Talk about being one with your instrument: Lebanese artist and electro-acoustic musician Tarek Atoui has made a career of performing with specially engineered computers and electrical equipment designed to react to his movements, creating sounds in an odd dance that is part performance art and part avant-garde soundscape.
“On stage, I’m constantly aiming for a unity between my body, my sound and my machines, where the three elements become one and where I go beyond my systematic habits of performing and my acquired skills,” says Atoui of his performance style.
He programs samples and frequencies into machines that, through a system of pressure sensors, sound off according to the amount of force he applies to them. The system then follows a sequence of algorithms to produce a series of microsamples.
As complex as all of that sounds, watching Atoui’s performance is a completely visceral experience. His feverish movements around the decks of his machine often leave audience members completely awestruck.
“When I make a space tremble from heavy bass sounds, or create specific air vibrations, it is when I’m being the most direct and trying to produce the same impact on all the audience,” says Atoui.
‘Get Weird: Tarek Atoui’
Tonight, 7
New Museum
235 Bowery
$12, 212-219-1222
