AUTOMATES Ki - Quintet - Maxime Rioux

Robot music by
A U T O M A T E S K i
Maxime De La Rochefoucauld
aka
Maxime Rioux

WEBSITE = cooptel.qc.ca/~maxime
MySpace = myspace.com/automateski




Ki
Ki is a japanese concept : roughly, it is the invisible vital energy that makes things move. I use this word as an allegory for the energy that animates my automatons. The listener and spectator only hears and sees the consequences of this vibration. In this context, my Automates Ki are "spokespersons" for the vibration instead of invented musical instruments, since to build them I use previously created instruments gathered from various countries.

The Systeme Ki™
For several years I have worked on a system of my own invention that animates the automatons, producing a music centered on percussion. The Systeme Ki™ transforms inaudible low-frequency modulations into an acoustic phenomenon.

This system follows in the tradition of the work of Maurice Martenot (inventor of the Ondes Martenot & his Diffuseurs) and Alvin Lucier (composer of pieces such as Music For Solo Performer, which involves percussion instruments and amplified brainwaves).

The Automates Ki
The Automates Ki comprises a speaker joined to a musical instrument. A pliable firing pin is set on the speaker. The firing pin, when animated by the vibration of the speaker, hits the acoustic instruments (drums, cymbals, strings instruments) in an oscillating manner.

The Firing Pin
There is a pliable structure, made of wood and iron, attached to the mobile base of the speaker, which is the firing pin. Similar to an eardrum, it is designed to produce an oscillating movement when a vibration is applied to it. The firing pins are custom-built for each instrument.

translated from French by Jill Teasley

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Maxime
• Rioux
• Rochefoucauld
• automates
• ki
• robot
• music
• robotic
• automaton