Filip Merčep is a versatile artist with an international career. He is best known as the percussionist who represented Croatia in the finals of the Eurovision Young Musicians Contest in 2010, but is also recognized as an innovative multimedia musician and visual artist. He also runs workshops and courses at some of the world's leading conservatories and universities and is a member of the Sudar Percussion ensemble and the Marimba Quartet. A notable feature of Merčep's work is his tendency to use digital technology to prepare and improve performance. For example, in 2020, he and Boy van Ooijen, electronic musician, used a machine learning algorithm to create a device that detected the spectral colors of batons as part of the Kultura nova Foundation project.
The device that detects the spectral colors of batons recognizes different percussion batons due to their spectral differences. It uses signal processing and deep learning techniques to analyze each baton's unique "audio signature". The model learns from a large dataset of audio recordings of different batons, enabling it to discern the characteristic frequency patterns associated with each type of baton. On completing the learning, the model will be built into the audio-visual software so that the performer with batons can control various aspects of the audio and visual expression.
The multimedia concert will take place at the MM Center, the multimedia and intermedia center of the University of Zagreb’s Student Center, and will have its conceptual foundation in Merčep's love of electronics and programming. Merčep thinks about and empirically tests the possibility of broadening the extent of his instrument with the help of electronics on two levels: firstly, by choosing compositions that already include electronics and thematize the results of the electronic manipulation of the instrument, and secondly, by programming the percussion to control the light. Merčep formulates his concept in the title of the concert, SUITE: Puls+, deliberately making it appear as a single piece, not a series of compositions by different composers. However, even this procedure is the author’s legitimate experiment that will show the extent to which determinants such as authorship or the confines of score notation are (not)important when affixed to a particular concept and upgraded with different means in the service of art. SUITE: Puls+, whose heart is Anna Ignatowicz’s Suite (written for Merčep), pursues the idea of a hidden pulse in a series of selected compositions. “+”, as Merčep emphasizes, is an addition like live electronics in Cort Lippe’s composition or, for example, electronics with interventions of the light, the purpose of which is to contribute to the audio-visual shaping of a hidden pulse. In a broader sense, this multimedia concert is an opportunity to show the intimate views of a man (author) regarding the interconnectedness of things in front of all present, within the positive context of technology as an intermediary.
The program also includes new pieces by Gordan Tudor and Šimun Matišić, and an interactive demonstration of the use of technology and method will take place after the performance.
Filip Merčep, percussions
Boy van Ooijen, electronics, video, light design
Cort Lippe, Music for Hi-hat and Computer
David Lang, the anvil chorus, for percussion solo
Šimun Matišić, Mono-log*, for one percussion player
Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska, The Polish Suite, for marimba solo
Prelude (tribute to Kazimierz Serocki)
Dance (tribute to Stefan Kisielewski)
Lullaby (tribute to Roman Palester)
Finale (tribute to Zygmunt Mycielski)
Gordan Tudor, Snare, you there?*, for snare drum, tape and optional video/light design
Iannis Xenakis, Rebonds A, for percussion solo
Andrew Thomas, Merlin, for marimba solo
Beyond the Faint Edge of the World
Time's Way
An interactive demonstration of the use of technology and method applied in the concert will take place after the concert.
*first performance – commissioned by the 32nd MBZ-HDS