Input

Ok ok. I know. I said last week to tune in this week (actually that was two weeks ago). And yet, there’s still no new music to post. Why is this? Well, a few things. One was attending the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which started early, thus disrupting my morning creative time. The other was attending no fewer than four music/dance events. The third was my choice of composition theme — to study harmony. So, while not much output was made, a lot of input was … input. I saw a ton of electronic music performed as part of the Zero One festival in San Jose, and the Bleeding Edge Festival at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga with Nathan, and a truly inspiring piece called ORBIT at the Intersection for the Arts.

It was quite interesting to see the different ways in which performers deal with doing electronic music live, in a way that an audience can relate with. Watching people on stage twiddle knobs (or finger a laptop trackpad), especially when it’s impossible to correlate the twiddling with something audible, can be a mind numbingly dull experience. Many performers add live video, projected on a large screen behind the performance, which interacts with the music in some way. Frank Bretschneider was one of the more compelling examples. His music was great to start with — strongly in the IDM domain (ore more specifically, microscopic music), but full of surprises yet with a recognizable beat. The first 5 minutes were actually very repetitive, with a blue screen and a horizontal white line that scanned down the screen in sync to a pop when it hit the top again. But just as I was ready to leave, things started shifting, and new elements, both visual and aural started to appear. The entire piece was completely abstract, but after that initial shift I was captivated. It reminded me a bit of the early German abstract animator, Oskar Fischinger. It also reminded of me how much can be done with a limited palette.

A couple of the performances also incorporated dance and acting with live music and video. The first was Troika Ranch at Zero One. Troika Ranch is a dance collective started by fellow CalArts alumns, Mark Coniglio (who was also a teacher of mine) and Dawn Stoppiello. This piece featured some stunningly beautiful synthesis of dance, with live interactive video and music. For me the most effective moments were the ones that seemed to use the technology in the most childlike manner — a dancer making “bloop” sounds which generated video bubbles which floated from the top of her head, another scene where a dancer’s movements were traced with an animated caligraphic pen, while the music shifted and swayed.

ORBIT was such a great piece because it had so much heart, and had such moments of pure stage magic. I really have to thank Ally for introducing me to it. Technology was used in service of the story and the art, rather than the other way around as these kinds of pieces can so easily slip into. I can’t really describe it and do it justice (which is sort of unfair since Saturday was its last performance; read the Chronicle review for an overview), but I will say keep an eye out for Erika Shuch and her collaborators.

So, no podcast this week, but I have a feeling all this input will be churning in my brain and will end up splattered in bits and pieces in some future posts.