Block 4 dialogues is an ongoing series which activates the independent label Block 4 in dialogue with situations, other artists, labels and spaces which also becomes a networking activity in itself where music impro-sessions and exchanges can take place. This event would be the first official event under the title of Block 4 dialogues and will therefore be in both dialogue with the sound community of Helsinki (via guest/s), Toinen Kerros (as venue) but also with the platform performance protocols. See information below for event on 14th of February.
This means that the first day (February 13) is a performance evening hosted by Block 4 and includes solo performances by Malte Steiner as Elektronengehirn and Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen who both run the Block 4 label and media lab in Aalborg (DK), and they invite the Helsinki-based sound artist and composer Petri Kuljuntausta (FI) into the dialogue with his own solo concert, and at the end of the evening the three will perform together an exclusive improvisation concert.
Day 1: Friday 13 February
Program for 13 February, concert night:
Doors 18.30
Concerts begin at 19.00
Facebook event here
Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen: vibrational difference # III (a remembrance of collapse), 2026.
vibrational difference is a series of sound performances based on Madsen’s geological field recordings from mine explosions undertaken at the iron mine Malmberget, Sabmé in June 2024, where sound waves are activated by human-induced seismic events which in the piece are the foundation for a gradual drone composition which bear witness to a dynamic and violent transformation of the landscape. The dynamite blastings are here witnesses of a resonance moving across the geological and the socio-political. The fieldwork and recordings undertaken at Malmberget took place every night at midnight where Madsen visited different locations around the mine area with a geophone. The first recording was the closest possible to get to the main pit and the following recordings had varied degrees of intensity, also beyond the audible, and on the last day some rock-matter collapsed as a consequence which also became an evident rumble many kilometres away.
In the performance and piece vibrational difference # III, Madsen uses effect pedals to improvise with the recorded sounds to evoke a relation to both colonialism and human infrastructural damage through the sonic traces of mineral extraction from the mining industry. The low frequency sounds are thus extending themselves across the site of recording as pulsating sonic matter which connects the listener to both resonances of remembrance but also as an access to direct geological destruction.
Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen: electronics, field recordings.
Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen (DK) is an artist and researcher who works between performance art, sound, open technology, and matter, in a mode of practising and collaborating with philosophy and geological agency. Madsen holds a doctoral degree (Doctor of Arts) from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (FI) at the Department of Art and Media, and has worked with facilitation and education in multiple frameworks. Madsen has presented their sound and performance work internationally and is the founder of performance protocols, a nomadic platform for instruction-based art and collaborative processes. Madsen is a member of the Finnish Bioart Society, the Eco- and Bioart Lab (LiU), and a certified facilitator of Deep Listening workshops from the Center for Deep Listening, Rensselaer Polytech Institute (US).
https://tmkm.dk/
Elektronengehirn: Hardware
Malte Steiner initiated Elektronengehirn in 1996 as an experiment to create music exclusively using software-based sound synthesis. The name Elektronengehirn is an old German term from the 1960s for computers, which were then referred to as electronic brains. What sounds trivial today was, back then, a pretty radical idea, especially when one lacked access to the computational resources of institutions like universities. Computer sound synthesis for the masses was in its infancy, and not much was possible in real time. Meanwhile, Block 4 studio added more and more hardware over the years, like the ever-growing Eurorack Modular system since 2002. The album Hardware from 2024 breaks with the initial Elektronengehirn concept and features tracks which are also done with Eurorack modular synthesizer and custom electronic instruments that Steiner has been developing since 2022. During the concert pieces from the album are performed live on computer and DIY modular synthesizer. The Linux computer runs Pure Data for the audio and a custom software created with the game engine Godot for visuals.
Malte Steiner is an Aalborg (DK) based German visual artist and musician. He started creating electronic music and visual art around 1983, developing his own vision of the interdisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk, and his first exhibitions already in 1983. In 1986 Steiner took a course in electro-acoustic music in Lüneburg by H.W. Erdmann and gave his first concerts in the following years, e. g. in Germany, France and Belgium, and started 1987 to release his music on cassette, later on vinyl, CD and online. Founded 1989 the label Block 4 and released cassette albums from his band Das Kombinat and Notstandskomitee among others. In 1998 he began to create electronic art and installations and additionally in 2003 several netart projects. Besides diverse music projects Steiner is also involved in several open source projects and has done lectures, radio features and workshops. Steiner started in 2019 with the art project The Big Crash, art for the pending burst of the real estate bubble, reflecting on the housing crisis and gentrification. Physical exhibitions of The Big Crash have been in Aarhus and Aalborg (DK), Helsinki and Björkboda (FI), and Bergen (NO). The VR part has been shown i.E. at the Sound Campus exhibition of Kunstuniversität Linz at Ars Electronica 2020 (AU), at the ICMC 2021 conference in Santiago (CL), in the digital section of KP22 exhibition Aarhus (DK) in 2022 and Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin 2022.
https://www.elektronengehirn.de
Petri Kuljuntausta: When Birds Dream of Dinosaurs… and Sing a Song to Ancient Times, 2026.
The impetus for the solo performance is birdsong and the structure of birdsong. We do not know what the birds “say” in their songs. But at least we can imagine the themes that have been passed down from one generation of birds to another.
Petri Kuljuntausta: guitar, electronics.
Petri Kuljuntausta improvises as a guitarist and with electronic instruments, plays with animals and birds, makes underwater performances, performs in different natural spaces with environmental sounds, compose electronic music and create sound art. Kuljuntausta is currently developing the technique on how to play as an artist with nature and animals: How to connect through sound to the sound processes of the environment equally and without disturbing the nature’s own sound processes. https://kuljuntausta.com/
— Trio improvisation: Kuljuntausta-Steiner-Madsen
About Block 4
The label made its first releases based in Germany (in 1989 in Lüneburg, then Hamburg and Berlin) and is currently situated in Aalborg Denmark. The founder of the label is artist Malte Steiner (Notstandskomitee, Elektronengehirn, Das Kombinat, Akustikkoppler) and was joined in 2015 by artist Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen.
During the two days a wide selection of CDs and Vinyl albums from Block 4 are available to purchase.
Web link here
Day 2: 14. February
performance protocols interventions presents two workshop associated with its previous program connected to listening scores and data sonification.
Facebook event event here
Deep Listening scores (12.00-14-00)
by Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen
The first workshop is a Deep Listening scores session facilitated by Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen, where multisensorial impressions and movements will be formulated into words and lines, for own use, artistic processes or others to engage with. Madsen is a certified Deep Listening facilitator from the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytech Institute (US), and a Doctor of Arts whose artistic practice activates a mode of geological listening that uses scores as a core method of distribution.
The workshop will be two hours and start with an introduction to Deep Listening as it was coined by composer Pauline Oliveros (who founded The Center for Deep Listening) and the composition of scores based on this method as well as other examples of artistic score-making. After the introduction and some guided exercises, there will be a collective movement around the area of Toinen Kerros to connect to the methods introduced, and activate tools with both physical and aural listening. Afterwards these experiences will be formulated into scores at the Toinen Kerros space.
The session takes place from 12.00-14.00 and is open for everyone regardless of age but will be conducted in English. Please bring a notebook and writing/drawing tools of choice. This workshop is free of charge but please sign up on to secure your spot: info AT performance-protocols DOT net
Data sonification with Jupyter Lab and Pure Data (14.00-16.00)
by Malte Steiner
Statistical data can be used to produce sound and music, where the rows of numbers can be transformed to rhythmical patterns or they can evolve a sound over time. Suitable data can be found for example in statistic overviews from municipalities but usually they need some preparation before being usable. One great tool used by data scientists is Jupyter Lab which makes it possible to interact with data with Python and its libraries, Numpy and Pandas.
This workshop is an introduction to these tools and it shows how to install and use the successor of Jupyter Notebook, to transform data and extract interesting information for Pure Data; from there it can control external hardware via Midi or the internal sound synthesis of PD. With plugdata it can furthermore be used from within your favourite DAW and control other plugins. Both Jupyter Lab and Pure Data are free open source programs and runs on a variety of operating systems.
The workshop takes place from 14.00-16.00 and will be held in English. It is crucial that each participant brings a laptop to get most out of the tools introduced. This workshop is donation-based and please sign up to secure your spot: info AT performance-protocols DOT net
Malte Steiner is a visual artist and musician with a goal to develop his own vision of the interdisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk. Steiner has performed and presented his work internationally and was for multiple years the initiator of the Pure Data Stammtisch at C-base in Berlin (DE), and is known for his real time generated software visuals.
About performance protocols
performance protocols is a nomadic platform for instruction-based performance and collaborative processes which opened its first online exhibition Walking Protocols I (INT) in June 2019. Between 2020 and 2023, a series of Nordic Sessions (I) were initiated in Aalborg (DK) in 2020, Copenhagen in 2021, Helsinki (FI) in 2021 and 2022, Bergen (NO) 2022, and online. performance protocols is curated by founder and artistic director of the platform, artist and researcher Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen (DK). performance protocols interventions are single projects by one artist or artist entity, which are shown and activated at relevant times and in-between exhibitions and projects.
https://performance-protocols.net/mainpage.html
Place: Toinen Kerros, Nokiantie 2-4, Helsinki
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