It is unmistakable that Lenka Zupkova places a great weight on the acoustic string sound and the wide range of playing techniques common to traditional string instruments. She knows well that the diversity of timbres and the, in comparison to the piano, significantly more complex way a violinist can shape a tone are hardly able to be generated by or transported to a digital system. Indeed it seems as if the world of vibrati, pizzicati, col legno and sul ponticello playing techniques are still too complicated and subtle to be subsumed in a digital principle. Therefore Zupkova uses her 5-string electric as well as the acoustic violin not as a simple trigger, which sets preprogrammed computer generated sounds and noises into motion. She respects the natural sound of the violin; however she also modifies the acoustic signal in order to create an expanded sound palette, which opens up the area of wild unrestrained noises. Zupkova achieves this extension of the electric violin with the aid of software, such as Super Collider or Max/ MSP, packages that at the same time allow the spacial characteristics of the performance space (e.g. through surround sound and reverberation) to be modified in enumerable ways during a live performance. All the compositions on this CD with the exception of Globokar’s "Kartomlin Croisé" and Köszeghy’s "Libertinage" are commissioned works and first recordings, which were a result of a close cooperation between Zupkova and the composers. In collaboration with them new directions were explored, new playing techniques were developed and through this experimental approach we were even able to achieve a synthesis between traditional and extended violin techniques. Further information: www.violinelenka.com
