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Stefan Smulovitz: Painting Music, Making Light

Courtesy Dianna Arnspiger

By Lawrence Peryer
December 20, 2024
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What fascinates me about both science and music is trying to understand things deeply - finding those resonances of how things work. When you start grasping those connections, this beautiful little vibration happens.
—Stefan Smulovitz

Stefan Smulovitz

viola
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Stefan Smulovitz sits in his Roberts Creek studio, studying a delicate watercolor painting of circles and mountain forms. A gong rests nearby, ready to echo the round shapes that dance across the page. This is how "The Pier," the opening track of his album Bow & Brush (RedShift, 2024), came to life, finding musical gestures within visual ones.

"I look for structural elements first," Smulovitz explains. "In 'The Pier,' those little round things connect directly to gong hits. When one of these circles appears in the painting, you'll hear that resonance in the music."

The album started with a 2021 Vancouver New Music commission pairing Smulovitz with visual artist Nadina Tandy. The initial collaborative piece led to a full suite of twelve paintings and corresponding compositions. Each track runs three to four minutes—a deliberate choice by Smulovitz. "If you leave people wanting more, it's a beautiful feeling," he says. "Being shorter and more concise is actually more of a challenge."

His interpretations of Tandy's paintings encompass a rich sonic palette. Some pieces pair electric string melodies with bubbling synthesized textures, while others like "Maple Seed Pods" and "Owl Watching" use digitally-processed bowed sounds to create immersive environments. The striking "Quartz Veins" takes its cues from a dramatic red and purple wash adorned with fine etched lines, translating into ominous synthesizer pulses and distorted viola.

Smulovitz's background as a biochemist shapes his analytical yet deeply intuitive approach. "What fascinates me about both science and music is trying to understand things deeply—finding those resonances of how things work," he says. "When you start grasping those connections, this beautiful little vibration happens."

His work with film soundtracks sparked this interest in visual-musical connections. "One of the most important concerts I ever saw was

Bill Frisell

guitar, electric
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Frisell playing a live soundtrack to a Buster Keaton film," he says. Since then, he's scored over a hundred films with his ensemble Eye of Newt. "There's something about being in conversation with those images that creates structure. It gives you freedom of expression but also provides constraints because you're interacting with the film."

His studio houses an array of instruments both traditional and experimental. Beyond violin, viola and bass, there's the Dvina—an electronic instrument played with a bow—and waterphones that produce whale-like sounds. He developed his own software, Kenaxis, to manipulate sounds more like a musician than a computer. "I want physicality in my creative process. Live processing and improvisation matter more to me than perfect computer-generated loops."

"I try to find a few structural elements with each painting that would delineate some time progression," Smulovitz explains. "Then I take the emotional feeling it gives me and maybe do a melody based on that. First I record the structural elements to have a timeline base, then I can figure out what I want to do with everything else."

Before music claimed his full attention, Smulovitz worked in biochemistry labs. That scientific mindset still influences his compositions and collaborations with dancers, theater artists, and particle physicists. His LED-light-controlled conduction system, Polychora, has enabled performances from Vancouver to Athens, letting him guide ensembles through complex improvisations using light signals.

The album includes a booklet featuring all twelve paintings. "It changes how you experience the album when you look at the images," Smulovitz notes. He plans to present the work as an installation, with paintings displayed on music stands, each illuminated as its corresponding piece plays. "Visual art usually isn't time-based. This approach encourages people to spend more time with each piece."

Bow & Brush showcases Smulovitz's work across artistic boundaries—from live film scores to dance pieces to multimedia collaborations. Yet these twelve miniatures feel intimate, like private conversations between artist and composer, each bringing their own vocabulary to a shared creative space. The album captures the experimental spirit of Vancouver's creative music scene and the contemplative atmosphere of British Columbia's Sunshine Coast.

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