November 9th 2006 I was special guest at the Austin New Music CO-OP event “Electrons and Phonons” a fusing of classical instruments and voice with cutting-edge electronic technology. This event was part of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) Electro-Acoustic Music Month, an annual worldwide celebration of electronic, computer and electro-acoustic music.
I presented my piece “Contamination”, originally composed for Saxophone and LiSa, now adapted for a small ensemble, all local musicians who did a great job:
Ivo Bol – LiSa
Brent Farris – contrabass
Nick Hennies – vibraphone
Holland Hopson – soprano saxophone
Mariah McPhail – baritone sax
Travis Weller – violin
With this piece I was looking a “dynamic tape piece”, not with a recording of some electronic tape or cd that plays along with the live performance but a live sampling / realtime processing setup where the computer is a flexible instrument. As you can see on the pictures I am using a game controller and the Kaoss Pad to controle sound events with midi messages. I am recording the instruments live, for each instrument I have a separate microphone so I can grab specific sounds. I am manipulating this material live and the players have to react on this while they are improvising. In the last section I am working with precomposed material that is gradually replaced by the live recording.
Besides my piece there were compositions from local composers James Alexander, Steve Bernal, Ethan Greene, Holland Hopson, William Meadows, Christopher Petkus, Josh Ronsen, and Travis Weller.
Besides the wonderfull music, the best thing was my visit to a place called Sam’s BBQ…(• Sam’s BBQ, 2000 E. 12th St., Austin, 512-478-0378) the best barbecue I ever had! Stevie Ray Vaughan had its ribs shipped to New York when he played Carnegie Hall.
