Gyárfás - Bolcsó, Mn'JAM experiment

Mn’JAM experiment

Mn’JAM experiment is an audio-visual project that uses technology in art to push boundaries. It’s not just a musical show because JAM (the visual artist) also plays images, plays lasers and plays lights. It’s not just a light show because music is being interpreted, improvised and so are the lights. It’s not just electronic music although most sounds being generated are pretty much electronic and it’s not jazz although there is a ton of complex harmonies, rhythms and a fair bit of improvisation on top of that. It’s a hybrid show that encapsulates the essence of cross art forms.

In this project JAM opens up a completely new category within live performance. Besides controlling electronic sounds, he is a live visual artist that acts as a musician. This happens because JAM is on stage pressing buttons, rotating knobs and turntables, “playing” with the band as if he is one of the musicians, but more than sounds, his actions also influence the visual art on screen and even lighting on stage. This way, JAM can improvise visually or even create a visual unison with the band, having the knowledge and proficiency of a musician but reaching out to new mediums with his visual art output.
Far-removed from the traditional role of a singer, M has created an innovative place for live looping by incorporating it in the band. That and the use of effects, wordless songs, vocal improvisation and looping textures augment the potential way by which this singer can intervene with the music and express herself making it possible to also act as an instrument. They truly believe that after decades of jazz innovators concentrating on the development of musical elements (melody, rhythms, harmonic progression etc) this genre is the perfect vehicle to lead a new world of performance where the same proficiency, expressiveness and creativity can be expressed live through digital and visual elements.
Mn’JAM experiment have performed all around the world in festivals such as So What’s Next in the Netherlands, Mladi Ladi Jazz Festival in the Czech Republic, Sudtirol Jazz festival in Italy, Cairo Jazz Festival in Egypt, Mozaic Jazz festival in Romania, Kolkata Jazz festival in India, Oct Loft festival in Shenzhen among others and iconic venues such as the Kimmel Center for Preforming Arts in Philadelphia, Casa da Música in Portugal and the Fridge Warehouse in Dubai to name a few.

www.mnjamexperiment.com

Gyárfás - Bolcsó

Since establishing our duo project in the winter of 2019 we have been aiming for a truly responsive approach to interacting with each other in the context of improvised music. We felt it was a natural choice to avoid using quantized rhythmic patterns and to root the pulse of our music in the flow that is just as present in the sounds of nature as it is in human languages. The sounds heard in our music come from a broad palette of sources: a partly self-designed conglomerate of software instruments paired with several midi devices and a repurposed Nintendo Wii controller, an acoustic drum set equipped with leather membranes and with cymbals that were hammered by gong smiths of the Wuhan region, an amplified and ring modulated wind gong, as well as pre-recorded samples of speech, musical fragments and noises to which we are attracted.

https://attilagyarfasbalintbolcso.bandcamp.com/