A Note from the Sponsor:

Winners (a tie)

 

Runners Up

 

Prizes

The Grand Prize winner will receive a copy of ACID PRO 4.0, five loop libraries and the Meredith Monk CD library from ECM.


Ms. Monk's innovations in extended vocal technique have been enormously influential. When she began her vocal pioneering, in 1965, this area was largely unexplored. Since then echoes of Monk's work can be heard across genres, influencing artists as diverse as Joan La Barbara and Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson and Björk (whose current live set includes Meredith's "Gotham Lullaby").

Her work touches on many areas, but at the heart of it is singing, exploring the human voice in all its possibilities. Your remix of "urban march (light)" will provide you the opportunity to explore musical boundaries with Ms. Monk's voice. Whereas in past remixes the vocal line was often just another component in a song, here it is front and center, the reason for the work. It can't be buried in the mix. Luckily, however, Ms. Monk uses her voice like an instrument, so the loops cut from her performance can be used almost like an instrumental sample.

Get your best New Music face on, because both Meredith Monk and DJ Spooky are judging this contest! And start soon—this contest closes November 18, 2002. Sonic Foundry and ACIDplanet are thrilled to bring you this opportunity: create, remix, and communicate with two of today's leading musical innovators.

About the Artist

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, choreographer and creator of new opera, musical theater works, films and installations. A pioneer in what is now called "extended vocal technique" and "interdisciplinary performance," Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound, in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception. Her ground-breaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which we have no words. During a career that spans more than 35 years she has been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a major creative force in the performing arts.

In 1968 Ms. Monk founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. In 1978 she formed Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble to expand her musical textures and forms. She has made more than a dozen recordings, most of which are on the ECM New Series label. Her music has been performed by numerous soloists and groups including The Chorus of the San Francisco Symphony, Musica Sacra, The Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Double Edge, and Bang On A Can All-Stars, among others.

We're honored to present "urban march (light)" from Ms. Monk's latest release, "mercy", for remixing at ACIDplanet. "mercy" premiered in America as a multi-media stage work which Monk realized together with noted installation artist Ann Hamilton. The album features premiere recordings made with the original Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble. The album, though, is far more than a 'soundtrack'. Not only did some of the music predate the stage work—incorporating several pieces that Meredith had written before joining forces with Hamilton—the stage material has been rigorously rearranged with "many changes, compressions, expansions of forms." These include the exceptional writing for Bohdan Hilash's clarinets and other new material. The work also marks the first time Monk has written for mallet instruments, drawing inspired performances by John Hollenbeck on vibes and marimba.

A meditation on the quality of mercy throughout history, and a humanistic demand for mercy in troubled times, "mercy" took its impetus from widely scattered sources, ranging from contemporary world literature to historical documents and the daily news, all of them poetically transformed. As the New York Times wrote, "mercy isn't just about the transfiguration of ideas and thoughts into action; it performs transfigurations of its own." The Times also said, "What the piece's creators seemed to be thinking about was the mystery, beauty and sadness of life. The sense of being lost in thought was reinforced by Ms. Monk's quietly lyrical and often eloquent vocal music which made use of sighs and wordless chants. The melodies ranged from the plaintive and haunting to the stately and noble."

Tips

At 12:00 a.m. midnight PST on Saturday, December 30, 1899, the contest will be closed and no further uploads will be accepted. If you are new to ACIDplanet, you should create an account and upload a song as soon as possible so that you can work out any problems with uploading that you may encounter. Also, uploading a song can take a considerable amount of time. It's better not to wait until the last few hours of the contest to start uploading your entry.

Entrants must upload a Windows Media format or Real Media format version of their entry first. You will not be able to upload any additional formats after the contest closes, so if also you want to upload an mp3 version, please allow enough time to upload them both before the contest closing time.

Entrants must provide accurate contact information (valid e-mail and postal address) in their registration at ACIDplanet.com for the purpose of contacting winners. You can update your contact information here.

Contest Content Help

No Links? If you do not see the "zip" links to the contest loops, it may be because you are running firewall or security software with Ad Blocking turned on. If so, please temporarily turn it off and the links should appear.

What is the .acd file in the sample remix? The .acd file is an ACID project file that contains a sample remix made from eight to ten of the contest loops. It can help you learn how to use ACID, or give you ideas about remixing the track. You don't need to use it, but you'll at least want to download the sample remix so that you get the loops.

Can't open the ACID file? The ACID project file (.acd file) is in ACID 3.0 format. It can be opened in ACID 3.0, 4.0 or 5.0, but not in ACID 1.0 or 2.0. If you are an ACID 1.0 or 2.0 user and you wish to view this file, you can either upgrade or download the current version of ACID XPress in the Tools area of this page. However, you do not need to view the .acd file to enter the contest. You can simply use the contest loops in any version of ACID or other software.