| Hemmelig Tempo | |
|---|---|
Hemmelig Tempo in 2010. From left to right: Doktor Døv, Professor Fokuda and Professor Waffel with W5 Secret Bird Oscillator |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Bergen, Norway |
| Genres | electronic music, musique concrète |
| Years active | 2006– |
| Labels | Musea |
| Website | http://www.hemmeligtempo.no |
Hemmelig Tempo is a Norwegian experimental musical improvisation trio formed in Bergen in 2007. Preferring the label "research group", the trio mixes quasi-scientific sound experiments with performance art, installation art, free improvisation, instrument-making and satire.
Contents |
Professor Waffel (Eugene Guribye)
Doktor Døv (Gunnar Innvær)
Professor Fokuda-san (Håvard Pedersen)
Guest Professor Superknüller (Øystein Moen)
Guest Professor Pus (Mari Brunvoll)
Bjørn Forske (Bjørn Torske)
Doktor Delay (Morten Cranner)
Department of Visual Research and Latency:
Professor Pixel (Tor Kristian Liseth)
Doktor Pixel (Arild Mehn Andersen)
Skulelegen (Øystein Fykse)
The group emerged from the electronica community in Bergen during the last half of the 1990s and early 2000s. Sound designer Gunnar Innvær, aka dj Barabass, was one of the dj pioneers in the Bergen club scene, appearing in a number of electronica acts as well. Between 2003-2005, his band Barabass & The Happy Few, which borrowed freely from ethnic music, featured the anthropologist Dr. Eugene Guribye on bass. Collaborating on more experimental projects and sharing studio space, Innvær and Guribye invited sound engineer Håvard Pedersen for a session of extravagant synthesizer setup reminiscent of the Klaus Schultze, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis setups of the seventies in their studio. This was the birth of Hemmelig Tempo.
Rather than emulating these influences though, the group moved in the direction of 1950's electronic music and musique concrète and substituted midi synchronization and pre-programming with free improvisation, polytonality and polyrythm (hence the name Hemmelig (secret) tempo). The group also emulated the scientific environment of the 1950s sound laboratories such as the electronic music studio of WDR, but with an added element of satire. This also led to the adoption of parodic academic titles, laboratory coats and research reports which were published on their web site.[1] The venue of regular research seminars was accordingly given the name "The Institution". Across the years, the group has found their own unique expression of sound and vision which seems to draw on the entire history of avante-garde experimental music and art.
Hemmelig Tempo became known for their live performances, framed as live research, in which a visually impressive range of synthesizers, electronic gadgets, robots and other toys, tape machines, record players, electronic circuits and eventually everyday objects and mechanical contraptions were arranged across an enormous table.[2] Dressed in laboratory coats, the research group would present their experiments and introduce their latest inventions, such as Professor Waffel's Flying Sequencer which consisted of a camera-mounted and modified toy aeroplane revolving over a fan and triggering an optical midi device connected to a synthesizer to produce sequences of random notes.[1]
During Bergen Fest 2008, the group held an outdoor concert in which they experimented with quadraphonic speakers and interacted with the noise of the city. During a dramatic performance in 2007, Professor Waffel had to depart for the birth of his son just before the start of the concert. Rather than cancelling the concert, it was decided to bring in an outsider for the occasion. Musician and dj Bjørn Torske lived nearby and accepted the challenge - renamed Bjørn Forske (to research). This prompted the occasional invitation of guest professors into the research group.
Across the years, several professional film makers, vj's and photographers have become part of the academic community of Hemmelig Tempo. In 2009, Mister (later Doktor) Pixel presented his long overdue PhD thesis in the form of a 10 minute short film documenting a research session at the Institution. The thesis was found to be of sufficient merit to warrant a doctoral degree at the Department of Visual Research.[3] During a Thanksgiving seminar the same year, a research seminar at the Institution was documented live on the web by Professor Pixel (not related to Doktor Pixel) and Skulelegen.
At the same time, Doktor Døv dabbled in visual research himself and presented a fair amount of videos of experiments on Youtube, including "Professor Waffel's Motorized Spiral Opto-Sequencer Designer"[4] "Six Unlikely Duos"[5] and "How to wear a labcoat",[6] in which a camera mounted on a revolving toy train documents a session in which Professor Waffel forgot to bring along his labcoat, forcing Professor Fokuda and Doktor Døv to share theirs so that everyone appeared to wear labcoats during the time they were present on video.
A notable part of the activities of the group has been strange installations during arts- and music festivals in Norway. During Bergen Fest in 2008, the group recorded small fragments of sound-out-of place on Mp3 players which were hidden around town. Accordingly, citizens were subject to sudden sounds of cuckoo-clocks, people having sex on spring mattresses and typewriters emerging out of nowhere. During the Bergen Electronic Music & Art Festival the same year, the group constructed an installation consisting of three modified robotic toys interacting to produce a band. On a clothes-hanger three laboratory coats suggested that the robots were in fact substitutes for the members of Hemmelig Tempo.[1] The three robot-musician characters were later developed in research reports, and there was talk of a tour featuring only these new substitute members of the group.
The group has invented a number of instruments across the years, some of which have been featured on live performances, others known only from rare photographs. Circuit-bending, modifications of toys, electronic circuits and mechanical contraptions, as well as tape loop sessions have been a standard feature of the group's research seminars. Experiments have also included improvisations with everyday household items such as vacuum cleaners, waffel irons and golf clubs.
While not primarily an album-oriented group, the group signed a contract with the French record label Gazul, a sub-label of Musea in 2011. Their debut album "Who Put John Cage on the Guestlist?" is a 50 minute collage put together of hundreds of hours of recorded research sessions, compiled and edited during Professor Fokuda's Mountain Seminar in a small cabin at Rjukan.