Concerts/Performances
Tonight Owen Cartwright and I will be playing with Charlie Hendrick and Jason Dean's new band Tit City at New Years by the Bay in Belfast, Maine. Before getting into, here's a little background on Tit City:
I first heard Tit City this spring in its early stage as a duo (Jason Dean on drums/Korg synthesizer and Charlie Hendrick on computers/vocals) as they were developing their set for some gigs in New York. The blend of computer generated drums with the live drummer was something that Charlie, Jason, and I had played around with in the past at the Gilbert's Open Mic before that establishment closed. This combination sounded really great when it evolved from an open mic improvisational atmosphere to an arranged set. Fast forward to summer of 2010: after the set had evolved and much of the lyrics been more clearly defined, I began helping Charlie and Jason record an album version of their set and developing some new ideas possible only on a studio version.
After learning the songs through the recording process, I was invited to join Tit City to play at a Halloween dance party put on by Hot Pink Flannel at The Underground Lounge in Rockland, ME. I thought about playing vibes with Tit City (or perhaps digital mallets like in The Limited Time Only Band days--but I decided keyboards and my standard live electronics setup was enough gear to bring around). The gig went great (the obscene amount of technical setup time Charlie and I had probably had something to do with it), there were some great costumes (my favorites being the giant skull and the magic mushroom), I had become one of the mayors of Tit City (as a "citizen"/audience member called me at a later gig), and we got a decent sounding live recording. Hot Pink Flannel liked us enough to immediately schedule us to play at their holiday dance party (The Bad Sweater Dance Party). We then called up Owen Cartwright and asked him to join the band on guitar--don't worry, he brings a computer too.
We are missing Clint Hartzel, but Tit City while making a different kind of music, in some ways feels like a reunion of The Limited Time Only Band. The two gigs we have played since Owen joined the band have been a lot of fun. We have even added a few The Limited Time Only Band songs with new twists to our set (Bleeding on Venus, Untitled, and Logjam). Last night at rehearsal I had an interesting realization about a structural development in the music of The Limited Time Only Band to Tit City: The Limited Time Only Band played theme and variations improvisations with some pop/dance tunes and extended free improvisations while Tit City plays a primarily dance oriented set with highly focused avant garde transitions. With our cross-genre influences, electronic sounds, and improvisational structures, I would classify Tit City as a new type of fusion but when asked, the simple answer I give is that it is a pop/rock electronic band with live drums and guitar playing tunes from a wide variety of genres.
Charlie posted some samples of the album recordings (before Owen and I joined the band).
Tonight we will be playing at Beflast, ME's New Year's by the Bay at the First Church UCC Hall (on Spring St. between Church St. and Court St.). Our first set will be 6:00-6:45pm and 7:00-7:45pm.
For the past month, fellow first year Digital Musics grad students Josh Hudelson, Alex Wroten, and myself having been working on Ken Ueno's Yellow 632 (a trio for Tickle-Me-Big-Birds) in preparation for the Dartmouth Contemporary Music Lab tour we have planned for April. We will be debuting our first performance of the pice at Spheris Gallery (Hanover, NH - map) tonight. Also on the gig, Emily Schecter '12 and Doug Perkins will be performing Tristan Perich's Observations (duo for crotales and one-bit music) and Julia Floberg '11 will be performing J. S. Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major. 6pm - Free and open to the public!
So I realized it has been a while since my last update and there is a video from last term that never got posted. On December 3rd, we had Seth Cluett come to Hanover as the guest artist for the final concert of 2009 in our Spheris Art Gallery series. In addition to a solo live electronics set performed by Seth and Thierry de Mey's Table Music (performed by Heewon Kim '10, Emily Schecter '12, and Doug Perkins), my fellow Dartmouth Digital Musics students performed Seth Cluett's Focus. In our realization, we performed a simultaneous performance of Focus, for two performers and Focus, for four performers (and yes, I brought the whole vibraphone—minus the "black notes"—to play a single pitch). Check out the video below:
- Patrick Barter - live electronics
- Josh Hudelson - melodica
- Roth Michaels - vibraphone
- Chris Peck - flute, piccolo
- Paul Osetinsky - live electronics
- Alex Wroten - stylophone
Last Thursday the Dartmouth Contemporary Music Ensemble had our first concert of the season at Spheris Gallery. We opened with a performance Steve Reich's Pendulum Music that I must say ended up sounding pretty good--even better news: while I did have them, I probably didn't really need earplugs! Johanne Heraty, Paul Osetinsky, Alex Wroten, and I performed this piece with some coaching to Doug Perkins. The key to a pleasant sounding Pendulum Music performance seems to be overdriving the preamplifier circuit. While speaker/microphone choice and placement does play a big role in timbre/range of pitches, overdriving the preamp allows for a broader spectrum at the same SPL output from the speaker--after that, season for taste with some EQ. We pulled the plug (sort of, that will remain an inside store) on the piece before the mics had come to a totally complete stop (but they were close), but we chose a time of stasis based on audience reactions. I think we made the right choice.
Pendulum Music Setup
Doug Perkins (right) and Josh Hudelson (left) in the back Devin Maxwell (left) and Chris Peck (right) are setting up the sound system for Devin's set
After Pendulum Music, everyone went downstairs for the second set performed by the Contemporary Music Lab. Our lineup was:
- Patrick Barter - live electronics
- Josh Hudelson - digital keyboard and found object percussion
- Roth Michaels - vibraphone
- Chris Peck - electric guitar + live electronics
- Alex Wroten - megatar + effects
Downstairs we opened with a realization of a text piece by Kenneth Gaburo, Twenty Sensing Compositions (we performed one of the twenty concrete poems that comprise this piece).
Then we performed a response piece to the Gaburo by band member Chris Peck. Chris' 3 of 4 Senses of Finger was a three movement text piece where each movement was a realization of a list of synonyms for a different meaning of the verb "finger".
We closed this set with a free improvisation.
Back upstairs for the third set, our guests Devin Maxwell and Katie Porter performed some of Devin's original music and realizations of a few John Cage pieces. Overall it was a fun concert and we had a great turnout. I'm sure we are all looking forward to the next show at Spheris on December 4th.
When I returned to Maine a couple of weeks ago to continue working on this album with Al, he told me he wanted me to sit in with this African singer, Kwebena, and his band--Koko Experience--at this motor cycle rally in Skowhegan. Kwebena is a friend of Al's that I had heard on a CD that Al brought with him from a concert Kwebena had done a few weeks ago. Al had been asked to sit in, but instead he told Kwebena he was going to bring me along to play--thanks Al for hooking me up with some extra exposure. At first I think Al was thinking of playing a little himself but it turns out he was offered another gig that Thursday When I first showed up at the gig there was a bunch of funny business as the sound crew had only set up one flatbed for the musicians at the rally and apparently there were two music locations planned. After moving my vibes back and forth a few times as the crew decided where we should play, we finally set up at The music turned out to be pretty easy to pick up as we went along, but the real challenge was drinking enough water between tunes--this was my sweatiest gig after setting up and playing on a flatbed for a few hours in direct sunlight. It ended up being pretty fun and it is always a good challenge and exercise to try to figure out on the spot how to fit my thing in with someone else's music. I guess the rest of the band had a good time having me there as well because I heard from their sound man that the singers were glad I was their to support the key since some personal were absent that day. While they had a different drummer sitting in for Jason Dean, they were missing Mike Whitehead on trumpet and their usual keyboard player. Out of all the Koko Experience tunes "Birthday Song" was my favorite.
• • •
At first there were a lot of roadblocks as we tried to put together the band for this recording. Schedule conflicts between musicians and studio time contributed to the headache, but the problems extended well beyond mere scheduling issues. I'm not one to go around posting negative posts about other people on the Internet behind their backs on the Internet so I am going to leave out the gory details (if you really want to know, hunt me down for a face-to-face chat). In the end we got all the musicians (thanks Mary Anne for the leads!) we needed and on the days we had the studio. And the lineup is (was): Al Delgado - Vibes Roth Michaels - Vibes Noah Plotkin - Drums Ezra Rugg - Bass (acoustic and electric) On Monday we went up to Bruce Boege's recording studio in Northport, ME for a sound check and rehearsal. For the most part, Bruce only recorded some segments of tunes for sound checking purposes and since it was our first rehearsal as a quartet that was probably for the best. Even though we did not end up with any album-worthy material on Monday it was a very productive day that gave me high hopes for our session on Thursday. As many talented musicians have already discovered, the irregular nature of my forms makes learning Roth tunes a challenging task. Ezra and Noah did an impressive job tackling What Now? and The Baddest Chick. On both of these tunes, Ezra and Noah's creativity allowed them to come up with some cool new approaches to playing my work. On What Now? we needed to address the empty nature of the arrangement as we adapted a big band tune into a quartet. My original thoughts on how to guide the band on these interpretations did not go quite as I had planed, but in the end they brought a whole new flavor to work and I was very pleased. In some ways the new character of What Now? may even fit my current attitudes towards the subject matter compared to where I was mentally a year and a half ago when I originally wrote the big band arrangement. An extra smile was put on my face when I saw Ezra's wife pull up in a 900 series Volvo wagon as it turned out to be a real Volvo party at Bruce's that day (my Yamaha vibraphone was transported in an 850 wagon and my Musser in a V70).• • •
The music did not end after we left Bruce's because Mondays in Maine means Charlie's open mic. Word on the street was that there would be a number of cool dudes ready to play at Gilbert's that evening so Noah and I convinced Al to come down and play hand percussion with us. To paraphrase what he told me when before we went down: "I'll play if it seems cool" (to be fair I had warned Al that just because people tell us they are showing up doesn't mean it is going to happen and like open mics everywhere no one can be sure of the coolness to loudness ratio until you are actually there doing it). I guess Andre, Charlie, Clint, Noah, and I passed the cool test because he played. Even though I showed up early, I still ran into unexpected problems with my electronics setup since open mics don't get the same level of through equipment testing before I go on. This time around (as is often the case with live electronics) it was human error not computer error that led to my problems. The biggest problem was the large MIDI keyboard shaped paperweight I had on my table. Since the last open mic I had played at--thinking I had tested it enough on my Mac Pro--I decided to upgrade my laptop to OS X 10.5.3 (I wanted to ditch the high RAM usage of 10.5.2 and earlier but wanted to avoid driver issues I had read about involving 10.5.4+Max5+Wacom tablet. As it turns out, my testing was not thorough enough and this update had killed my MIDI Ports on my MOTU 828mkII. My human errors did not stop there: the Front Row shortcut kept forcing me to switch apps killing my tablet at some point during each tune. I still did my best and between using my RoseFM~ synth and picking pitches for the tablet with the mouse and a [keyslider]. In the end I think I managed to fit in with the music pretty well. The next day at home I installed aupdated MOTU driver and disabled all OS X feature shortcuts that have been getting in the way so I will be in good shape for future improvs and open mics. This open mic ended up being a lot of fun--one of my favorites in 2008 for sure. I did feel a little bad foturning my back to the audience, but to get a sweet angle with the tablet I wanted to put my feet up on something and the only thing on hand was my amp.• • •
After a few days off for practice we were back at Bruce's early (fine, I know it was only 10AM, but I do seem to play better in the PM--not to mention I was up a few hours late preparing my patches for my Sunrise Earth gig) for our all day recording session. I was off to a bit of a rough start missing keys all over the place. Once I was all the way awake we were off--quickly finished up Receptive and moved on to tackle the rest of our big list of tunes for the day. While I list was big, we were going to be in the studio recording the songs all morning and afternoon. While driving later that night I realized I might have gone a little overboard only stopping for a lunch break and working everyone all afternoon. In the end we ended up with a lot of good stuff and almost finished the entire list.
I believe we made it through all but one of Al's tunes in addition to recording Alone Between Two Seas, What Now?, and one non-original tune (a secret until rights are obtained if we choose to keep that recording). I had a few other non-original tunes to try if we had time, but those were lowest priority and we had a lot of other tunes to cover. The Baddest Chick was on the list as well, but we did not have enough rehearsal time to be able to get the form tight enough for recording. I was very pleased how Alone Between Two Seas and What Now? came out. As I mentioned earlier, after I had explained my basic concept for the feel of What Now? Noah and Ezra came up with a--very cool--new solution that gave the piece a new character. The version of Alone Between Two Seas we recorded I think was the best version of the piece played since I wrote it about seen years ago. Unlike What Now?, which took on a new character during this recording session, Alone Between Two Seas better captured the emotions that were originally behind the piece.
In August I am going to get together with Bruce and start listening to the material as we figure out our mastering strategy. We recorded more than enough material on Thursday to put an album together so I think we will have some really nice stuff to choose from.
After the session was over my day was far from done. We had to pack up both vibraphones and the kit Austin lent to Noah before heading off to Camden. Once home I had to very quickly get myself cleaned up before packing up for my gig at Compass Light that evening. Once I had swapped the Musser into my car and loaded up all of my electronics gear it was time to head off--no time for food and I was hoping there would be some at the Sunrise Earth party.
Once I arrived at the Party--which had already started--it was time to bring in my huge pile of gear (a vibraphone in three boxes, a table, MIDI keyboard, MIDI fader box, Wacom tablet, MacBook Pro, MOTU 828mkII, clock radio, USB hub, mallet bag, two cello bows, and a very large bag of cables). While I was setting up I heard a very funny comment from a little girl there:
"That's a lot of wires for one computer," she said. "You should see my house," I responded.
After I had finished setting up and testing all my gear (Yay, it all worked!) Josh got a plate of food ready for me. After I had a chance to quickly eat my dinner it was time to start the improvisation.
When Josh Povec was first showing me around and introducing me to everyone at Compass Light, I had brought up some of the work I had done with video and experimental improvisation. When hearing about this, David wanted to give me a chance to do an improvisation to one of the episodes of Sunrise Earth at a party they were going to be having. I gladly volunteered if my schedule would allow me to be in Camden on that day because not only did it sound like fun, but also it would have been my first chance to use my current full electroacoustic music setup in Maine.
When I spoke with Josh last Tuesday it turned out he wanted me to do an improvisation to their The Skelligs of Ireland episode. While I was at the studio picking up a copy of the episode and the raw natural sound--to sample--Josh also gave me copies of a few other episodes to check out.
The episode I improvised to at the party showed footage of two islands off the cost of Ireland: Skellig Michael and Little Skellig. As I understand it, the Skellig Michael is the site of an ancient Monastery, which monks would travel to in leather row boats to conduct their activities. The most notable feature of the ruins on Skellig Michael are the hive shaped stone structures built by the monks. Now only inhabited by birds, Little Skellig was the site of a solitary meditation hut incase Skellig Michael was not secluded enough.
In addition to the slow paced editing seen in all Sunrise Earth episodes, The Skelligs of Ireland contained very still footage. Most shots did contain the movement of the sea and birds in the background, but the scale of the shots minimized the effect of this motion. The stillness of the scenes was never a problem because I was not setting out to improvise music to underscore the on-camera action but music that acts as a compliment and counterpoint to the scenes. The stillness of the Skelligs was broken up at times by solo shots of the sun which often quickly moving clouds. Also, the last fifteen minutes or so featured close-ups on some puffins, which provided more movement compared to the earlier sections of the video. Even though the video was not functioning as a strict guide, I did try to make note of these times and reflect the changes in stillness with the music. Throughout the episode, the same angles on the buildings were revisited at different times of day. I used these recurring images as a rough guide to the harmonic development of the improvisation.
Originally I planned a minimal approach to the improvisation to include a lot of silence to help highlight the still nature of the video. After I had set up at the gig I decided to take minimalism in another direction and go for a more textured approach. The reason for this shift was that I was the post-meal entertainment at a dinner party and I wanted to create something that could be focused on while also allowing for socializing. If I had gone with the very extended rests I had originally envisioned I think I might have created a situation where party goers were forced to pay very close attention so they would not miss the next note. To match the feel of the footage, I blurred the line between melody and texture as I transitioned between more acoustic sounds to more electronic sounds and from more natural sounds to more synthetic sounds.
Overall the improvisation was a success (and unlike Gilbert's, all the gear worked). After the performance, while answering questions for the very pleased and intrigued audience, a few things came up that would make a future performance like this go even better. Since the TV playing the episode was in another corner of the room, having a second display at my table would have made watching the video a little easier for me. The other thing we realized could use improvement was speaker position. I had my amp next to me so I could hear what was going on but in the future it would be better to use a low volume amp as a monitor and have most of the sound come out of a second speaker positioned near the television. Doing this gig the same day as the recording session to not allow me a lot of prep. time, so in the future I would want to use a greater range of samples from the natural sound in addition to fine tuning my patch for this type of performance. Of course, since this was my first try at this improvisation, practice will also always lead to improvement!
I did quickly add an [sfrecord~] to my patch to make a recording of the performance, although the way I set it up only recorded the electronic sounds exiting the sound card and not the acoustic source material. As a result, a certain dimension of the performance is lost in the recording because much of the improvisation dealt with the interaction of the acoustic and electronic timbres. This recording still has proved useful to study and has led me to a new idea. Other than six samples of natural sound I had used, all of the sounds were created through live synthesis. There were some very interesting timbres created and I plan on sampling sections of the recording to build new sampler-based instruments.
• • •
Once I left the Sunrise Earth gig, I was done playing, but not done listening to music that day. My friend Andre (along with Clint and Noah) had taken over the Thursday gig Gilbert's. This was the first time I had heard Andre play outside of an open mic and I had a great time (all three of them did a fine job). It was a nice way to cap off a long day of music.
I guess all the playing I did that day released a big pile of endorphins when I was done because for a few hours after the gig all pain in my hands and shoulders was gone and I felt great!
It started to pour outside. Water leaked in.
I could not get WiFi reception to check my email.
I got wet. Very wet.
• • •
With all that exciting stuff going on it was a fun week and a half in Maine. It was great hanging out with Al while he was in Maine, who ended up doing so much gigging and recording he was hardly on vacation.
Thanks again to Mary Anne for help on the bassist hunt, Noah and Ezra for playing and the recording, and Charlie and Austin for loaning Noah some drums.
-----------end_giant_post-----------
I posted a copy of the Vincible video from the concert we went down to in Hartford. Like I said in this post, this was a draft or beta version of the piece. The final version hopefully will be recorded in August. I will be posting a higher resolution (and hopefully higher audio quality) version of this video to YouTube in a few weeks when I launch the main section of my website. Enjoy!
P.S. Thanks again to David Guerette and Peter McMurray for playing on this piece.
