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The 4th module has come! Sound technologies and cultural practices.
As our final assingment we will have to produce a radio documentary on a relevant topic link to the name of our module. I will soon update the weblog to add some details of my research plan.
I never use the weblog for personal anouncements, but since a few people have asked about it I've decided to post the interview with my band, Très.B on my weblog. Hope you can learn something new from it and that my blabling bad mouth haven' t told you everything already:)
Three international UM students play in a band Très.B
It's all about the music
All three have the same passion and seem inseparable. When one of them moved from Denmark to Maastricht, the others came along. Last September, Misia Furtak, Thomas Pettit, and Olivier Heim started their studies in Maastricht. At the beginning of November, as Très.B, they won the jury's and the public's award at the annual student song festival in the Kumulus Theatre.
The student song festival was the second performance in Maastricht for Misia Furtak (23, Poland), Thomas Pettit (19, Luxembourg) and Olivier Heim (19, Luxembourg). It provided them with three hundred euros in prize money as well as participation in the Dutch national student song festival in Enschede in May 2006. "It was really cool," says Misia, Masters student of media culture. "The audience felt that we made difficult music accessible." Difficult music? "It sounds eclectic: we use different styles mixed together. Anything from trip hop (a combination of dance, rock and hip hop, ed.) to jazzy." Four numbers can be downloaded from their website, www.meettresb.co.nr, and it is true that the songs are difficult to place in any particular category.
The three met last year in Denmark, at the School of Music. Misia had just completed her Bachelors in journalism in Poland and decided that before she started on her Masters she would spend a year doing her favourite hobby: singing. Thomas and Olivier (both first-year students at the University College) have known each other since their first year in secondary school in Luxembourg and did not want to go straight into university. Thomas (half British, half Danish) knew about the Danish School of Music and because he and Olivier have been "jamming" regularly since they were thirteen (Thomas on drums, Olivier on guitar), the decision to go to Denmark together was an easy one to make.
Album
In four months' time (the duration of the course), they learned about improvisation, composing, refining techniques and recording numbers in a recording studio. Misia, who also started to play the bass guitar: "Sometimes we had to sit in a practising room without talking to each other. We were only allowed to count down: three, two, one and play for as long as it took until we sounded as one. We learned very much from that. When one of us has a new melody, the rest expand on that."
The idea of a band came about when an open stage evening was announced. "Why not? we thought." Olivier: "We called ourselves B in the first instance. We wanted our music to sound rough and not commercial, just B. Later on, we added Très to the name. That refers to the fact that there are three of us, but it's also the French translation of the word 'very'. When we create a song that really suits our style, we always say 'this is Très.B'." They do not have their own album yet (six songs are finished, another nine are being worked on), but with the prize money from the student song festival they have come a step closer. In a year's time, when they have saved up enough, they hope to be able to complete their first CD on their own.
Two-room apartment
The new band disrupted all their private plans. At the end of the course in Denmark, Misia was supposed to go and live with her brother in Copenhagen, because she was going to study at Roskilde University: "It is close by and is just like the UM, internationally orientated and works with a Problem-Based Learning system." Thomas and Olivier were thinking about a trip to some far-off country, the exact destination still had to be determined. Now they wanted to continue with their music and so together they moved to Copenhagen. For six months the three shared a two-roomed apartment with two other students. Thomas: "We had no privacy whatsoever, but it was a good test to see how well we got on. We did well."
Misia was turned down for Roskilde University (RU) because of a mistake in the registration procedure. Thomas (both he and Olivier enrolled at the RU) did not receive a reaction to his enrolment. So they went looking for an alternative: Olivier (both of his parents are from the Netherlands) knew Maastricht and knew that the UM had the same education system. Misia immediately registered for the Masters course in media culture, Olivier and Thomas for the Bachelors at the UCM. So again, all three packed their bags and moved from Copenhagen to Maastricht. The first two months they stayed with friends of Olivier's, sleeping in the living room.
Since then, they have found their own accommodation in Maastricht, the garage being converted into a soundproof practice area. Does it not get to be too much, spending so much time together? The answer is No, "we really like each other; and it is handy if we live together because we can spend all our free time making music." Misia: "I have sung in lots of bands, but it has never felt as right as it does with these two."
Irene Smeets
Surfing on the internet I have found a text by Karin. It works like a hyper text, clicking on different links you are moved to different pages. I think it might be relevant for our study.
http://www.dichtung-digital.com/Wenz/30-Juni-99-C/english/narrativ.html
I've been wondering who is Blade Runner and why the cover of the book of Philip Dick I've got is so ugly. I mean the guy who is on the cover looks very much like the guy from the computer game..and both of the guys look like the character from the movie. I guess that after the movie the face of Harrisson Ford became the face of Rick Decard. On all of the drawings that I have found from "after the movie" it was so. But I have also found some drawings from "before the movie" and the old covers of the book. I found it very interesting.
I'm not sure I will write my final essay on Blade Runner though, cause I'm not a fantasy fan and maybe I will find and example that will suit me more. I'll look more in the area of interactivity, self-reflexivity and metafiction. Let's see what happens:)