In Neural Seams, Leila Bordreuil premieres a new solo amplified cello work for Lampo, informed by Josef Albers’ concepts of color. The multichannel piece toys with sonic illusions that result from combining subtly different spatialized sounds.

Essential to her musical aesthetic is the expression of humans’ neuro-somatic imperfections, which she chooses to magnify through extreme amplification of very quiet playing, revealing microscopic gestures that are otherwise inaudible to the human ear.

Bordreuil uses an assemblage of microphones placed on various parts of the cello to create unique sound distortion possibilities that transform the cello into a polyphonic instrument, enhancing the instrument’s diversity of timbres. This performance is her first in Chicago.

Leila Bordreuil (b.1990, Brooklyn, N.Y.) is a Brooklyn-based cellist and composer from Aix-en-Provence, France. Her cello playing focuses on the inherent sonic qualities of her instrument, paying careful attention to timbre and texture. Bordreuil challenges conventional cello practice through extended techniques and imaginative amplification methods without effects pedals. Her composed works frequently incorporate sound-spatialization by way of site-specific pieces and multichannel installations. Collaborators include Marina Rosenfeld, Eli Keszler, Nate Wooley, Bill Nace, Chris Corsano, SENYAWA, Tamio Shiraishi, Weasel Walter and Michael Foster. She has performed at the Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, The Stone and Issue Project Room in New York; Café Oto, London; All Ears Festival, Oslo; Ausland, Berlin; Ftarri, Tokyo; and many basements across the U.S. Bordreuil was a 2017 MacDowell Fellow in Composition, a visiting composer at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague in 2017, and a 2016 artist-in-residence at Issue Project Room.

Presented in partnership with the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago; organized in cooperation with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts