Plexus... and the beat goes on...

I've been working on a piece about free improvisation - a bit of an overview followed by a description of my own journey into the wild and wacky world of improvising free from the constraints of conventional music (whatever that is any more...) which leads into an examination of the technical issues involved - theoretically and in the practice of my own work - solo and with the group of musicians I am currently playing with. But it's going to take a while longer to complete as it seems to keep looping back on itself even more than my written work does usually... patience... plus I've been busy with various other problems and situations. A busy week...

So to keep the ball rolling onwards - and because I haven't posted for a few days (but who's counting?) -a quick piece about the recent night we played at the Club Sporadic - my bastard creation which I love and hate in equal measure!

The format was simple enough - we are three at the moment - and have been for a while since David joined the lineup of Murray and myself and took us in new directions. I would start, solo, then David and finally Murray would do their own solo sets. A break - then we would come together as a trio. I did not feel very focused and was glad to play first - to get it over with, on one level, but also because I was looking forward to listening to the solo works of my collaborators as we haven't been meeting up regularly due to a variety of reasons. When we play together I am trying to concentrate on what I can contribute and also listening hard to the other two - and we play long sets that ebb and flow all over the place. So it was a rare treat to just sit back and be in the audience for a change.

I played two pieces just on laptop - did not feel like using a guitar-one using Audio Mulch and some loops that finally evolved into a crackly recording I'd made mixing some of the soundtrack from Derek Jarman's film 'The Last of England' with a tape of part of the recent commemorations of VJ Day. Audio Mulch is an amazing software program for electronic music... The second was played in FL Studio which I have been messing around with quite extensively, using it in both a structured and an improvised way, using a ready made rough drum track intercut with improvisation. I wasn't really happy with either piece - found my concentration wandering due to being tired - and having other things on my mind. Which is deadly - a musician should be ruthless and cut off from the usual pressures of daily life when playing. But I did what I did - and got out the other side ok...

David performed then - and had a few problems synchronising his instruments which led to a bit of stopping and starting. When he got into his stride, however, it came together. Odd bits of guitar, harmonica, drum machine and other sound sources... Good stuff...

Murray went up next and was a revelation. Using prepared electric guitar he cut out a large chunk of evening for himself. I was impressed with the combination of freedom and control - he had obviously been working out some new directions on his battered old electric, played through various treatments on his laptop.

Then we all came together and played a couple of long pieces. I get lost(pleasantly) in these performances and lose track of time - we used a couple of the Brian Eno cards each that David gave us - Zen koans almost for oblique directional strategies. I was working with a fairly stripped sound set of patches - synthesizer, some drum sounds and keyboard stuff, all played off the laptop keyboard which can be limiting sometimes but I felt it worked this evening. Yet at the end, I had the impression that although everyone had enjoyed playing, no one was quite sure where it had all gone. Which leads on to the point - how do you measure the success and failure of these performances without conventional markers? This music is not new. But each performance will throw up its own set of problems and solutions. I felt that I had played less than usual - but that fatigue had caused this - and it wasn't a bad thing as - because I was a solo player for so long, I suppose - I have a tendency to play too much. For once I was letting it breath a little more than usual.

So. Another legendary gig at the Club Sporadic...

Yet... despite all the above comments - when I received a recording from David of the performances, I was pleasantly surprised. My own pieces seemed to have more coherence than I realised. All the solo pieces came across well - and Murray's sounded completely different to the way I remembered it - but just a s good. Which only goes to show... Positioning is all, maybe. Sitting at a lap top and playing at high volumes, you're not aware of what you sound like from, say, ten metres away. Or more or less. And in the group pieces, we seemed yet again to have created something new from some of our familar gambits, materials and timbres. When I listen to recordings we have made over the last two years it always surprises me how far we have travelled. This particular cd was a pleasant reminder that we may be creating some original work in an crowded field where there seems to be an amazing explosion going on across the world, fuelled by cheap technology and spreading awareness of the history, the present contexts and future potentials of the music.
Long may this state of affairs remain...