Sound + Performances
Curated by Sergei Komarov and Lidiia Griaznova
October 18–November 2
1 Acharyan St. Tue–Sun: 10:00 – 18:30
Phenomenon and Paradoxes of Information Transmission a multi-channel sound installation featuring works by invited sound artists
Opening: October 18, 6:00 PM
Live performances: Nikita Bugaev, Purpurniy Dyadya
25 October, 7:00 PM
2 Abovyan St.
Performances
the concept horse
Yoshio Machida
Phenomenon and Paradoxes of Information Transmission
Multi-channel sound installation, 2025 Artists participating: ceph, Purpurniy Dyadya, Sergei Komarov & Lidiia Griaznova, Nikita Bugaev, the concept horse
This installation is dedicated to the engineers, experimenters, and artists who investigated the connections between sound, technology, and transmission. As Justin Patrick Moore wrote, “Madcap inventors attempted to trace their way through the lines of circuitry to create sounds out of the chaos.” Technologies originally developed for communication—telephony, signal processing, radio transmission, and speech synthesis—were adopted and transformed by musicians and artists into tools for new forms of sound and composition.
The project references major 20th-century developments in telecommunications and electronic music: number stations, ham radio, vocoders, and early speech-coding systems, as well as the work of experimental studios such as the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Bell Labs, and NHK Japan. It also draws on the 1970s “sound-phreak” culture, particularly Evan Doorbell’s recordings of telephone switching and routing sounds, which document the acoustic environment of early communication systems.
The installation consists of custom-made, battery-powered, autonomous speakers—each carrying an individual sound channel within the overall composition. Every artist has their own set of speakers, where each channel functions as a stand-alone piece and simultaneously as part of a collective multi-channel work. Visitors can listen to one artist’s group of speakers or combine them with others, rearranging the units in space, switching them on and off, and shaping new sound combinations in real time. Each configuration generates a different acoustic environment, revealing shifting relationships between signal, interference, and spatial perception.
Opening night
Yerevan Botanical Garden
October 18
Nikita Bugaev
on, do, 2025
duration: 00:15:00
Nikita Bugaev is an artist & educator, working with sound.
Purpurniy Dyadya
Alea — Formanta, 2025
duration: 00:30:00
Exploration of “human” and “non human” in electronic music. Randomness meets pseudo human voices.
Purpurniy Dyadya is Yerevan based musician with a broad and diverse background behind. For more than 10 years he has been publishing his music under various aliases, both solo and in collaborations.
Performances
Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall
25 October
Yoshio Machida
no title
sound performance, 2025
40 min
Electronic improvised music by a japanese artist Yoshio Machida with the 70s british analog synthesizer EMS Synthi AKS. Using its unique function, he will play ambient canon.
“Machida handles it intelligently and sensitively." — The Wire
Yoshio Machida is a japanese sound & visual artist, steelpan. While studying at Tama Art University, comprehensively explored contemporary art, music, and film. Participated in music festivals and had tours in 16 countries, had workshops at orphanages and elementary schools in some countries. Involved in music for the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition and NHK's TV program "A Bug in the System: Artist Ohtake Shinro.” Runs a music label Amorfon, produced the world's first improvisational album by babies, discovering and releasing unique artists from around the world. Published creative "Narativ Cards”.
Yoshio Machida is a steelpan performer who combines acoustic instrument sounds with Max/MSP programming. His enthusiasm for unusual musical instruments led him to a series of works performed solely on the EMS Synthi AKS synthesizer. It is quite a revolutionary instrument, produced in the 1970s by Electronic Music Studios Ltd (EMS), England. The instrument is known for its compact design, unusual pin panel for commutation, and raw charismatic sound from its discrete bosom. This provides many possibilities and rich timbres for experimenting with the instrument.
However, Yoshio is showing his intended minimalistic approach by using the Synthi skillfully but avoiding pretentiousness and overcomplication, which is an easy trap, having such vast possibilities under his hands. By adding and subtracting simple functions, Yoshio creates simple polyrhythmic yet abstract patterns that are friendly for the listener to explore.
To explore more, you can hear other pieces by Yoshio using Synthi. After this release, he did “Music From The Synthi” on Baskaru in 2014. It was followed by the CD album “Music from the SYNTHI 100” he did in collaboration with Constantin Papageorgiadis in 2017. It was performed on the Synthi 100, a substantial rare instrument produced in limited quantities in the 1970s. In 2024 Yoshio did a sequel, “Music from the SYNTHI #2” performed on the Synthi AKS. Both parts were released on “Amorfon”, an experimental music label he founded in 2004.
Text by Sergei Komarov
Curated by Sergei Komarov
Mastering, lathe cut by Sergei Dmitriev
Release date: September 23, 2013
the concept horse
Public Detail
30 minutes
the concept horse composes music constructed from an array of physical sound sources relying on iteration, slight change, analog error, chance and unrepeatability. For CYFEST, the concept horse will present a live, spontaneous composition in one take with two hands, feedback paths, piles of banana cables, eleven mini-cassettes and three dictaphones.
the concept horse composes and releases music constructed from an array of physical sound sources relying on iteration, slight change, analog error, chance and unrepeatability. tch runs the label editions, is one half of the duo IEOGM (w/ marie vermont) and part of BILLA ENSEMBLE (w/ turmeric acid, michiu & marie vermont). tch has released solo and collaborative sounds on Students of Decay, Molt Fluid, phncrs, Gracious Host, Hard Return, Beach Buddies Records, FALT, Kashual Plastik, Steep Gloss and czaszka [rec.]. recent live performances in UK, EU, Japan, and USA.
