Group improvisation as triangulation? Fierce solidarity? Wet, squishy electrochemical processes? And science fiction, and the fictions of science? In Ettore Garzia’s Percorsi Musicali article, Garzia asks me about my thoughts on “art and on the way we should approach the reality of the twenty-first century”:
As for the present-day hellfire 2.0 of the world, whether from strong-men political figures, or the next tech breakthrough, we’re surrounded by promises of simple solutions, and seductive stories of salvation and redemption. In this context, creative peoples, I think, can offer counter-narratives to complicate and refute those easy solutions; to instead help us face the complex, the contradictory, the uncertain and ambiguous.
As for me, empathy, compassion and solidarity remain the reasons I continue to engage with interactive, social music practices and communities. But these practices and communities are flawed and imperfect—they are deeply, deeply human after all—and I think it’s important that we remain aware of the possibility of violence and abuse in our practices, and work to take consent, power, conflict, desire and agency seriously. [Read the rest…]
Proxemics spreads electroacoustic power and a sense of movement, thanks to many elements, the fragmentation of the guitar, the plethora of unnatural sounds brought into play by Thomas and the small and intermittent manipulations of Lara’s sax. I discover a narration inside, but also a void, a melancholic vein. Is that so?
Lara [Jones] and Pat [Thomas] are doing some of the most exciting work in enrolling electronics into improvised performance right now. Their approaches, as different as they are, are informed by present-day technological developments while being irreverent towards those same tech enterprises; they are as avant-garde as they come while deeply engaging with the electronic dance vernacular.
I also hear that messy, contradictory, rolling narrative side to Juno 3, but, more than melancholy, I hear, with Proxemics, something angrier and confrontational—I feel, at times, that the music spits and snarls. [Read the rest…]
Read the rest of the article to catch me talking about how the works of certain writers and filmmakers have affected my work in refracting improvisation through narrative techniques and tropes; the reason for choosing the trio context (and the differences between Eris 136199, Juno 3 and Gonggong 225088); and whether I would ever return to constructing musical automata in this post-ChatGPT condition.
Track listing: Derealization I (4:07), Derealization II (4:57), Derealization III (3:52), Derealization IV (6:19), Derealization V (5:55), Derealization VI (3:47), Proxemics I (5:05), Proxemics II (3:54), Proxemics III (6:10), Proxemics IV (7:15), Proxemics V (6:10), Proxemics VI: Rumble (5:13). Total duration: 62:44.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
Track listing: Ballad of Tensegrity I (≥ 5:12), Ballad of Tensegrity II (2:28), Peculiar Velocities I (3:46), Peculiar Velocities II (3:36), Sleeping Dragon (5:22), D-Loop I (≥ 6:16), D-Loop II (5:13), Polytely I (≥ 5:01), Polytely II: Breakdown (5:33), Anagnorisis I (2:09), Anagnorisis II (2:19). Total duration ≥ 46:54.
* If you’re wondering what the asterisk on ‘#onetakestudy’ is about, it’s because this one—the only one in the series—is not the first take. I recorded the first couple of phrases on an aborted take before starting again—I had not felt quite ready yet.
I’ve taken the title, ‘Salvo and Echo,’ from Doctor Nerve’s The Monkey Farm—I hope you don’t mind, Nick. If you don’t know it, check out The Monkey Farm, it’s my favorite Nerve album.
Blue-green iridescence
(Crunch and more scatter)
A vacuum of warning
Here be dragons.
It’s been a while since Gonggong played in the trio’s hometown, and it’s been longer since we’ve had an opportunity to really stretch out (we’ll be playing two complete sets at Kühlspot). It’s always a joy to be performing with Camila and Yorgos, and I am super excited to see where the music takes us (and where we take the music). One of the many things I love about this group is how everyone is inviting the others to occupy spaces by actively creating constantly shifting gaps and cracks in the arrangement and moment-by-moment composition.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
This was one of those videos that I almost decided against posting. I think this one really highlights the discrepancy, or dissonance, between the visual and the auditory. I felt like maybe uploading the video might take away from the magic of the listening experience (if that makes sense). Reveal[ing] too much of the nuts’n’bolts and pulleys’n’curtains’n’backdrops behind the sounding processes. Anyway, I love the pace—tides ebb’n’flow—that Yorgos and Camila created here. [More…]
What became ‘Niche Shift I’ was, for me, the key transitional passage from the album—the part of the performance that really caught the entire trio by surprise on the evening. Enjoy.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
Taking a short break from The Big Hustle, and all the extra-curricular activities that surround music (to borrow an expression from CT), to do this short improvisation. Enjoy the noise!
