I attended the very Richard Scott gig you missed, Simon, so can help out to a degree. First off, Elias Merino’s “warm-up act” was definitely missable – essentially, let’s fill one audio channel with some electronic chatter, loop it a bit, repeat ad nauseam in random other channels, then finish with a washed-out facsimile of Autechre for no apparent reason.
As for the Scott, obviously nothing can replicate the moment-by-moment thrill of improvisation in action, but hopefully the following will give you a flavour of the kinds of thing that were going on…
Thanks for filling in the blanks, Chris. The link you included: was Richard Scott playing some pieces from that particular album? i know Scott’s own Bandcamp site and wondered if any of the pieces played were on one or more of the compilations on there. And if you haven’t checked out his work as part of Grutronic, i highly recommend it.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’d say that Scott’s improvisation was a kind of reimagining of Several Circles (it was shorter, for starters) – taking a lot of the same sounds, and even some of the same sequences, but then managing to craft something new and fresh out of them.
Lucky indeed. Though i’ve found myself often thinking again about Dave Smith’s performance, and how fascinating it is that even for an experienced improviser, things can go absolutely wrong and somehow nothing jells. It felt more disappointing as P. A. Tremblay had bigged Smith up massively in the pre-concert talk, so there was a distinct sense of crest-fallen-ness pervading after the brief and noticeably muted applause had subsided…
i guess the cliché remains true: “don’t believe the hype”.
arborealagenda
7 years ago
I disagree about Elias Merino’s piece – I enjoyed the sounds and particularly liked the ending. It was an idiosyncratic work that didn’t pander to the usual e/a norms and for that it was most welcome.
Good! I’m glad that you found something in it that I missed – it’s so much nicer when one does.
Phi Shu
7 years ago
“…but it’s fair to say that these two events, in retrospect, seemed more like vanity projects for the particular members of staff who organised them…” this characterises much of what is taking place artistically in various academic institutions, it’s state funded backscratchery that generally couldn’t give two f***s about trying to connect with a wider audience – lines on a CV, tick those boxes, fulfill those career progression requirements.
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I attended the very Richard Scott gig you missed, Simon, so can help out to a degree. First off, Elias Merino’s “warm-up act” was definitely missable – essentially, let’s fill one audio channel with some electronic chatter, loop it a bit, repeat ad nauseam in random other channels, then finish with a washed-out facsimile of Autechre for no apparent reason.
As for the Scott, obviously nothing can replicate the moment-by-moment thrill of improvisation in action, but hopefully the following will give you a flavour of the kinds of thing that were going on…
https://cuspeditions.bandcamp.com/album/richard-scott-several-circles
Thanks for filling in the blanks, Chris. The link you included: was Richard Scott playing some pieces from that particular album? i know Scott’s own Bandcamp site and wondered if any of the pieces played were on one or more of the compilations on there. And if you haven’t checked out his work as part of Grutronic, i highly recommend it.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’d say that Scott’s improvisation was a kind of reimagining of Several Circles (it was shorter, for starters) – taking a lot of the same sounds, and even some of the same sequences, but then managing to craft something new and fresh out of them.
I’m also glad I had what sounds like a lucky escape – I nearly opted to go on Saturday night, not Sunday!
Lucky indeed. Though i’ve found myself often thinking again about Dave Smith’s performance, and how fascinating it is that even for an experienced improviser, things can go absolutely wrong and somehow nothing jells. It felt more disappointing as P. A. Tremblay had bigged Smith up massively in the pre-concert talk, so there was a distinct sense of crest-fallen-ness pervading after the brief and noticeably muted applause had subsided…
i guess the cliché remains true: “don’t believe the hype”.
I disagree about Elias Merino’s piece – I enjoyed the sounds and particularly liked the ending. It was an idiosyncratic work that didn’t pander to the usual e/a norms and for that it was most welcome.
Good! I’m glad that you found something in it that I missed – it’s so much nicer when one does.
“…but it’s fair to say that these two events, in retrospect, seemed more like vanity projects for the particular members of staff who organised them…” this characterises much of what is taking place artistically in various academic institutions, it’s state funded backscratchery that generally couldn’t give two f***s about trying to connect with a wider audience – lines on a CV, tick those boxes, fulfill those career progression requirements.