AUTOMATIC PLAY

Mia Zabelka – violin, voice, electronics, objects
Håkon Lie – turntables, electronics, objects

With my concept of automatic playing, I explore the emergence of music as an immediate physical and sonic process. I conceive of the violin as an autonomous and free expressive medium, liberated from traditional compositional and instrumental roles. Sound does not originate from preconceived musical ideas but emerges from movement, perception, and the presence of the moment itself. I describe this approach as somatic composing. Physical, psychological, and sensory impulses become the starting point for the formation of musical structures. Music develops through gesture, through the interaction between movement, instrument, electronics, and space. Composition is therefore not understood as planning but as a process that unfolds in the very act of performance.

In collaboration with turntablist Håkon Lie, this principle expands into an additional sonic dimension. The turntables function not as devices for playback but as autonomous instruments whose materiality, resistance, and transformative possibilities actively shape the musical process. Between violin, turntables, and electronics, an open field of resonance, friction, and realtime interaction emerges.

Although these musical processes are not predetermined, complex structures nevertheless arise.Theyemerge through repetition, accumulation, energetic trajectories, and the continuous interplay of sonic events. The music is no longer organized through themes or narrative development, but through states, transitions, and transformations within sound itself.

In this way, composition becomes an emergent act—constantly formed through listening, responding, and acting in the present moment. Selected past performances include Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern Festival, Arnold Schönberg Center, Salzburger Festspiele, London Jazz Festival, Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

Håkon Lie
Håkon Lie has for many years been active in the Norwegian experimental music scene. He has developed a distinctive blend of noise, sound collage and abstract soundscapes through his experimental approach to turntablism. He works both as a solo artist and in collaboration with a wide range of improvisational musicians and dancers. Collaborators: Sindre Bjerga, MutsumiNeiro, Mia Zabelka, Håvard Skaset, Magnus Nergaard, Li Tieqiao, Tellef Øgrim, Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød, Hege Krog, Thomas Oxem, Dario Fariello. Live: Sprø Musikk festival, APARTE festival, Lillehammer Experimental, Nonfigurative musikk, Dans for Voksne, Blow Out, Makrofon, Bergen Kjøtt, Consulatet, Klubb Kanin, Ftarri, Dotolim, Madam Claude.

AUDIO

https://miazabelka.bandcamp.com/album/myasmo

VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watchv=LQOSm37CtHo&list=PLLvoIEMxKbPoIRsN0t8RqvDaeFvV6XwQY&index=3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t9T5lWqJB4&t=12s

Photo © Petra Cvelbar