Cutting-edge concert

'Into the Soundscape V,' the fifth concert in a multi-channel sound projection concert series held this academic year, will be held this Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Loosemore Auditorium of the DeVos Center.

The concert will feature five electroacoustic compositions on CDs and one video and audio piece on DVD, according to Chen. The works will be played over 16 speakers, one subwoofer, and a mixer. No human performers will take the stage, although a sound projectionist will be at the mixer to feed signals to the speakers.

Electroacoustic music, by definition, is music which can only be heard through speakers, said Chen. Using sound itself as an instrument, it makes use of sound recordings and playback technology (reel-to-reel tape recorders, computers, synthesizers, DAT machines, etc.) to make compositions which have no analogies in the world of acoustic instruments.

Thursdays concert, the first of the series to be held on the Grand Rapids Campus, is curated by Professor Anna Rubin of the University of Maryland and features music from the United States. The final concert of the series, held March 25, willl feature compositions from Eastern Europe. The concerts are open to the public free of charge.