Hey all, a review of our beloved Marathon has been posted at the Berksire Eagle…

(sorry folks,  Berkshire Eagle ‘archived’ their link, so you have to pay for it… we’re working on an acceptable solution…)

So I went through my old files and dug up those two files I promised, which hopefully will recall our conversation of what it’s like to just get started with somewhat free improvisation.  This was my way in, through electronics.  Your mileage may vary.  But however you start the journey, it ends up in a beautiful and somewhat magical place.  That much I can promise.  But at the same time, I don’t even want to begin revisiting the weird and scary feelings of just jumping in the water…

Here is a description…

Sometimes I Feel Like an Acetylene Torch (1991)

This was the first one ever… Electric Violin and Roland R8 Drum Machine through Lexicon Processors, controlled with Midi FootPedals.  you’ll hear a little of the concerto player in there…

Asthma (1991)

This is the result of my buddy Michael Lowenstern really setting me into the framework of creating boundaries… “You can only play in your top register, and you got three minutes… GO!”   I went.  sounded like difficulty breathing, so we called it that.

From Andie Springer’s question about simple, low-impact recording, whether it’s a lecure or recital, or even for field recording…

First, choose whether you’d like to record through your laptop, or through a small hardware device from which you then transfer files from TO your laptop for editing, then follow the links below for software and hardware recording options. To actually see the three reviewed hardware devices, see myself, Evan Z, or Gregg August for a real-time look and feel. (holding these things in your hand matters… ) more after the break. oh, and if you have more to offer, please leave a comment by clicking the comments link! lets get a discussion going in these last days…

Stereo Microphones 

Hardware

M-Audio MicroTrack recorder 

Zoom HD4

iRiver H120D 
Software

Audacity

Audio Hijack Pro and Fission

Wiretap 

Transcribing

The Amazing Slow Downer

Transcribe

Thanks Eli, and thanks Emily, for jumping in in Unwritten Music! (click on the more break below for the whole post)

The other day at Soundpainting Emily mentioned that San Fransisco’s ROVA Saxophone Quartet uses a system of cues to structure their improvisations. While I haven’t found any mention of the specific gestures they use (I haven’t seen them live), on their website Larry Ochs gives a substantial in-depth description of their improvisation piece Radar, here:

http://rova.org/foodforthought/radar.html

ROVA is turning 30 this year, and has been pursuing structured improvisation almost their whole career…

Similar to and inspired by John Zorn’s improvisational game pieces such as Cobra, ROVA’s pieces have taken many forms over the years.  Their most recent incarnation is a piece called Radar, an elaborate system based largely on rule-based improvisational “games”, but with the freedom to shape the music in the moment with “events” and “variables”.

“Games” (which Ochs calls “process cues”) are systems of rules for improvising, often producing a specific musical effect (check out “pygmy” or “cloud crystals”).  As the guys in ROVA are seasoned improv vets, they deal more with “who plays when” rather than “who plays what”.

The concept here that most resembles Soundpainting–since it deals directly with basic musical gestures–is that of (musical) “Events” (and possibly “variables”, though they aren’t really discusses in the article).  Example multiplayer events:

-field
-machine sound
-wave
-drone
-microdrone

A list of “Interruptor” events reveals some more similarities:

-sound block
-solo over group
-memory cue

The article continues with a glossary and explanation of common cues used in Radar over the past 5 years; rest assured that “A fuller glossary of cued events employed by Rova over the past 20 years is being compiled.”

—-
Here’s a great hour-and-a-half discussion with ROVA on their interests as improvisor-composers, notably how they used compositional elements to loosen the habits so often found in free improvisation.  They also mention that going not-for-profit made it easier to commission composers (Alvin Curran, Fred Frith, Anthony Braxton, John Adams, Terry Riley…) with similar concerns.  Most of the clip is about working with graphical scores and film:

http://www.archive.org/details/IMP_2005_06_05

Here’s another link with video (RealMedia) and some neat promo notes (.pdf) for an educational workshop including some basic improvisation games and interesting questions about improvising:

http://www.kqed.org/arts/places/spark/profile.jsp?id=4823

So now that Mark has opened up the wonders of the vortex to you… part of you probably wants to get lost in the creative instrument toy abyss… go to it!

Bill was kind enough to put together a little paragraph of links for you… and here it is after the jump… (straight from Bill)

Here are a couple links that might be useful for those who want to
pursue their own O of OI or expand their experience with contact
pickups:

Richard Lerman is composer and sound artist at the Arizona State West
Campus– he’s been working with piezo pickups and various homemade
electronics for a couple decades now.  His home page is

http://www.west.asu.edu/rlerman/

and his very helpful document detailing how to build piezo disk
pickups as well as simple traditional microphones and mixers is at

http://www.west.asu.edu/rlerman/PDF%20Files/Audio%20Schematics2.pdf

A very good book that goes into basic details of circuit bending as
well as other DIY electronic music is Nic Collins’ _Homemade
Electronic Music_.  It’s on Amazon at

http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415975921/ref=sr_1_3/103-1614230-7745464?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185295832&sr=1-3

For anyone whose local hardware store doesn’t stock some of the items
we’ve been using in  O of OI, almost anything hardware-ish can be had
from McMaster-Carr, whose webpage is

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Happy building!

To all of you who joined me for the Computer and Electronics seminar this year, I hope some things peaked your interest! Below are the links I promised to you, (thanks, Bill Sallak…)

oh, by the way… I’m going to set up my gear next week in my studio so that you can come in and play with it! Y’all deserve some creative time to yourselves with some new digital experiences!

http://www.ableton.com (Live/downloadable demo)

http://www.ableton.com/kid-beyond (Kid Beyond page at Ableton site)

http://www.essej.net (SooperLooper freeware)

http://jackosx.com (JackOSX audio connection protocol that may be
necessary to use Sooperlooper’s GUI with Mac OSX, IF you want to use it as a standalone, but trust me, you’ll use up the second third of your life trying to figure Jack’s routing options out. host it in live or an equivalent program instead.)

http://www.loopers-delight.com (Tons of looping resources and forums.)

http://www.cycling74.com (Max/MSP)

http://www.propellerheads.se (Reason)

http://www.motu.com/products (Ultralite audio interface/other audio interfaces)

http://www.audiomidi.com (online merchant for all your hardware and software needs. good descriptions of products as well)

http://www.sweetwater.com (ditto)

http://www.lrbaggs.com (violin pickups)

http://www.appliedmic.com (Applied Microphone Technology/wind
instrument pickups)

David Gage Realist cello and bass pickup

http://audio-technica.com (Audio Technica microphones)

http://www.dpamicrophones.com (Danish Pro Audio microphones)

Todd’s MIDI foot controller is the Behringer FCB1010. It is available at…
http://www.audiomidi.com/FCB1010-Midi-Foot-Controller–P4243.aspx ($145+ship)

The last piece on Todd Reynolds’ recital, “Lasso and Corral” was by Dan Trueman, who also spent some time with fellow composers during seminar. Many people asked questions about the composition, its click-track, and origin of thought.

From the composer:

“In the study of musical scales and meters, the notion of well-formedness usually manifests itself as a set of specific constraints. For instance, one common constraint is maximal evenness; in the case of a well-formed diatonic scale, the seven notes will be distributed as evenly as possible across the twelve half-steps that divide the octave. Similarly, the beats that define a meter will be spread out as evenly as possible across the smallest pulse that evenly divides the measure…”

but you can investigate the whole kit n’ caboodle by clicking this link.

and find out more about Hardanger fiddling and festivals here.

Dan’s groups, Trollstilt and QQQ live on his website as well.

Here’s the SoundPainting™ Site I mentioned in our first unwritten music section.

and here’s Walter Thompson using the ‘improvise – open’ gesture.  enjoy!

From the artist herself, in her words:

“The installation consists of a figurative sculpture, (1/2 life-size), holding a dust broom, as one would  a violin, and standing on one of many mounds in a dimly lit room. A projected video image creates an animated, elongated shadow emanating from the feet of the still figure; extending across the floor and bending up the wall. The sound that fills the spaces between the floating mounds speaks of longing. I am attempting to create a disjuncture between the large, distorted, active shadow and the still, smallish and bleached-out 3-dimensional sculptural component. I want the shadow to loom large- full of  life, potential, desire and creativity-  while the plaster sculpture is more representative of our limitations. My hope is that the piece will visually charge that physical and psychological distance between desire, and actual possibility.

  My work seeks to comment on the human condition by combining found material with figurative elements. I embrace the laborious and process-oriented aspects of art making, finding them integral to the ultimate meaning of the piece. I also want to heighten the physical presence of the work to enhance the experience for the viewer. To that end, the sculptures rarely rest securely or passively on the ground; instead they hover, envelop, confront, float or involve repetitious mechanized movement or projected elements, reinforcing the unsettling, shifting emotions that are the focus of my work.  My greatest concern is with animating bizarre and perplexing aspects of our human condition I want the work to recall moments in our lives that resound with humor and humility, while acknowledging the ineffable position we occupy in this world.”

Music uploading now… Evan will post stuff soon…