Re: Musicianship, live technique, etc...

[matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)]

Romeo:
>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.

>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".

On the LOOP delay, there was a button called BREAK. Then, for the Plex,
Keith thought MUTE would be easier to understand - I do not know, but it
was *meant* to let you create breaks in the loops.

>I'm very interested in how you loopers deal with this, since looping
>essentially means endless music.

I mixed LAZZO, the reggae band here at Carnaval and we traveled 5 hours non
stop (litteraly, all songs connected, only once the bass player had to pee)
through the city and I felt how close reggae and loops are and serve for
dancing. People followed us hours in the rain and when daylight came, all
brains were washed.

There were some breaks, that did not help for my taste. But dynamics yes.
The bass player afterwards said that he felt angry because he could not
stand to play these songs extended like that.

In my loop music, I handle it similarely: I never stop, but with FeedBack,
I keep the dynamics alive and the loop changing.

>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.

I loved "sound fountains".
HiFi Video tapes may have the longest playing time at a very good quality.
With the silent passages you achieve what?
Relaxation of the ears?
Relaxation from the relaxation :-) ?
Do we like fountains that stop periodically?

Thanks for the creative contribution
Matthias