Works by Serbian composers
Laptop Ensemble Novi Sad was founded in 2024 in Novi Sad with the aim of exploring the possibilities of using laptops as musical instruments. The ensemble consists of Jovana Dragojević, Kosta Ranđelović, Bojan Ožegović, and Milan Milojković. The ensemble performs improvised, intuitive, and algorithmic electroacoustic music. So far, they have performed in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Subotica, Vienna, Utrecht, Antwerp…As part of the project presenting new works by local authors, they will perform in Kraljevo, Subotica, Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Zaječar.
Program:
Đorđe Marković
Structures
Nenad Stefanović
Three Contexts
Andreja Andrić
Concerto for a Computer Network
Milica Hadžić
………………
Filip Đurović
Kopipasta
Erne Kiralj
Points and Lines
Programme notes:
Đorđe Marković – Structures
“This piece is my attempt to write in a classical manner for a non-classical ensemble such as a laptop ensemble. This means that I treat the score not as a secondary technical addition to the electronic sound, but as the primary interface for compositional thought—a space in which the relationships between performer, sound, and attention are articulated. Therefore, just as when working with acoustic instruments, I began from the instrument as a system of constraints: from its possibilities, inertia, points of resistance, and specific performance physiology.
In this case, the “instrument” is structured through several basic parameters of a sine-wave generator—frequency (Hz), position in the stereo field, volume, and an on/off switch. These parameters become an analogy for what would, in a classical instrument, correspond to hand position, pressure, bow, breath. In this sense, the four laptops here are not a medium for simple “playback,” but a performance apparatus that behaves like a quasi-acoustic ensemble: each performer must “play” their generator, coordinate precise entrances, frequency and dynamic changes, and react to microscopic changes in the collective sound.
Nenad Stefanović – Three Contexts
“Rebellion or boredom? A struggle for the new or mere adherence to tradition? Music with a purpose or music “in itself”? Formality or freedom? Beauty or obscenity?
Everything is only a question of context. These three do not attempt to resolve any of these questions. Nor do they offer any answers. They simply exist in the moment in which they are interpreted through sound, noise, or silence.
Three contexts. “Three lilies on my crossless grave” (G. Apollinaire).
Andreja Andrić – Concerto for a Computer Network
“Concert for Smartphone Network and Concert for Computer Network are two versions of a work for distributed networked smartphone or laptop ensemble. It is at the same time a music composition, a piece of distributed computer software and a collective improvisation practice. The performers develop the music together and use the network system to explore new ways to connect with each other through collective music making. The network system behaves like one instrument for multiple players .The software performs sound synthesis, visual effects and music-related network communication, The music explores variation, repetition and dependencies between harmony and sound color in natural (non-tempered) scales and low (1-bit) sound resolution. In the version for laptops, the performers use a simple text interface where they change the melodic content and various parameters of sound, which brings the project close to distributed live-coding.
Milica Hadžić – ………………
The two sounds that will be heard in this piece are two patterns from a group of similar ones. They originate from alien beings who walk among us. They will make their move after hearing a tiny, humble noise coming from the bunker where a band from the most unexpected region of the world plays.
From an ordinary environment, from a familiar bunker space, two sounds will reshape all of humanity. Out of nothing, everything will change. It is an event we are still not capable of comprehending. This music is what will cause the entire planet to plunge into a long-awaited period that is coming.
FOR THEM – nothing, something so unseen, sincere/pure, the most human (art, expression),
FOR US – we will open this new cycle and step into something we still absolutely do not know how to handle.
Filip Đurović – Kopipasta
The piece was created in response to a call by the publishing house Idiotski internat to participate in a series of releases on floppy disks as sound carriers. It was written for the Laptop Ensemble Novi Sad with the goal that the performance recording could be compressed without loss and reliably distributed via floppy disk. It was later modified for public performance. The piece is built from short bytebeat compositions (short programs) and their modified versions, which are organized into lists from which performers (initially successively, later freely) copy and paste (ctrl+c; ctrl+v) the programs into an HTML5 Bytebeat player.
Ernö Király – Points and Lines
This musical work is performed by an ensemble of three or more members, with the number potentially reaching up to 50. The models marked with Roman and Arabic numerals, although performed in parallel, are not subordinated to one another and sound completely autonomous. Models marked with Roman numerals may be performed by a single person, while the models marked with Arabic numerals, except for the tutti, are performed at the discretion or mutual agreement of the musicians themselves. Some of the models may also be performed by smaller groups. The work is performed in an arrangement for a laptop ensemble.