fbpx

Skip links

Marielle V Jakobsons Headshot
Marielle V Jakobsons. Photo by Nicolas Zurcher & Tana Sprague.

Composer and intermedia artist Marielle V Jakobsons

“From the smallest sound and vibration to our all-encompassing environment, [my work describes] how the exuberance of nature is perceived, embodied, and altered by our presence.”  — Marielle V Jakobsons

Marielle V Jakobsons is a composer and intermedia artist based in Oakland, CA. Her compositions evoke minimalism with melodic drone and enveloping polyrhythmic soundscapes of synthesizers, strings, and voice. She builds installations and instruments which bring focus to visceral experience of sound and light, most recently with her “Macro-Cymatic Visual Music Instruments” – instruments that visualize music into fluid motion and light painting.

Marielle collaborates extensively in the experimental arts as a sound designer and composer for interactive media and film. As a solo multi-instrumentalist, and with her bands “Date Palms,” “Myrmyr,” and other collaborations, she has published recordings and toured internationally on Thrill Jockey, Mexican Summer, Students of Decay, Digitalis, Important Records, among others.

Marielle’s most recent recording, Star Core, was released by Thrill Jockey RecordsGlass Canyon (2012), her second solo album of analog synthesizers and violin, was released by Students of Decay and hailed as “carrying the optimism of the natural and the breath-light touch of the beautiful” by Dusted Magazine. To celebrate her new album, she has toured as an audiovisual performance with live flute, violin, and voice,  featuring Chuck Johnson on bass, and video projections recorded from her “Macro-Cymatic Visual Music Instrument.”

Marielle received an MFA in Electronic Music from Mills College, and BA from Case Western and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She has been awarded the Djerassi Artist Residency, Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency, Brush Creek Arts Residency, American Composer’s Forum Grant, NEXMAP Sounding Out California Composer’s Award, Elizabeth Mills Crawford Award in Composition.  Her installations, photographs, and videos have been exhibited or screened at the Staunton International Film Festival (VA), the Cutting Edge Film Festival, The LAB (CA), Warehouse 1-10 (NM), Indiana University East’s “Art + Science” Juried Exhibition (IN), Allegany Arts Council Juried Photography Exhibition (MD), Brand 44 Works on Paper Annual National Juried Exhibition (CA), and Madelife (CO). She has been a Visiting Professor at Mills College and San Francisco State University, and Visiting Artist at Eastern Washington University.

This concert took place on June 11, 2017 at the Goldman Theater at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California.

Event Program

PROGRAM NOTES

Recognition (2015)
In three movements
for prepared piano, sine waves, and “Macro-Cymatic Instrument”
There is a connection between the surface of our skin and water in the cells of our bodies, and it is vibrating. Recognition invites you to experience a unified scale of sensation,and immerse in an intricate dance of music and visual motion. Exclusively in black in white, the gesture of the light on water turns reminiscent of pen and ink: the animation of our vibrational states by an imaginary hand. Each movement is composed specifically for the visual motion of cymatic audio at the macro-photographic scale. All visuals are created from the sound exactly as heard, using my custom-built visual music instrument. The “Macro-Cymatic Instrument” is made of a cedar soundboard with a small reservoir carved into it holding a thin layer of water. It was fabricated at the Paul Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency in 2014. The work was composed, recorded, and edited in November 2015 at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts Residency, Wyoming. It was an Official Selection at LA Cine, Staunton International Film Festival and Cutting Edge Film Festival.

White Sparks (2016)
White Sparks is the story of the birth. Enveloping ourselves in nature can spark our creative spirit, rejuvenate us, and ignite our life force and core humanity. Utilizing the latest model of the “Macro-Cymatic Instrument” created at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, this instrument features translucence and programmed LED lighting. White Sparks is from the album Star Core, published by Thrill Jockey Records in 2016 and available in CD/LP/download.

The Weight of the World Holds Us Together (2017)
live performance
We can often feel burdened or overwhelmed by the events around us, but this feeling has the ability to bring us closer and trigger collective action. An irregular pulse builds into a rhythmic togetherness, with the pulse of our breath, vision, and water. First premiered at the Buchla Memorial Concerts in April 2017.

Marielle V Jakobsons Program Cover

Click here to download a PDF copy of the program for The Nature of Music 5 – Marielle V Jakobsons.

Event Media: Video

Live Performance
Marielle V Jakobsons

Marielle Jacobsons in performance during her appearance in The Nature of Music, a series of talks/performances with musicians whose work incorporates elements of the natural environment or environmentalism. The Nature of Music is produced by Other Minds in conjunction with the David Brower Center, and performances take place at the Brower Center’s Goldman Theater in Berkeley.

Conversation: Marielle V Jakobsons
With Charles Amirkhanian

Marielle Jacobsons in conversation with Other Minds Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian during her appearance in The Nature of Music, a series of talks/performances with musicians whose work incorporates elements of the natural environment or environmentalism. The Nature of Music is produced by Other Minds in conjunction with the David Brower Center, and performances take place at the Brower Center’s Goldman Theater in Berkeley.

Photos from the event

Photos by Mark Abramson

Artist Media

Undone (official music video)
Marielle V Jakobsons

Undone is from Marielle V Jakobsons’ album Star Core, out on Thrill Jockey. Directed by Tana Sprague and cinematography by Omid Zoufounon. Filmed in the Yuba River.

White Sparks (official music video)
Marielle V Jakobsons

White Sparks is from Marielle V Jakobsons’ album Star Core, out on Thrill Jockey. Video created by Marielle V Jakobsons, using her Macro-Cymatic Instrument.

Close Search

Start typing and press Enter to search