Forum - Week 5 - Burning Schulz and Selfish Salubriations

A fairly successful improvisation session was achieved this week,
despite an emergency fire evacuation and a nameless theremin
virtuoso (cough). Dave had set up my FX pedal and mic before the
class, so I was crackin’ off beats as soon as I got there. Jake had
some drum loops ready for live manipulation, and the resultant
rhythms were well suited, if occasionally repetitive. I think the
full-on drum loops would be best applied when other members
get into a groove with each other, perhaps just providing a light
rhythm beforehand. One thing that we seem to have established
from this session is that we can’t all play at the same time, and
we each need to know when our ‘instrument’ would be a suitable
inclusion to a happening groove.

Student presentations were taken to a higher level this week, and
not necessarily because it was my turn. 3rd year Music Tech student
Tim Gabbusch presented his first year tape composition, however
he actually played the wrong piece. For those who didn’t stay behind,
the intended piece made a lot more sense when considering the
description of ‘water sounds’. Tim also played a recording he had
done of a Jazz band. As soon as I had heard the piano, I noticed it
was recorded with the Midside Stereo technique. I’ve recorded piano
with this set up recently, which sounded okay, but I ended up adding
a couple Neumann KM-84i’s to get a crisper sound anyway. I think the
M-S mic placement is becoming a bit overdone, or at least I’m finding
it a little clichéd. Jake Morris showcased his Creative Computing
composition from Semester 1 this year, titled “Surround…. Something”.
The piece emphasised the narrative side of musique concrete, with a
deep and meaningful back-story about a guy and a journey. Anyway,
the important thing is that I was the voice of Satan (or “Sapan” as I
became known), and this provided me with a great entrance for my piece.
My musique concrete piece started off as a wave file I recorded for Jake
of my own voice, which I experimentally slowed down to a point of
“organic separation” (If you don’t know, I don’t care). Anyway, I was
surprised that nobody asked about the end of the piece where I gradually
disintegrated the sound, but I guess I found it more interesting than most.
Will Revill also performed his musique concrete piece, of which low
rumbling frequencies were echoed around the room and gated silence
popped in the stereo field. I found it enjoyable, but Will seemed to dislike
it. So I don’t like it either.