Making/Music/Log/25/07/Ghost Improv

• Ghost Improv for two-team chamber ensemble and Superposition

  • Concept

    • Live performers form a "Dream Team" who are in a dream where they must improvise to adjust to intermittent signals from the "Ghost Team."
    • The piece exists in a state of superposition where the ghost is both present and not present. Live audiences and those who listen to the recordings subsequently may choose whether or not to hear the ghost. Two recordings will be presented, both with and without the ghost.

  • Inspiration

    • Original

      • A bandmate had a dream that we "were going to play a big show, but we kept getting interrupted by people. Once we got to the venue, set up, and started playing, I accidentally hit play on the wrong backing track, but we ran with it, and got a good response from the audience." Our second bandmate was in an unknown or unknowable place with respect to the performance in the dream.

    • Echo

      • Person/G. I. Gurdjieff had his acolytes do an exercise that was a bodily koan to embrace our unpreparedness for the moment. Maybe your subconscious is channeling that artistic signal from the universe. From Osho's Dynamic Meditation; quote here

        • Gurdjieff used a Sufi exercise. Sufis call it “halt”. For example, you are sitting here, and if you are practising the exercise of “halt” it means total halt. Whenever the teacher says “Stop!” or “Halt!” then you have to stop totally whatsoever you are doing. If your eyes are open, then stop them there and then. Now you cannot close them. If your hand is raised, let it be there. Whatsoever your position and gesture, just be frozen in it. No movements! Halt totally! Try this, and suddenly you will have an inner awakening — a feeling. Suddenly you will become aware of your own frozenness.
          The whole body is frozen, you have become a solid stone, you are like a statue. But if you go on deceiving yourself, then you have fallen into sleep. You can deceive yourself. You can say, “Who is seeing me? I can close my eyes. They are becoming painful.” You can deceive yourself — then you have fallen into sleep. No — deception is sleep. Don’t deceive yourself, because no one else is concerned. It is up to you. If you can be frozen for a single moment you will begin to see yourself as different, and your center will become aware of your frozen body.
          -Osho, The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 1, #16, Q2
          

  • The Piece(s)

    • Setup

      • Before the piece(s) begin, the improv ensemble divides into two teams:
        • Dream Team: performers who are physically performing
        • Ghost Team: performers who are metaphysically performing

      • Ghost Team Prep

        • The ghost team prepares signal(s) that become the corpus of an interrupting spirit haunting the Dream Team's instrumental improvisation.
        • The ghost team prepares a method of triggering and removing the signals.
        • At least one signal should/may be a halting instruction for the dream team.
        • The Ghost Team knows that the Dream Team may practice the piece before performance.

      • Dream Team Prep

        • Suitably prepare listening apparatuses to receive signals from the ghost team.
        • If an audience is present, they should have the option of either receiving or not receiving the signals from the ghost team.
        • Ensure that the improvisation can be recorded in such a way as to present two recordings, either with or without the signals of the ghost team.

    • Performance

      • The Ghost Team is not physically present.
      • Begin recording.
      • Dream Team begins the piece by each improvising on an instrument of their choice, starting from a single note. Chant, "be our ears, our ghost of dreams" several times before diverging.
      • The Ghost Team injects signals into the Dream Team.
      • When the Dream Team receives a halting signal, they immediately freeze.
      • There may or may not be more than one movement to the piece.