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A tale of two point one laptop performances
Monday night after work, a small crowd gathered in the Mills college concert hall for the Song Lines series latest offering of Tim Perkis and Wobbly. Some of the of the audience members may have been surprised to learn that Simon W. Smith would not be playing, but all were excited about the substitution of two well established local artists. The music began in the ethereal ambient style, which evolved in to a serial medley of processed sounds and impulses.
The second movement of the evening was very quiet, at times I was wondering whether we were listing to an extended reverb effect or someone from the practice rooms down the hall. And then deep, fast and hard rhythmic thumpings came through the spatialized Mills concert hall PA. These beats lasted only long enough to establish their rhythmic intent before being changed up into still yet alternately timed stylings.
Ultimately the performance expressed a great deal of freedom from structure. The duo’s sound would most likely falling into the sound effects genre. Of particular interest was the artists use micro tonality in manipulating the samples and ever shifting downbeat for a rhythmic base. The group’s instrumentation consisted of one laptop performer and on CDJ, sequence sampler performer. The usual question and answer period instead becomes a casual networking opportunity for an audience almost entirely composed of electronic musicians.
On the other side of the bay, some time after midnight Sunday morning a veritable chamber ensemble entirely composed of Laptops gathers. The group consisted of (from left to right): Abe/Damiak (konstrukt), Daniel/Twittering Machine, David Molina, Mochipet, Jason, Andy Highland, Gavin, Terrac and was collective called the mochipet techno orchestra. The group is there to put a close to the afternoon’s workshop on Circuit Bending hosted by the Drum Machine Museum. Already a well established alternative space, the venue formerly known as the Tenderloft is host to a variety of people including party goers, break dancers, electronic music nerds and other colourful characters.
The music is very steady, a testament to the number of laptops that can be slaved to the same MIDI clock. The sounds mostly stem from clean banks of samples of short drum sounds. Another impressive feet, is how some many laptops can fit together with out making the sound too dense. Assumedly each one is providing just a short rhythmic phrase. Though they played but one long song, it subtly changed as the different rhythms reconfigured them selves to provide added nuance and variation.
The crowd loved it as the dance floor filled up and arms plus legs swung around in time to the beats. I guess the old saying about after midnight is true. It is good to know that music is still as a social catalyst; though, in each case for subtly different groups of people.
Monday night after work, a small crowd gathered in the Mills college concert hall for the Song Lines series latest offering of Tim Perkis and Wobbly. Some of the of the audience members may have been surprised to learn that Simon W. Smith would not be playing, but all were excited about the substitution of two well established local artists. The music began in the ethereal ambient style, which evolved in to a serial medley of processed sounds and impulses.
The second movement of the evening was very quiet, at times I was wondering whether we were listing to an extended reverb effect or someone from the practice rooms down the hall. And then deep, fast and hard rhythmic thumpings came through the spatialized Mills concert hall PA. These beats lasted only long enough to establish their rhythmic intent before being changed up into still yet alternately timed stylings.
Ultimately the performance expressed a great deal of freedom from structure. The duo’s sound would most likely falling into the sound effects genre. Of particular interest was the artists use micro tonality in manipulating the samples and ever shifting downbeat for a rhythmic base. The group’s instrumentation consisted of one laptop performer and on CDJ, sequence sampler performer. The usual question and answer period instead becomes a casual networking opportunity for an audience almost entirely composed of electronic musicians.
On the other side of the bay, some time after midnight Sunday morning a veritable chamber ensemble entirely composed of Laptops gathers. The group consisted of (from left to right): Abe/Damiak (konstrukt), Daniel/Twittering Machine, David Molina, Mochipet, Jason, Andy Highland, Gavin, Terrac and was collective called the mochipet techno orchestra. The group is there to put a close to the afternoon’s workshop on Circuit Bending hosted by the Drum Machine Museum. Already a well established alternative space, the venue formerly known as the Tenderloft is host to a variety of people including party goers, break dancers, electronic music nerds and other colourful characters.
The music is very steady, a testament to the number of laptops that can be slaved to the same MIDI clock. The sounds mostly stem from clean banks of samples of short drum sounds. Another impressive feet, is how some many laptops can fit together with out making the sound too dense. Assumedly each one is providing just a short rhythmic phrase. Though they played but one long song, it subtly changed as the different rhythms reconfigured them selves to provide added nuance and variation.
The crowd loved it as the dance floor filled up and arms plus legs swung around in time to the beats. I guess the old saying about after midnight is true. It is good to know that music is still as a social catalyst; though, in each case for subtly different groups of people.
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