3 ā¦ 2 ā¦ 1 ā¦ Get ready for liftoff as the Ā鶹¹ŁĶų Laptop OrchestraāBLOrk for shortāputs on a space-themed feast for the eyes and ears at CU Ā鶹¹ŁĶųās Fiske Planetarium.
āItās music inspired by the sights and sounds of space, including video and audio of NASA space launches from the point of view of the shuttle. Journey forth into great beyond with BLOrk as your guide!ā
Thompson Jazz Studies Program Director John Gunther is a founding director of the College of Musicās electro-acoustic ensemble. He and his co-founder, Director of Music Technology John Drumheller, will join music majors and non-majors on stage for BLOrkās April 20 concert, which features a variety of digital and traditional instruments performing songs by Sun Ra, David Bowie, Bjork, Radiohead and the Flaming Lips. Saxophones, drums and violin meld with sounds created online for this far-out take on space travelāand itās all accompanied by Fiskeās Liquid Sky music visualization.
āThe audience can fly around on the surface of planets, explore distant nebulae, then see colors and shapes are in synch with the music through Liquid Sky,ā Gunther says.
BLOrkāfounded 11 years ago as only the second laptop orchestra in the countryāoffers student and faculty performers a way to keep up with the latest in music technology. Itās a unique opportunity, Gunther says, to help usher in a new era of music.
āThings that would have been clumsy and expensive 10 years agoāsuch as integrating motion and light sensorsāweāre able to do now simply by plugging in our laptops.ā
That even includes trying out a new software called Music_SDP, which was created by a member of the College of Music family.
āAlum Hugh Lobel invented , which is an open-source, free software for music composition and performance that weāre using in this class,ā Gunther says. āItās one of the technologies weāre exploring now that didnāt even exist five years ago.ā
Gunther says music technology is changing so fast that the name āBLOrkā itself may have to change as well.
āWeāre using our phones and tabletsāplaying actual instruments with mobile devices,ā he explains. āEventually we may not even use our laptops anymore, so we might have to figure out how to replace the āLā with something else!ā
āSongs of Spaceā is Saturday, April 20, at 7 p.m., at Fiske Planetarium. For more information, including how to purchase tickets from Fiske, visit .
