Date: November, 7th, 2003
Project: Intermedia Arts Analysis Project
Performance Analysis: Strange Attractors XI - Walking Through Songs
I entered Studio 677 about ten minutes into the performance of Caret Thomas, Steve Goldstein, Davis Menas (apparently the estranged brother to David Means, another performer in the Strange Attractors series) and Steve Linsner. This was a production of Strange Attractors XI, a Festival of Experimental Music and Intermedia Art.
Studio 677 is a cozy space in an older brick building on the comer of East 7th Street and Maria Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota. Entering the front door brings you into the main room, which is roughly rectangular with a hardwood floor and an unpainted dry walled ceiling. One wouldn't know this, however, because the room was quite dark, except for a mixture of artificially vibrant color swatches projected onto the Southwest interior wall. This was the work of Steve Linsner who was using Photoshop to make instant, electronic paintings in real time as part of the performance. He was reacting expertly to the sounds being presented by the musical trio, rapidly creating abstract compositions one after another and mesmerizing the audience of about a dozen people seated facing his projection. The audience, who appeared to be thoroughly enjoying the experience, seemed intensely absorbed by the visuals and music.
Speaking of the sounds reaching my ears, they had definitely not gone unnoticed. Although Steve Linsner's computer setup was separated from the audio performers, the visual and sonic elements of the production merged together as a whole. Steve Goldstein's laptop sound synthesis ranged from sweeping ambient electronics to crafted punchy break beats. Davis Menas was providing a consistent thread of experimental flourishes on his digital wind controller, alternating with pads and more percussive tones on the Casio CZ-101, a unique keyboard from the 80's that utilized a process called phase distortion. These two guys, as well as being featured occasionally during the performance, were accompanying Caret Thomas who was speaking into a microphone and playing angular melodies on a Roland digital piano.
My attention was first drawn towards Carei seated at the electric piano. Carei and I had met in the early 90's when the two of us were performing alternately at Cafe Solo in downtown Minneapolis. Back then both of us were working with a saxophonist named Brad Holden who introduced me to the Caret. I quickly grew to admire his insightful and honestly creative work. It had been quite some time since I'd seen him and it was great to hear what he was up to. This evening, as one of his musical devices he was using his own words; stories, spoken phrases, and spoken letters or mathematical formulas. The spoken stories and phrases had a calm, endearing quality and seemed somewhat deliberate, but the spoken letters and mathematical formulas had an almost Dadaist approach as if he might have been reading them from a randomly generated list. He was also using the Roland digital piano to play dense clusters of notes, followed by "out" melodies, mostly using vibes and harpsichord tones. Carei played the digital piano with his knuckles, rather than finger tips. This produced a "free" sound, not at all unlike a movement in jazz called
"Free Jazz", within which the performers abandon the traditional restraints of key signatures, meter, and form. Omette Coleman and Cecil Taylor were two well known pioneers of the free jazz movement. Caret's performance, however, was more experimental than jazz oriented.
It's hard to explain why I make this distinction, but I think the unique qualities of his spoken words and phrases combined with the experimental electronic accompaniment from Goldstein and Menas lead me to describe the performance as traditionally experimental. I know this sounds like an oxymoron such as jumbo shrimp (my personal favorite), but experimental music has arguably existed since the Italian Futurists created their noise instruments in 1913. Or even before then. m a sense all musical styles are experimental at their birthing. So what I'm trying to get at is that there is a tradition of experimentation in music which we can see as a movement to view sounds once considered noise, or everyday, or mechanical, or incidental, or randomized, or accidental as music. However, this is just a fractional description of experimental music. Today our instruments include new electronic devices like the digital wind controller of Menas and the laptop of Goldstein. These instruments allow us to create sounds never heard before, either through the process of synthesizing electronic waveforms or by manipulating digitally sampled sounds. We can use these new instruments in un-new ways by restricting the pitches we use to a traditional scale and adhering to a particular meter and form, or as this trio has demonstrated, reject those concepts and focus on unexpected ways to use them and push them by inventing techniques which combine technologies and conceptual experimental theories.
Take Menas for example. Although he was playing a digital wind controller, he did not produce sounds which resembled any traditional wind instruments. This does not mean that there was no expression, because there was a considerable amount of it in his playing. He also didn't play anything which resembled a bebop riff or a blues scale. This doesn't imply that he was playing without technique, because he clearly had a command of the instrument. By using his wind controller to play a wide range of textures from angular melodies, similar to Carei's free playing, to drawn out, somber drones, he created a palette of audio which he carefully intertwined with the rest of the ensemble.
Goldstein's contribution came from the least traditional instrument of the lot; the laptop computer. This tool, also good for balancing one's checkbook and reading email, is quickly becoming the instrument of choice for electronic and experimental performers. It seems like the processing speed of computers increases exponentially on a daily basis. Not quite as quickly, but fast enough, software is released which has revolutionized the way our society composes, produces and performs music. Parallels apply to how technology has revolutionized the visual arts as well; Linsner's part of this performance being a perfect example. With his eyes glued to his laptop screen, Goldstein let loose a host of unique, invented sounds, morphing them in real time with his software.
Experimental is such a broad term, and a loaded one. I have encountered many people whose impression of experimental music is cacophonous noise made by crazy people smashing glass and banging dustbin lids together, or musicians improvising chaotically without attempting to interact with their counterparts. However, experimental music can range from the soothing, ambient "soundscapes" of Brian Eno to the indeterminist and sometimes chaotic, compositions of John Cage. This experimental performance contained chaos, but it was a controlled chaos (I guess I can't get enough of the oxymorons), at one moment restrained and in another released. There was a sense of experience, in the interaction between the musicians. It was clear that they were improvising, but they were doing so with care and consciously listening. During the performance no one stepped on the others toes. At times particular musicians were featured and when that happened the remaining musicians had the awareness to react by leaving room for the featured player.
No one tried to steal the show either. The focus was on the whole. I felt that in general the audience could sense the genuine appreciation the performers were expressing for each other as they listened, watched and played their instruments, often giving each other sideways glances and knowing grins when someone had played something the others appreciated.
The free or improvisational nature of the performance allowed everyone to interact with each other, and this was clearly happening in Steve Linsner's electronic imagery as he responded to the music. But, it was also evident that the musicians were in turn reacting to the visuals thus completing the circle as a collaborative, intermedia effort which included projected digital imagery, electronic instrumentation and spoken word. The performers were conveying to their audience their appreciation of sound and visual arts as well as their intense creativity and adventurous techniques, but I understood that they were doing so while maintaining a balance to their output which allowed everyone to express their ideas without interference. The overall mood that was created in the environment was strange and mysterious yet exciting. There was an anticipatory air hanging overhead^ which kept me audience on the edge of their seats, in wonder of what was in the now and wondering what would happen next. When the concert was finished the audience noted in appreciation, and mingled long afterwards, talking with the performers. I hope to experience this group again in the near future. They stimulated my visual and auditory senses with their mischief and inspired my imagination.
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