MYASMO SOLO

Mia Zabelka – Violin, Voice

The violinist and vocalist Mia Zabelka has been researching interdisciplinary improvisation technique since many years, a method she refers to under the term “automatic playing".

Playing an instrument is a profoundly physical act. In "automatic playing” – Mia Zabelka exaggerates and intensifies physical movements during performance. In doing so, sonic events emerge that lie outside conventional playing techniques – opening access to entirely new sonic material. This practice shifts the boundaries between music, physical gesture, and space. At this intersection, a new form of musical articulation reveals itself – one that does not arise from compositional intent, but from physical impulse. Embodiment in musical contexts has been emphasized by many feminist musicologists and performers – such as Susan McClary, or theorists working in the wake of Judith Butler, who have rethought embodiment, gender, and performance. "Automatic playing" sees itself as both a continuation and a radical intensification of these perspectives: here, the physical movement is not only reflected upon – it becomes the generative force of sound itself, drawing on implicit knowledge.

Mia Zabelka’s music is the result of a musician who has been traveling perpetually and playing internationally for years. Absorbing approaches to the music of a wide variety of cultures and styles, these improvisations contain nuances and collisions from her extensive studies of violin music and those she finds in the ever-changing environments she encounters.

In Mia Zabelka’s mind improvisation is a language that doesn’t care for cultural differences. Improvised music may well be the most democratic, universal form of communication and expression there is. She makes highly dynamic music that she hopes stimulates the mind and the body, that will shake the audience awake, starting with her first.

Mia Zabelka’s "automatic playing" is a unique method developed by herself, using gestures to create instantaneous musical phrases in real time. It is about developing a novel technique of intense and colorful improvisation resulting from physical movements.

AUDIO

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

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

Photo © Petra Cvelbar