Outcome Unknown, Results Indeterminate, Interpretation Open

Seth

This has come up a couple of times on Liminal Nation, so it made me think that we might need a topic for discussing it and posting clips.

In a nutshell, it's a topic for free/non-idiomatic improvisation, open/indeterminate composition, generative music and anything else that operates in that slippery sphere whereby the resulting music is either unplanned or created from seeds, games or a blueprint that allows the music to be different every time it is performed or played back.

So we could be dealing with Cornelius Cardew, Derek Bailey, AMM, Brian Eno or whatever else you fancy. The floor is yours...

Seth

Kicking things off, here's a video of a John Butcher/Mark Sanders performance that I'm not broadcasting too much because Simon Reynell's lovely audio recording (what you're hearing on the video track) is about to be released by Emanem.

password: worthtwotoilets

Mind boggling to watch two people create a new language on the fly. It's hyper-intense, difficult to follow to the end because of the number of ideas that need assimilating, but also very tactile, sensuous and intuitive. Manages to be really bloody difficult while being really bloody beautiful.

grant

Hmm - it's refusing to play for me. Possibly a flash issue, but more likely (I think) something to do with the security + embed.

Seth

Just tried it - works fine for me. What kind of refusing to play are you getting? Password works but no stream/password doesn't work/black box with nowt/error message etc...

grant

It looked like it'd play, but clicking the triangle didn't do anything. BUT now it's working! Jingly percussion.

I used to wonder if ambient slowcore (?) bands (like Earth or Isis) were improvising along a progression or mood - nowadays, I lean more towards thinking they're structured in a rough sort of way. I've never really looked it up because I don't think it has much to do with how I listen to the music.

grant

Why is it less funny when you do improv music than when you do improv storytelling (which almost always winds up being improv *comedy*)? They're both about wit and narrative and unexpected connections.

Seth

grant said: Why is it less funny when you do improv music than when you do improv storytelling (which almost always winds up being improv *comedy*)? They're both about wit and narrative and unexpected connections.

Depends who's doing it. The A Band veer more towards the shits and giggles end of free-improv, but they're more about chaos than 'owt else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Band

http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/2263/?pageno=1

I've got some video for them, too:

Although they're a very moveable feast, they can sound very different each time. Anyone can be in the band just by saying they are. If you play two A Band gigs, you get listed as a member. Any instruments, any noise-makers, are permissable. No one knows who will be in the band or what instruments will be involved before a performance, and the band changes its name with every show to something else beginning with A.

entity

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

Generative music from tree rings... is this the right thread for this?

grant

Yes, I think that's pretty generative.

I like the fact that Traubeck is interacting with commenters and explaining what's going on:

thanks. if you look closely you can see that in the later part of the
video the record on the player changes. the first one is a more
minimalistic fir tree, the second an ash tree with a rather complex
texture. the sounds are excerpts of these records. one "track" is 4:30,
that is the time it takes the motor to move the tonearm from the rim to
the center of the record. sometimes the camera is still a bit glitchy
so it is missing to recognise some rings. if you put other woods on it
the change in sound is even more dramatic, for example with dark walnut
wood. i will upload some mp3s to my site in the near future to document
this.

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