with Ableton Live and STEIM's LiSa) - performances in Geneva (Cave12 2006, with Alex Babel & Nicolas Field on percussion), Turkey (ctrl_alt_del Festival 2005, Babylon 2006), The Netherlands (STEIM's Local Stop 2006)