The concert-performance by Tempo Reale and Alexander Chernyshkov takes on vintage technology with musical intent

For the grand finale of the 61st International Festival of Contemporary Music, organized by the Biennale di Venezia, Tempo Reale e Alexander Chernyshkov presented Il rosso risvegliato, a performance that recovers obsolete technologies to produce electronic music. Vacuum cleaners, elevator relays, floppy disks, dot matrix printers, obsolete scanners: what was cutting-edge technology just a few decades ago has now become the past, like relics of another era that reminisce about “the way we were”. Sentimentalists and new believers are collecting these retro pieces from the world of high-tech to organize exhibitions and to publish catalogues, triggering nothing less than a collective mania, sustained by environmental awareness.

Francesco Giomi, the heart and soul of Tempo Reale, has been developing the theme for the past few years: he counters the speed of technological consumption and the obsolescence of computer hardware, by retrieving the devices abandoned at the margins of this acceleration, to experiment with a personal sound theatre in which even traditional instruments such as flutes and trumpets, are “rigged”. Russian composer Alexander Chernyshkov’s new work, Il rosso risvegliato, is set in the “vintage” technological environment of Tempo Reale. Chernyshkov tackles a score that brings together everyday tools-devices and the contribution of two unconventional poly-instrumentalists. With an approach to the space that again seeks to reach beyond the traditional concept of concert to engage the audience in an immersive experience of proximity, increasingly essential to the most advanced electronic musical experiences.