Re: Musicianship, live technique, etc...

[nyfac <nyfac2@nyfac.com>]

> >First of all, when working with other musicians, how important is
> >communication while playing, especially when all of the material is 90 
>to
> >100% improvised?  I mean like giving each other cues, or just staying in
> >touch with the other guy/guys to see where they're at.
> 
> I never look at the partner either. Sound is enough. Picture can disturb,
> pushing you back to material world.
> I depends whether you intend to follow the partner or the original 
>inspiration.


I rely quite a bit on eye-contact.  It seems to me that if you can tell
what your partners are doing just by listening to them, then you may be
in danger of being predictable.  As far as being a material disturbance,
eye contact between partners is intuitive and becomes second nature.

> >Secondly:  I'm beginning to understand breaks in composition.  I mean
> >dead spaces, quiet spaces, quieter spaces - increasing dynamic range.
> >When we work together, one recipe we use is one person will do a complex
> >drone, the other will do rhythmic sequential stuff.  One problem I've 
>been
> >having is that the music just goes on and on and there aren't any
> >breaks... it feels like a need to keep the music going no matter what, 
>and
> >this seems really tiring after a while, like "hey, we're trying to
> >overload your circuits, relentlessly".

I have a bad habit of doing this, too.


> 
> >I was asked to provide some sound installations
> >for an event I was also playing at.  I decided to come up with some 
>audio
> >"fountains".  I made a tape of my modular synthesizer, plus mixing in
> >some other tape material.  The idea was to play them on some custom tape
> >decks that will play a cassette endlessly, in mono, not repeating the
> >music for 4 hours. I also kept in mind that these "fountains" would be
> >playing in quieter spaces, away from the main events where people might 
>be
> >relaxing or having conversations, so I made a point of letting the music
> >play, but then recording - often minutes - of dead silence or very quiet
> >passages.  The music would stop as some fountains do periodically.  I 
>was
> >hoping this would provide both entertainment and relaxation or refuge.

A friend of mine did something similar to this, but instead of using
canned audio he ransacked my studio for every imaginable processor to
toast radio broadcasts and the heavily effected drum machine output.  It
was swell.