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Found Objects night one report
Hey everyone, just got back from night one at the Found Object festival. I
think it was a big success - well worth the sacrifice of a microphone, a
microphone holding device and several exploded cans of coke.
Moe! opened up with a very energetic set of unaltered sounds run directly
through the microphone. He banged it on stuff, smacked things together,
broke somebody's hot dog, and in general gave us an excellent opening
packed
full of non-stop excitement. Bitchin!
Ven Voisey then followed, utlizing an edp, a tape machine, and several
homemade contact mics. For the major musical element, he brought in a
contraption with spinning motor brushes that he operated against several
of
the objects (bike frame, coke cans, large metal pipe) to create sustained
noisy drones. This was interspersed with the sounds of a contact miked San
Francisco Chronicle. At one point, he handed out several of the louder
objects to audience members to contribute. I was coerced into riding the
pogo stick, and ride it I did.
Ernesto's set consisted specifically of the textures specifically created
by
rubbing the microphone against the rough surfaces strewn about him. Some
really interesting circular patterns came up with the 6 pack (now a 4
pack)
of coke, the springy kitty toy, and pizza box.
Then a couple guys came off the street and gave us free Red Bulls just for
the heck of it. Thanks guys.
SKIZMZ (pronounced "Skiz'ums" rather than "Skiz Mizz") was a group of four
musicians from the "Friday Night Music" recording sessions down in the
Menlo
Park area. They created some rather musical rhythms by combining
percussion
on louder metal objects with microphoned plastic bottles and scruncing
small
things. (Think of Einsturzende Neubauten and Stomp holding hands, only
without Blixa jumping in the air doing spin kicks.) At one point, the
smashing of several cans of soft drink occurred. My looks of horror were
pretty much an overreaction. The mess was surprisingly easy to clean up.
My
apologies and thanks to the audience members who were willing to get their
object submissions back sticky for the cause of music making. Also thanks
to
the store across the street for their unbeatable prices on quality mops.
In
the end, I felt guilty for stressing about the mess. 10 minutes later it
was
just "the funny thing that happened that night". It was quite good to have
them play, and they bought me a cheeseburger. (Thanks guys.)
Audiosports (Alberto Forero) prepared for his set by loading sounds of the
remaining dry objects while the rest of us were de-stickifying the main
stage area. By the time he started, he already had a supply of the object
sounds loaded into his two sequencers, and he turned out a fine set of
rhythmic musique concrete by using the rhythmic & pitch changing
capabilities of those, as well as some guitar squashboxes. Way to go
Alberto!
We had a decent crowd of people (25-30) show up. Some great object
submissions, too.
Tomorrow (Friday) night we have Jon Wagner, Mark Sottilaro, myself,
Jeremiah
Moore and Rick Walker (in that order). As a whole, the show is probably
going to have a lot more electronic manipulation and real-time
sampling/looping than tonight's. 964 Natoma is a great space too. It's a
big
warehouse space with lots of futon seating, and the servingment of drinks.
If you need directions, drop me an email, or since I'll be in and out most
of the day, type the address into maps.yahoo.com. It's about 1.5 blocks
from
Market and Van Ness. (That's in San Francisco, at 8:00.)
Matt Davignon
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