Biography

MARTIJN ALSTERS

Independent musician, producer, recording engineer, composer of contemporary electronic music and sound designer.

Martijn founded Asylon Audio Boutique, a studio for contemporary electronic music, sound design, audio restoration, mixing and mastering.
As a soloist, he performs his own electronic compositions at home and abroad and provides masterclasses on this subject at various universities and schools of music.

Martijn studied the flute at the Rotterdam Conservatoire with Raymond Delnoye and took part in numerous theatre, television, recording and cinema productions of acknowledged Dutch artists like Herman van Veen and Paul van Vliet.

THE MUSIC

His compositions are somewhat metaphysical in character, sometimes based on structures that unfold themselves during long sequences and derive their form from improvisations which in their turn are derived from mainly preordained sounds.
The movement, the constant returning to chaos, is expressed by means of dissolving the binding energy.
A contemplation of different worlds is voiced by means of panoramic and sometimes ethereal sounds.
However, sound may also be experienced as matter, sometimes as a link with landscapes, or as an intermediate between the visual and the auditory field.

During the live-performances, a three-dimensional atmosphere is created by means of involving the acoustics of the entire concert-space into the performance.
All this is enhanced by means of a surround arrangement of the sound system.
The result is a constant movement between the extremities of primeval sound and high-tech.
Completed with compositions for solo- instruments and soundtracks, the performance varies from the intimacy of chamber music to the magnificence of a symphony.

THE WIND MIDI CONTROLLER

Besides the flute, Martijn plays the wind MIDI controller, which looks a bit like a clarinet but does not produce any sound by itself. It registers wind pressure, embouchure and fingering. This information passes to electronic devices which produce the final sound.
Also a so-called virtual acoustic synthesizer, a fast special purpose computer, is frequently used, which creates sound on the basis of physical modeling. Together with the wind MIDI controller the possibility arises to design a completely new range of tones and sounds, and moreover the possibility to design classical string-, wind- and rare (ethnic) instruments in a virtual way. It is ideally suited for (classical) music, theatre and recordings.

MARTIJN

… composed electronic music for Portrait of a dream, a video performance by visual artist Mathieu Knippenbergh.

… created a three-month performance on location by connecting images, theatre, smell and music in co-operation with Mathieu Knippenbergh and actrice Gerrie Abels, by connecting images and theater with music, called Soma Coma.

… recorded works of Gregor Theelen and collective pieces for Oreade
and played along with him and Raj Mohan on the live cd Inua - The Omni-Unity Concert.

…demonstrated for Fairlight The Voicetracker, one of the first alternative audio/midi controllers at Musicom Utrecht, the AES at Montreux and the Musikmesse Frankfurt.

… realized a series of concerts of French impressionist chamber music for flute and piano, making arrangements of Ibert’s Histoires and Ravel’s Ma mere l’Oye in partnership with pianist Emilie Havelaar.

… performed four concerts on the wind MIDI controller at the Gemeente Museum of The Hague to commemorate twenty years of FM-synthesis and an additional fifth concert, based on an assignment to give an impression of the museum’s architecture, as designed by Berlage.

… is teacher wind MIDI instruments and electro / acoustic ensemble at the Faculty of Art Media and Technology of the Utrecht School of the Arts since 1994.

… played the final-concert of the symposium Sound and Physics of the Eindhoven University of Technology, using sound on the basis of physical modeling .

…founded, together with Nard Reijnders, Ensemble Canapé which performed classical and modern music in a theatrical environment.

…presented together with classical pianist Joop Kranen the -VL I-, Yamaha's first commercial virtual acoustic (physical modeling) synthesizer.

… composed and played an electronic piece for the opening of the international art manifestation LAT at the Odapark Venray.

… performing Een klein concert 4 with Liselore Gerritsen and Ben van der Linden.

… participated as a composer, producer and musician together with 8 visual artists in The Brederode Nine, an one month lasting art project inspired by the ruins of Brederode in Santpoort, where he did a number of performances.

… is teacher at the Music Production Department (post production) of Codarts, University Of The Arts Rotterdam since 2006.

… participated in several ensembles for contemporary music such as The Astor Ensemble and is co-founder and performer of The Art of doing Nothing.

… played at the Jacques Brel Memorial Festivals in Bonn and Amsterdam.

… composed Battle for a queen with René van Commenée, a soundtrack for a showpiece of theatre-group The Lunatics and directed by Lieven Slabbinck on the occasion of Queens Day at ‘s Hertogenbosch.

… built a sound design for the ballet Peter and the Wolf, produced by In the Wings and performed in the Stadsschouwburg Antwerpen and Carré Amsterdam.

… recorded Flute& Piccolo FX DL for Project Sam Cinematic Sampling,
containing performances of wild rips, random runs, ad lib textures, spooky atmospheres, modern-music and cinematic effects which are used in TV- series/ games and films such as: Stargate, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Witchblade, CSI, Sparta and more.

…provided, commissioned by museum Van Bommel van Dam in Venlo, the festive closing of Psychonaut a high-profile exhibition of the artist Mathieu Knippenbergh, with a 76 - minute eponymous piece especially composed for this occasion.