Well, I went to the The Now Now launch last night and it was a lot more enjoyable than I'd hoped.
The setting: The Abercrombie, a gloomy but very cool pub in the grand shadow of the condemned CUB Brewery on Broadway. An impressive crowd - full of confident, alternative types with fawny beards and crooked haircuts, giving their absolute attention to what is, essentially, pretty difficult music (I'm always astonished by this - after enduring the Conservatorium, where everyone was supposedly devoting themselves to studying advanced sound yet shuddered at having to listen to actual new music, where the hell do all these young, beer-drinking arty types who actually bother to listen COME from?).
Three sets: first up Gail Priest whose work I really like. It's kind of 'smart ambient', not too easy but not busy either. Gail uses complex washes of sound but is content to simply play within their space; it’s not especially cerebral, which I think is good. Again, the crowd was remarkably focused on her performance considering all we could see was just a face and a laptop.
Then a curious duo between percussionists Robbie Avenaieum and Dale Gorfinkel. At first I couldn't see what they were up to but later discovered that they'd hooked up various little machines - a rotating CD, a jerking suspended drumstick - to automatically play an assortment of percussion: a bass drum, a tom, a vibraphone. It was a really satisfying listen, even though I didn't know how it was being made - a kind of deadbeat, soothing minimalism that sat perfectly with the traffic noise outside.
Lastly a trio - bass, keys, voice - featuring one of my favourite keyboardists at the moment Adrian Klumpes. This group: not so satisfying. I liked Adrian's old-school keyboard noises, the obnoxious electronic swells and occasional weird groove but all up this was too much like the kind of self-conscious instrumental jams that you get at the end of 'special edition' CD reissues of classic albums; you know, after the intensity of creating a solid body of work everyone winds down, lets off steam and noodles off for a good half hour. OK, perhaps I'm being unkind - but this was the one set that vindicated my earlier comments about improv ...
Anyway, all up the gig was pretty good with an excellent vibe and I'm definitely up for skiving off work to get to The Blue Mountains gigs in January.
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Critical Mass 2008, CarriageWorks, Sydney
Links
TOP 10 FILMS
- 2001: A Space Oddysey
- Blow Up
- Cremaster 3
- Dancer In The Dark
- Elephant
- Funny Games
- Irreversible
- My Own Private Idaho
- Orlando
- Tous Le Matins Du Monde
TOP 10 VISUAL ARTISTS
- Andy Warhol
- Bill Henson
- Damien Hirst
- Francis Bacon
- Jeff Wall
- Kiki Smith
- Matthew Barney
- Rachael Freeman
- Rachel Whiteread
- Shaun Gladwell
TOP 10 ALBUMS/PIECES
- Autechre "Version 7.30"
- Bjork "Vespertine"
- Boards Of Canada "Geoggaddi"
- Gyrogy Ligeti "Requiem"
- Michael Gordon "Decasia"
- Morton Feldman "Rothko Chapel"
- My Bloody Valentine "Loveless"
- Philip Glass "Einstein On The Beach"
- Steve Reich "Music For 18 Musicians"
- The Necks "Aether"
8 comments:
hey, we don't ALL have crooked haircuts, ya know!
I, too, came away from the gig with a renewed confirmation that some improv really is quite wonderful. Like any art form, of course, some is also not wonderful. But overall it was another learning curve for me, and a reminder that i should never slam a door shut and leave it permanently locked (in this case the door being improv) - open-mindedness is a great invention.
On another note, I had an interesting discussion with Dan about laptop artists. I always feel that there's something missing from this kind of performance. Maybe it's just that the visual and physical elements of performing are so ingrained in me (and in the musical culture as a whole) that sitting watching someone make a few subtle flicks of the wrist and stare seemingly blankly at a screen for 20 minutes just leaves me wanting... the music nerd in me would love to see a projection of the computer screen, so we can actually see what's going on, and how the sounds are created and manipulated. The removal of the physicality of live performance also seems to remove some of the display of emotion I would expect from an artist.
Anyway, just a few little thoughts...
:-)
Well, i didn't mean your haircut per se .. it is very even and straight. :-)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I must say I didn't necessarily come away with a renewed respect for improv, I just happened to enjoy the gig more than I thought I would. I guess the first two sets were more or less 'stuctured improvisations', in that I'm sure the artists had a pretty good ball park notion of what was going to happen and their pieces simply allowed for a certain fluidity in realizing that. And I think fluidity is fine - I'm just suspicious about dogmatically spur-of-the-moment thinking where the broader architecture can't really be shaped so clearly (the strength of the architecture being one of my primary interests).
Then again I'm also open to the idea that being able to shape the future of the piece 'in the moment' as it were can be preferable to a piece that follows a pre-planned architecture that may not suit the actual material.
I'm actually fine about minimal performance gestures so the stasis of laptop performance doesn't really bother me. In fact I generally prefer the interpretive openness such blankness allows me as a listener. So many performers are 'show-people' in that they see it as their job to entertain - and I think there's nothing more off-putting than a performer bunging on a pained facial expression to try and communicate the music when I'd rather just let the music speak for itself.
Having said that I'm all for a bit of intelligent theatre; there's also nothing more off-putting than really, really BORED performers who are simply going through the motions in another way!
I also hate the cliche of people thinking they HAVE to look blank and uninterested during a laptop performance. Let's just say I hate overbearing dogma full-stop - let everyone do whatever the hell they want. And reap the audience reaction they want and/or deserve. :-)
yes i do agree with the comment that so many performers over-emote their movements, but i was actually referring more to the actual physical involvement required to make a 'traditional' instrument work! every instrument requires some kind of physical interaction, the extent of which will vary according to the physical expressions of each individual performer. i, personally, am a bit of a 'mover', i know others (on my instrument) who are 'extreme movers', and yet again some who are pretty much static. other instruments are by their very nature more physical, for exampe strings and percussion. but the laptop requires no more physical exertion than a subtle movement of a hand (ie moving/clicking a mouse or keys), most of which is hidden from the audience's view in any case. it's that basic physical interaction that i miss with laptop performance. it's not clear to an observer that there is in fact any connection between performer and instrument, something which - as a performer - i feel is at the very heart of musical performance.
so, it's not so much about wanting laptop performers to force facial expressions or exaggerate every flick of the wrist, but more that the nature of the 'instrument' is simply a non-physical one, which leaves me, personally, feeling very disconnected from the performance.
:-)
Janet - how did you feel about performing in JD's "Beginning to Collapse"... coz no one moved much in that and yet they were all playing acoustic instruments... do you think JD ran the risk of alienating his audience through the use of minimal music material (and subsequently minimal gesture)? It just struck me that your issues aren't really laptop specific...
oh, and Jules - I have a very crooked haircut AND I'm an ex-con... where does that leave me?
hmm, i posted earlier but it doesn't seem to have showed up...
ALH: i think you and JD are missing my point. it's not so much about the extent of performer's movements, but rather the inherent connection between performer and instrument. on 'traditional' instruments there is a clear connection between the two, as it is the direct input of the performer which creates the sound (eg the breath of a wind player, the hand movements of a percussionist or keyboardist, the depression of strings on a string instrument). however in the case of a laptop performer i lose that innate connection. i am unable to sense the direct relationship between performer and instrument.
i personally just don't feel the same emotional connection to a laptop performance, largely due to this issue.
i wonder - what about piano performance? unless you happen to be on the left-hand side of the auditorium there's no way of knowing what the performer's hands are doing. isn't that the same as the laptop?
and just like any instrument, surely the fluency of one's fingerwork to some extent determines how expressive a laptop performance will be?
i think even in piano performance (not on the left side) there is a significant element of at least implied physicality - the feet operating the pedals, the movement of the player to the outer ends of the keyboard, etc... much more so than for a laptop...
i could keep going on about it, but it just comes down to the simple fact that i don't feel the same element of personal expression and involvement from a laptop performer. it just doesn't do it for me in LIVE performance...
sigh...
so are you coming up for the actual festival?
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