ContinuuCon 2018 Schedule and ContinuuConcert Program Announced

ContinuuCon 2018, the Third International Haken Continuum Conference, is coming up in just a few weeks, and organizers have announced the schedule of daytime presentations and performances, along with the program for the culminating ContinuuConcert on the final evening of the event.

ContinuuCon 2018 takes place April 26–28, 2018, at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), located in the Pompidou Centre in Paris, France. This year will be is the first time the now-annual music conference occurs outside of the United States.

Two full days of presentations and performances are scheduled. Highlights include

  • Grammy Award winner Éric Mouquet explaining how he uses the Continuum for recording and performing with Deep Forest
  • French composer Jean Baptiste Favory demonstrating musique concrète composition techniques from his latest album
  • Canadian composer and software designer Edmund Eagan on performance technique and the inner workings of the Continuum’s sound engine (which he designed)
  • University of Illinois professor (and Continuum creator) Lippold Haken on recent advancements in the Continuum’s technology

An opening reception for conference attendees will be held on Thursday night at Gallerie IRCAM, with a dinner on Friday night at the Le Procope, a brasserie dating back to the year 1686.

The full ContinuuCon schedule can be found on the ContinuuCon website.

The two-day conference will culminate in ContinuuConcert, a unique, two-hour musical performance at the evening of April 28th in La Gaîté Lyrique Auditorium. The public is invited to attend, and tickets are available via weezevent.com. A program with an international bent, performers include composers and musicians from France, Portugal, Finland, Canada, and the United States. Artists will perform original works, as well as a suite composed by Paul Hindemith for Trautonium.

Music from the 2017 ContinuuConcert provides the soundtrack for this overview video:

For a look back last year’s ContinuuCon in Asheville, North Carolina, including videos of some of the daytime presentations, check out our article from last summer.

Tickets and more information are available on the Web at weezevent.com/continuucon and continuucon.com.

Designed by Dr. Lippold Haken and manufactured by Haken Audio, the Continuum is an electronic musical instrument allowing unprecedented real-time expressivity. With a greater pitch range than a traditional 88-note MIDI keyboard, the Continuum offers continuous multidimensional performance control for every finger. Inside the instrument is the EaganMatrix, a user-programmable, digital modular synthesizer that takes advantage of the Continuum’s subtle and dramatic musical possibilities.

12 thoughts on “ContinuuCon 2018 Schedule and ContinuuConcert Program Announced

  1. If only average people could afford them….oh well. I messaged them about making a single octave economy model but they never responded…..figures.

    1. Not so much they as he, the inventor builds each one himself personally by hand. He doesn’t even really pay himself a reasonable salary per hour.

      The concepts have been copied into other instruments though which are less expensive, why not try GarageBand on the iPad, a ROLI Seaboard, or a Linnstrument?

      1. I don’t like those alternatives sadly. The idea behind the economy model would be to get customers foot in the door, which would give them a chance to experience and live with the product and its capabilities. This would leave them wanting to upgrade to a bigger, more usable size, thus generating more sales of the main versions…..atleast thats the theory….and those who could not afford to upgrade could atleast have something. I am not saying make it cheap, just make it a few hundread dollars; that way its no major investment. It would be a great way to test the waters and see how you jive with it.

    2. I don’t think a single octave model would be a good idea at all honestly. I think you’d need at least thirty keys which isn’t too far from the half size and that wouldn’t knock much off the price. The “KEYS” are smaller than on a traditional keyboard because the black keys go all the way through, one octave would be tiny, and it plays really well two handed your left hand doesn’t have knobs or wheels to fiddle with and actually stays on the instrument while playing, one octave wouldn’t cut it.

      If you really want one I would suggest what I did which is sell off some of your gear you own now to help pay for it. Start saving, sell some plasma maybe some sperm whatever it takes

      1. Well to be honest, with the money I would rather buy a MODAL 002. The single octave version would be great if you could change the scaling and say use it for guitar or bass…violin….cello…..ect…would provide plenty of keys for realistic simulation….for synth sounds though yes it would be a bit limited.

  2. RB is right and it goes to the core of what’s “wrong” with this general family of alternate controllers, namely their limited place in the tool kit of commonly known instruments.

    Roli seems to be overcoming this syndrome better than I would have expected, with a well-matched synth and the affordable 2-octave model. Besides, its far more of a monophonic soloing instrument like an oboe than a polyphonic synth in the usual sense. The Continuum is the definition of a boutique instrument. The real limitation is the commitment of both the number players and enough listeners to embrace its unusual results.

    You can’t fully play any of these instruments out of the box, so its on a long curve from people who prefer a table full of sync’d Volcas to those brave few who become weird virtuosos. Watch a few YouTube videos on these things and you’ll understand right away. Oi! Keith Richards ain’t gonna play no Roli!

    1. Are you saying that electronic musicians shouldn’t have real instruments? Or that electronic instruments that actually take practice and musicianship are somehow deficient?

      The only thing “wrong’ with expressive electronic instruments is that most people that buy electronic gear are not serious musicians, but they’re hobbyists. This is no better or worse than the people that get djembes to play in drum circles or that used to buy home organs.

      The market for serious musicians is just smaller than the hobbyist market, and it’s been like that for a hundred years. So there’s nothing ‘wrong’ about it.

      Anyone that’s spent any significant time with a Continuum, though, realizes it runs circles around any of the current alternatives. If you’re a string player, though, the LinnStrument is probably the best option.

      1. No, I’m mainly saying that I wish more people took up the left-field controllers so there’d be a greater chance of having a few real trailblazers appear. These things aren’t at all deficient, just underused. The Roli is like science fiction brought to life, but its also not plug-&-play. The guitar synthesizer was like a fussy add-on for years until Adrian Belew started making bionic elephant sounds with it. It takes some serious time to find your voice, or not. I have too much keyboard time invested to switch ‘interfaces’ now, but I’m not against exploring at all. I get some good use from an XKey. Its an odd, flat little thing, but its more sensitive than it looks. BTW, it all costs whatever it costs to play this game, but you can link two of the smallest Rolis together and have a four-octave instrument semi-cheaply. That opens it up a lot more, IMO.

  3. Having recently purchased a second hand half size Continuum i’ll say that yes it was expensive but it feels like a real instrument and therefore has a price attached. With the existence of Roli I don’t really get the ‘make controllers for the masses’ argument. If you want a ‘cheaper’ MPE controller get a Roli – accepting that it won’t have the same sensitivity of a higher priced instrument. The digital modular inside the Continuum is very deep and wonderful. People spend thousands on analog modular (often incrementally) – the price of a Continuum isn’t that unacceptable (especially second hand) in comparison.

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