Subject: improvisation
From: Lawrence Casserley (leo@chiltern.demon.co.uk)
Date: Sun Aug 11 1996 - 07:42:11 EDT
In message <960808120330_174167981@emout19.mail.aol.com>,
Dolphy5948@aol.com writes
>
I would be curious to know who here works in the
realm of improvisation. It seems that there is a definite 'distaste"
for any
form of electronics in most "improvised cricles" with the exception of
such
luminaries as Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, and Roscoe Mitchell.
.......SNIP
>They say that the two ideas do not mix but I do disagree!! Any comments
>would be welcome.
I am a composer/performer of electroacoustic music who "works in the
realm of improvisation" frequently. I have been privileged to work with
many of the leading British free improvisers, eg Barry Guy, Evan Parker,
Alan Tomlinson, Vanessa Mackness, and many other improvising musicians
such as Melvyn Poore and Simon Desorgher.
I take a very different approach to the interactive computer work of
George Lewis and others. I work principally with live processing of
other musicians' sound, but I see the processing as an instrument in its
own right. I think of myself, and encourage the other musicians to think
of me, as simply another player in the group. But I play an instrument
that builds on what they are doing and invites them to respond by
playing what will work with my processing. Yes, there is an ethos among
many improvisers that they must be totally in control of their own
sound. I am gratified that more than one musician has confessed to
revising that view after working with me. .....End of commercial! ;-)>
An important strand of my current work is developing new ways of
controlling live processing so that my response can be as immediate and
subtle as theirs. In 1997 I will undertake a project at STEIM,
Amsterdam, in collaboration with Barry Guy and Evan Parker, to explore
further possibilities. I hope to begin developing new interfaces for
performance.
All my current work is based round the IRCAM Signal Processing
Workstation, which I consider to be the only currently viable system for
this sort of work (champions of other systems are invited to fire off
salvos at that!). I will give one example of a processing model that I
am finding extremely fruitful at present.
I have implemented a delay line that can be played by a DrumKat MIDI
controller (I trained as a percussionist as well as a composer). Sounds
played into the delay trigger a timer; a stroke on the DrumKat reads the
time from the last sound and sets the delay to that time, so I can
replay the instrumentalist's sounds at will. The replay is fed to a
Hilbert Transform frequency shifter, with different offsets keyed by the
different pads and various sets of offsets selected by footswitches. I
also have a footpedal control of delay feedback. I have used this solo
(I improvise vocals as input) and in duets and ensembles with other
musicians. Interestingly it has also fed into my pre-composed music. My
recent piece "The Garden of Forking Paths" for Guitar and ISPW uses a
version of this instrument in one section.
I will close with a question. I see the computer as an instrument -
while some others see it as a performer. Which of these views of the
computer, or indeed which other views, do cecdiscuss subscribers find
most useful in their work? In particular what do other improvisers
think?
Lawrence Casserley
-- Lawrence Electronic Operations -Tel +44 1494 481381 -FAX +44 1494 481454 Signal Processing for Contemporary Music -email leo@chiltern.demon.co.uk
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