ICMC/25/d1/1930 Concert n04/05 Instrospectronica
Instrospectronica
- 20:31 some sampled bass string plucks thump around the room in the >=8-channel system
- he lays down a riff that's looped open seconds
- he's using a small set of rotary encoders... it starts getting a bit drunken when he plays with some in the back right. we get some little bits of the open seconds riff coming back.
- now, some pitch shifting.
- it's sped up a bit, so it almost sounds like a piano down the hall, lots of reverb
- i am starting to hear the effect of somax2 - it's doing just a bit of recomposition or response.
- ok, now a bit of drum noise, it's not pulse driven, really, it avoids the beat
- now, some bit shifted piano. or rather, bit crushed. the noise pads and drums pick up speed, and the guitar comes back in above the texture of the crushed, fast piano backdrop, which by now, is like a wall tapestry in the background
- instead o the seconds, he's on to sevenths
- now he has samples of a piano playing longer notes, with the damper pedal held down, this lets him change the mood
- somax2 is doing the drums, okay, I get it now
- i wonder how hard it would be do to somax2 with max for live
- his face is so adoring, this is such a part of performing. is it expressive, or instructive of performers to show their engagement, their entrancement with the music? it's like speaking in tongues, it's got this religious vibe.
- is this performance art?
- 20:43 I'm bored now
#Performer and #Composer - Person/Miles Okazaki
- Miles Okazaki is a NYC-based guitarist originally from Port Townsend, a small seaside town in Washington State. His approach to the guitar is described by the New York Times as “utterly contemporary, free from the expectations of what it means to play a guitar in a group setting — not just in jazz, but any kind.” His sideman experience over the last two decades covers a broad spectrum, from standards to experimental music (Kenny Barron, John Zorn, Steve Coleman, Stanley Turrentine, Henry Threadgill, Dan Weiss, Matt Mitchell, Jonathan Finlayson, Anthony Tidd, Jane Monheit, Amir ElSaffar, Darcy James Argue, and many others). He has released ten albums of original compositions over the last 12 years on the Sunnyside, Pi, and Cygnus labels. In 2018 Okazaki received wide critical acclaim for his six-album recording of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar, an unprecedented project that Nate Chinen called “the six-string equivalent of a free solo climb up El Capitan.” That year, Okazaki was voted the #1 rising star guitarist in the Downbeat Magazine critic’s poll. Other projects include a longstanding duo with drummer Dan Weiss, a duo with percussionist Rajna Swaminathan, and a published book, Fundamentals of Guitar, with Mel Bay. He taught guitar and rhythmic theory at the University of Michigan from 2013-22, joined the faculty at Princeton University in 2021, and holds degrees from Harvard University, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School.
Description
- This piece is a meditation on a composition by Person/Thelonious Monk called “Introspection.” It involves three improvisors:
- Somax2 (the improvising application developed at IRCAM)
- Dogstar (a generative machine made by Miles Okazaki)
- Okazaki himself on guitar.
- All three improvisors are creating and reacting spontaneously to each other’s output. The source material for the performance is drawn from the original Monk composition, manipulated and recombined in a variety of ways.