Robert Curgenven

Working with harmonics, textures and resonance as articulated not only through instruments/objects, in space and place, but also in time and the dislocation of the remote, Curgenven's sound explores slowly shifting layers in the fabric of fields of perception. Creating vast landscapes from carefully detailed recordings through to immersive resonances via deft manipulations of sound pressure - his “old school“ background is evident in his working by hand without a computer. Playing in a variety of contexts from pure field recordings to instrumental harmonics and feedback - described by one audience member as “like a punch in the face while elsewhere flowers bloomed.“

He has lived for much of the past eight years in Australia's Northern Territory, working in small towns and remote locations in radio, health and the arts as well as auspicing and directing Sounds Unusual - NT Festival for New Music. Since the beginning of 2008 he has relocated to Europe, based in Berlin and Milan.

Curgenven returned to performing live and improvised music in 2004 and has since played at events throughout Australia and Europe, including Transmediale (Berlin), Gallery for Contemporary Art (Leipzig), Headphone festival (Stralsund), C/O Pop (Koln), Alice Springs Desert Festival, Darwin Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Electrofringe Festival (Newcastle), Tura New Music Festival (Perth). He has toured Australia, Europe and Japan, including venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Brussels and Tokyo.

He has performed with many Australian and international artists including Jason Kahn (Sirr), Sumugan Sivanesan (Cronica Electronica), KK Null (Touch), Derek Holzer (Umatic), Luc Ex (ex-The Ex), Katrin Bethge and Lousie Curham (projections). He has supported artists such as Jazkamer, Rafael Toral, KTL (Rehberg/O'Malley),Robin Fox, Richard Chartier and Marko Ciciliani. In addition he has exhibited in Darwin, Sydney, Berlin, Koln, Joachimstal and Fremantle.

“…a gentle audio suspension of time. This is the kind of subtlety that really works, becoming an almost total transference of realities.”
– Furthernoise (UK), 2006

“Curgenven makes the point that sounds are fundamental to our perception of the world and significant to notions of the familiar and our sensing of otherness. … The complex micro and meso-structure of these field recordings … included familiar sounds … as well as more all-encompassing sound events evoking specific places.… Our ability to completely hear the complexities of a place and time is intersected by memories of the familiar which are in turn displaced and transformed.”
– Realtime (AUS), “surrealestate” concert review, 2007

Published Works:

2008: Robert Curgenven w/ AnA Wojak - Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Recorded Fields
2008: Robert Curgenven - Silent Landscapes, Recorded Fields
2007: V/A – CRISAP/Gruenrekorder “Autumn Leaves/Sound and the Environment“ web project
2007: V/A – Sounds Unusual Festival Artists Compilation, Sounds Unusual - NT Festival of New Music
2007: Robert Curgenven w/ Chris Howden - Alice Springs, Central Australia, Recorded Fields
2007: Robert Curgenven and Derek Holzer – “Improvisations: Feb-Apr 2007, Umatic
2006: V/A – Recorded in the Field by…. – Gruenrekorder
2005: Soundtrack - Terrain der Zeit, (dir) Leszek Paul
2005: Robert Curgenven – cichaczem, privatelektro

Review

Four Questions with Robert Curgenven - by Jez Riley French

Robert Curgenven

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